The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-12-03
BUCK FEVER. BY GOSH
Man Who Saw dig Bear Has a Bad
Case of II.
CNew York Tribune.)


The old guide sat on the front porch,
laziIy blowing smoke at the mosquitoes
from his pipe. His theme was the Curl
Gus action of people when they see deer
or big came. He called the peculiar
action buck fever"
Yes. sir. when l was guiding 1t l
saw lots of people have buck fever.
They act the queerest way you ever sec
when they get ii. Why, have actually
seen men drop their guns on the ground
when they saw a deer. or sometimes
they shoof into the air or into the
ground, thinking they are filing the
animal fun of holes. They actually go
plumb crazy. About every man has
way of his own of acting when he's got
the fever. Some will stare and cape
away and not think thing OF their
gun. But the queerest case / ever heard
of or see was when I had a party from
New York " 10 Twin lakes. One of
the men IN that party went clean
crazy. and ii took him night on to an
hour before he come out of 1t. lie was
not violent. or anything of that sort,
but Just out Of his head. 1t was bear
that gave him the buck fever, and
suppose that's why he got ii so bad.
at was one morning at breakfast
time that IL all happened. was cook
-.
eat. while the fellers went down TO the
brook and washed themselves. They
had all washed up except one Teller
who was late in getting up. He went
down 10 the brook alone, and by ana
bye he came back. When he came into
the door the first thing he did was TO
stand on one foot and swing around on
it with his other foot in the air. /
looked at him and thought he was do
7 Ha.K Of lss-
ward that his eyes sort of bulged out
little. After he swung around he went
TO the towel and wiped his face. After
he did that he up and swung around
on the toes of his foot again. Then ne
took his toothbrush and cup of water
and washed his teeth, and when he got
through I'll be bowed if he didn't up
and swing around on the toe Of his
shoe with his other foot in the air, just
as he did before.
Steve is happy today said one of
the fellers must be he is going to kill
q deer Stevenson didn't say q word,
but planted himself before the looking
glass and began combing his hair.
Pretty quick he finished, and took an
other swing around. He whipped out
a funny kind of knife and fixed up his
finger mails swung around, put on his
collar. his tie then his coat and, idiotic-
/ these things. It was crazy actions, but
we supposed he was just doing ii for
| fun. Then he got down his gun. jammed
| IL full of cartridges and started for the
| door. Where are you going? said l..
! breakfasts about ready Bear bear
said he, and he up and swung around,
| and his eyes popped and stuck out like
I a scared owls. / jumped and grabbed
| my gun and made for the door, with
/ the other fellows after me. We run
! down to the brook. Stevenson came
/ along and pointed TO where he'd seen
| the bear. Wen, the man had been so
| long fixing up that 7 knew the bear
! was on the other side of the mountain
| BY that time. But we went down to the
| brook where it had been. and there, in
the sand. was the biggest tracks of a
| bear I ever sec
when Stevenson saw them he stuck
one foot IN the air. Whirled around and
fell 20 the ground in a dead faint. We
poured some whisky down his throat
and before long he come TO- He was
/ weak and shook all over. Did Kill
him?' he said. He seemed 10 have clean
forgot what had happened after he
| went TO the brook TO wash. When we
| told him what he'd been doing ht
seemed surprised. Why he said, 'wher
got through washing j stood up and
! looked down the brook. and there was
| an enormous bear drinking from the
| water. I whirled around on one foo
! and started for the camp and the gun
as suppose.
/ F" Buck fever, by gosh!' said 7. anc
| we all laughed hard, you bet, for, as
! say, il was a most curious case"