Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1904-08-13
Note Book Sketches.

OASA Y UAO E'6t1 n pCOp1O IAdtt1 CO VI uo
if there were any bear doctors out
here. We referred them to Bill
Duncan but have heard nothing in
regard to the matter since. The
trouble with bruin is that he
gets drunk every time he has a
chance and becomes a terror.
The bear is a sort of cinnamon
colored Russian bear, which was
bought from a man who used to go
around the country making the
bear dance for the rustics. The man
who owned the bear was drunk
ard, and one time he gave the bear
some whisky, just for fun, and the
bear was quite funny with it's new
lyacquired Jag until the italian tried
to boss him around, when the
animal everlastingly wore out the
ground with him, chewed off some
fingers, and nearly disem boweled
the man, and then climbed tele-
graph pole and would not come
down. The man got cured of the
bear habit, and sold him, just as he
was, on the pole, to the park COM
missioners, and they have been
having terrible time with the ami
NAL ever since. 1t got noised around
that the new bear was addicted to
drink, and everybody that visited
the park wanted to see him. Wicked
people would smuggle a flask of
whisky to the bear when the Keep
ers were not looking, he would
drink the stuff, and then there was
a riot. It got so men who were
familiar with the effects of whisky
on human beings would visit the
park, temperance workers and
worldly drinkers, and the cage of
the Russian bear was the most
popular place in the park, The
other day a party of scientists from
downtown were looking at bruin,
when a man who should have been
lynched gave the bear quart
bottle of Jersey apple jack, drink
that will drive a man to murder
and suicide. The bear didn't like
it, at first, as he stuck up his nose
and shivered all over when the cork
was removed, and he took a swal-
low, but after looking at the crowd
to see if anything better was COM
ing, and not seeing another flask,
he drank the apple jack. He stood
and meditated for a moment, and
seemed to feel the thrill of life
along his keel" and then, as the
fiery liquid got down among his
vitals, he suddenly yelled "whoop,"
as near as a bear could speak Eng
lish, jumped into the air cracking
his claws together. and came
down on his head and rolled
over and laughed as near as
a bear can laugh. The keepers
came along and found that some
fiend had loaded the bear, and he was
mad. He spoke to the bear, but
the animal staggered to the front
of the cage, and howled dismal
howl similar to the song of an
in sbriate who sings in cracked
and weeping voice, ''WeIwon't go
home TIL morning." The keeper
thought it would be best to let the
bear out with the other bears,
which he did, and that was where
the trouble began. The bear with
the apple-jack jag went up to a
female grizzly and began to act
familiar, when the husband of the
bear loidy gave him a cuff that
sent him across the bear pit, roll
ing over, and he stopped and backed
up against a tree, and seemed to
say TELL them to come on" A
small black bear was up the tree,
and he came down and clawed the
Russian bear, and they mixed up
and snarled till the black couldn't
stand the apple-jack breath, and he
got behind polar bear, who bristled
up to the jag bear as much as to
say, Maybe you are out on a
voyage of discovery. If so, I am
the North pole" The Russian evil
IDENTIFY didn't want to fight white
flag Of truce, so he went.to a tank
and tried to drink it dry, to put out
the apple-jack fire, after which
he got mad and started in to clean
out the place, when all the bears
jumped on him and chewed him
until he was almost sober. The
keeper got into the pit with a hand
spike, and drove the bears to their
corners, when the bear with the
jag got towel, wet it in the tank,
and bound it around his head, and
looked as though he wanted to say,
20, what a nightr' He was put
back in his cage, and those who had