Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-01-28
SAWED BEAR MEAT.
Drufn Undertook to Run a sawmiIl.
But the Saw Was Too Much
for Hin.

for HiD.
Talking about bear experiences" saio
an old trapper the other day to a Ban
gor Commercial representative. Il had
one many years ago that vas a corker.
and it shows that old bruin has quite 4
head on him, after all. 1t was one of the
CORY, b~ear-eat-man sort of experiences,
but a story that would make many peo-
pie doubt the truth of it, but l can pro-
duce enough reliable witnesses to sub
stantiate the tale, so l am not worrying
over that part.
at happened up in the northern part
Of the state, and, at the time, bears were
very thick, too thick for convenience. l
vas at the time engaged in numbering
operations and was in charge of a saw
mill that my father owned. 1t was one
of the old-fashioned kind of mills, the
kind that you used to see when knocking
around in the woods. Bears had been
troubling us very much by getting into
the mill and eating up the provisions,
especially the pork. We did not have
any traps at hand, so We could not make
any Roadway toward exterminating
them.
"The day the adventure tok place that
l am going to tell you about 1 had been
working all night for the past few days
saving logs and had gotten my sleep in
by snoozing during the daytime. On this
particular day I was pretty well tired
out and I don't think that anything ex-
cept a cannon shot could have awakened
me, but this bruin that happened along
woke me up all right, and for a time 1
was pretty we'll scared.
81 had lain down for my little snooze
and it was not long before | commenced
to fly around in gold chariots and was
having a pretty rosy time of it in my
dreams, when l felt something shifting
at my face and proving otherwise OBJ
streperous. managed to bring my eyes
to a focus and was nearly frightened to
death to discover a good-sized bear en-
gagged in making a very full investiga-
ton of my anatomy. Well, l can tell you
I did some pretty tall thinking and, as
you know, it is said that a bear will not
touch a body that he thinks is dead. I
was engaged for about all of the next
two or there minutes in holding my
breath and doing other things to make
me appear ~lifeless.
pretty soon the bear gave me up as
immortal and commenced to prowl
around the mill. He put in a very crit
ical examination of everything that he
could possibly reach and he hadn't been
prowling around long before he discov-
cred some deer meat hanging up. Well,
it didn't take him long to pull the car
cass down and commence to make good
inroads into the meat. After he had been
eating some time he discovered the logs
standing on the carriage, and, evidently
thinking that they would make him a
comfortable seat for the remainder Of
his meal, took a good hunk of the meat
and went out and sat down on the logs
with his back to the saw.
Nov was my chance to have a little
fun with the bear, which I was not slow
in g%rasping. The logs where he was sit
sing were quite a ways from me, so that
l had plenty of chance to get at the
lever that set the machinery in motion
that worked the saw and movable car
riage. Well, I got to the lever and pulled
1t over without the bear discovering my
presence.
"The carriage commenced to move
slowly toward the saw and you ought to
have seen the expression on that bears
face. 1t would put the facial expression
of Happy Hooligan out of sight. He be-
came used to the motion of the carriage
in a few seconds and commenced to re-
new his meal.
"The carriage was moving toward the
Jaw in pretty good shape by this time
and it was but a few minutes before it
got within hearing distance of bruin. He
was unconscious of his approaching
fate, but about the same time that he
commenced to realize that something
out of the ordinary was doing the saw
struck him amidships, and, as it was a
very powerful and large saw, in the
twinkling of an eye that bear was cut up
into some of the finest bear chop that
you ever saw.
"It didn't take me long to realize what
a trick I had done and commenced to
pick up the meat. l put it in cold stor-
age and we had bear meat for the next
two or three weeks. That was the most
exciting bear experience that I ever got
into and although I didn't get hurt at
all don't want the feat repeated"