The progress., 1904-03-12

Druin Unaerteek e Run : saw~aiil
But the saw Wes Too Much
for Hin.

, UEutn UD0erto0k 10 MN - WVohsi
But the saw wes TOO lluch
Tor Hin.
Talking about bear experiences" sal.
an old trapper the other day to Ban
gor Commercial representative. Il ha'
one many years ago that was . corker
and 1t shows that old bruin has quite {
head on him, after all. It was one Of thu
CORY, bear-eat-man sort Of experiences
but story that would make many peo.
i pie doubt the truth Of It, but can pro-
duce enough reliable witnesses to sub
stantiate the tale, SO am not worrying
over that part.
1 1T happened up In the northern part
OF the state, and, at the time, bears were
very thick, too thick for convenience. !
was at the time engaged in numbering
operations and was in charge Of 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 headway toward exterminating
them.
"The day the adventure tok place that
am going to tell you about 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 was pretty well tired
out and don't think that anything ex-
cept cannon shot could have awakened
me, but this bruin that happened along
woke me. up all right, and for time
was pretty well scared.
"I lad 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 1t in my
dreams, when felt something smiling
at my face and proving otherwise OBJ
streperous. managed to bring my eyes
to a focus and was nearly frightened to
death to discover good-sized bear en-
gagged in making a very full investiga-
tion of my anatomy. Well. I can tell you
did some pretty tall thinking and, as
you know, 1t is said that bear will not
touch a body that he thinks is dead. !
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 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
that they would make him a
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 little |
fun with the bear, which was not slow
In grasping. The logs where he was sit
,ing were quite ways from me, so that
had plenty of chance to get at the
ever that set the machinery in motion
hat worked the saw and movable car
.iage. Well, l got to the lever and pulled
over without the bear discovering my
presence.
THE carriage commenced to move
lowly toward the saw and you ought to
rave seen the expression on that bears
ace. 1t would put the facial expression
# Happy Hooligan out of sight. He be-
amt. used to tho motion of the carriage
rev secvI4~-----.- ---.------------l4--. =.
ew his meal
"The carriage was moving toward the
aw in pretty good shape by this time
nd it was but few minutes before 1t
ot within hearing distance of bruin. He
yas unconscious of his approaching
ate, but about the same time that he
to realize that something
ut of the ordinary was doing the saw
truck him amidships, and, as 1t was
cry powerful and large saw, in the
of an eye that bear was cut up
ito some of the finest bear chop that
ou ever saw ,
1T didn't take me long to realize what .
trick l had done and commenced to
ick up the meat. put 1t in cold stor-
ge and we had bear meat for the next
wo or three weeks. That was the most
xciting bear experience that ever got
Ito and although didn't get hurt at
Il don't want the feat repeated"