The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-10
' THOUGHT HE KILLED DEAR.
Man Afflicted With Buck Fever In
 Peculiar Manner.

Man Afflicted With Buck Fever in q
 Peculiar Manner.
 New York Tribune.
 The old guide sat on the front porch. lazily blowing smoke at the mosquitoes from his pipe. Ills theme was the curious action of people when they see deer or big game He called the pe- cuiiar action buck fever"
 Yes. sir. when was guiding it saw lots of people have buck fever. They act the qucerest way you ever see when they get 1t. Why. have actually seen men drop their guns on the ground when they saw a deer. or sometimes they shoot into the air or Into the ground, thinking they are ftl- ling the animal full of holes. They man has a way of his own of acting when he's got the fever. Some will stare and gape away and not think d thing of their gun. But the queerest case l ever heard of or see was. when had a party from New York up to Twin Lakes. Che of the men in that party went clean crazy. and 1t took him nigh on to an hour before he come out of it. He wasn't violent or any thing of that sort, but just out of his head. 1t was a bear that gave him the buck fever, and I suppose that's, why he got 1t so bad.
 Tt was one morning at breakfast time that 1t all happened. I was cook ing taters. venson and other stuff to eat. while the fellers went down to the brook and washed themselves. They had all washed up except one feller who was late getting up. He went down to the brook alone and by and by he came back. When he came into the door the first thing he did was to stand on one foot and swing around on 1t with h1s other foot in the air. I looked at him and thought he was doing 1t for fun. but I remem- bered afterward 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 he took his tooth brush and a cup of water and washed his teeth and when he got through I'll be blowed if he didn't up and swing around on the toe of his shoe with the other foot in the air. just as he did before.
 Steve is happy today said one of the fellers; must be he is Eoing to kill deer Stevenson didn't say a word, but planted himself before the looking glass and began combing his hair Pretty quick he finished and took another swing around. He whip- ped out funny kind of knife and fix ed up his finger nails. swung around. put or his collar, his tie, then his coat, and. idiotic-like. swung around after he did each of these thihgs It was crazy actions, but we supp$sed he was doing it just for fun
 Then he got down his gun, full of cartridges, and started, for the door. Where are you going? said I. Break lasts about ready. Bear! bears said he, and he up and swung around and his eyes popped and stuck out like scared owls. I 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 had seen the bear We'll, the man had been so long fixing up that I knew the bear was on the other side of the mountains by that time. But we went down to the brook. and there, in the sand, was the biggest tracks of q bear I ever see.
 "When stevenson saw them he stuck one foot in the air. whirled around and fell to the ground in dead faint. We poured some whiskey down his throat and before long he come to. Did I kill him? he said. He seemed to have clean forgot what had happen ed after he went to the brook to wash. When we told him what he'd been do- ing he seemed surprised. Why he said, When I got through washing I stood up and looked down the brook and there was an enormous bear drinking from the water. I whirled around on one foot and started for inc camp and the gun, as suppose
 Buck fever, by gosh" said Land we all laughed hard, you bet. for, as I say, 1t was a most curious case.