The Saint Paul globe., 1905-01-08
THE0RHILUS NOEL TELLS STRANGE TALES

1 then told him that I had seen this
stream, when there was more water in it
than now at this season of the. year, so
hiled with sturgeon going up that one
could hardly see the water; that / had
seen wagon so loaded, scooped up as it
We're with pitchfork and hooked up by
pothooks, that the horses We're unable to
pull the wagon up that bank The old man
looked at me with wide open eyes, and
commenced shying off toward the gro
Gerry, Which was a mile away in the town
Oh Niles. felt that 1 had done my good
work.
There is no longer a sturgeon to be
round IN all Lake Michigan, where in my
memory millions and millions were to be
found, as have seen the buffalo on the
western palms, have lived to. see the
two pass away.
In Yellowstone, Park
Years ago. and after Tom Bridger. the
great Western scout and a great Ameri-
can character, in whose honor Fort
Brldger was named, had made the yell
ioWstone park somewhat notorious among
those who became wise as to our coun-
Irys greatness more through oral than
through books or newspaper reports.
The American scout and trapper from
the earliest days of our country's his
tory was a peculiar character unto him
SELL what one knew the other found out
even In the remotest parts of the coun-
try by transmission through word of
mouth and never through letter or print.
NO character was more repulsive or more
summed than newspaper reporter or an
editor would be. 1 knew years and wears
before any considerable portion of the
public knew nearly all about Yellowstone
park and years before the government
set 1T aside as national park. and it
should have been called 4Bridger's Land,
Ior ne more than any other was its ex-
piorer, guide, scout and defender
He was man of indomitable perseyer-
ance, self-educated, self-made and self
Willed, and truer man never looked an
other square in the face. He was one
who exemplified the truth of the asser-
ton that truth is stranger than fiction. -
He had told of the geysers and waterfalls
and lakes and other wonderful things in
natures field of wonders that were TO be
seen in that country He told of the
wonderful fish that were to be found up
there and the wonderful heavens and the
immense bear, both as to size and num-
ber, and that no Indian came within its
sacred precincts, for they considered it a
spirit or ghost land. He told of the won
derful elk, both as to size and number
He would go in there in the month of
June and come out early in the month of
September, at the same season of the year
that the big elk and the big bear came
there to enjoy the beautiful scenes OF
nature as well as the rich grasses, and
just as the wealthiest and greatest men
of the nation and of the world in general
go there now at the same season of the
year.
Therefore Bridger came in contact
with not the ordinary of any race OF
species, but the extraordinary Of ALL He
was a man who could tell story and
doubt it who might, no one dared to
smoker or squint his eye. To be aues-
toned in what he told was a mortal in
suit, and Jim Bridger never brooked any
thing of that sort
He told how one day he was out hunt
ing in the park with his favorite and al
ways to be relied on rifle and bowie knife
and he noticed al herd Of elk very short
distance away, and, being in need of that
sort OF meat, fired away at an elk whose
antlers wonld measure not less than