The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-12-04

"Jim Palen and Joe Batch came to
camp with two bears and an amazing
story about how they got EN-" said
Captain Sam Lyman, of the Kettle
Creek country, down in Potter Coun-
ty, Pennsylvania. "The boys weren't
out after bears They were trimming
logs.
"Pa1en had his dog, a whippet,
along with him. The dog was nosing
around in the woods, and by and by
began barking furiously and persisted
in it so that Jim and Joe went to see
what it was all about. They found
the dog all bristled up and barking
at the upturned roots of fallen tree.
The hole in the ground where the
roots had been was covered by an
accumulation of sticks and dead
leaves.
"Jim Palen gave this dome of
debris whack with his axe. The
blow made big hole in the roof, and
instantly a bear showed it's nose out
of the hole and began to snarl and
snap it's jaws.
"From a hole on the opposite side,
where Balch was standing, a second
bear stuck its nose out and snapped
and snarled. These apparitions were
so unexpected that both men dropped
their axes. Palen's axe slipped into
the hole it had made in the heap Of
leaves and sticks and Balch's dropped
down among the roots of the tree.
"The men had seen bears before,
and as soon as they recovered from
the start the appearance of these two
gave them and had sworn some at
themselves for being scared into
dropping their axes they got heavy
cudgel each and went to whacking
the noses of the bears, which caused
the noses to disappear within the
mound of leaves and sticks.
"Balch had rifle, but it was home,
and home was three miles away. He
wanted those bears, but there was no
way to make sure of them without a
gun, so Palen said that if Balch would
go home and get his gun Palen would
stand guard over the bears and keep
got back.
"Joe started on a run for home.
He ran all the way there and all the
way back with the gun, he says, and
Jim says it must be so, for Joe was
gone less than an hour. But that
hour had been tense time for Jim.
"Joe had scarcely started for his
gun before the bears attempted to
get out from beneath that roof with
fire in their eyes. First one bear
would endeavor to come out at one
of the holes, when Jim would whack
1t on the nose with his club. By the
time it was beaten back the other
bear would make break to get out
of the hole on its side of-the mound.
They kept Jim jumping from one
side of the mound to the other, to
and fro, and constantly swinging his
club. If Joe had been gone ten min
utes longer, Jim would have had to
drop and surrender to the bears.
Joe got back with the gun in time
TO relieve Jim and rescue him. Jim
dropped his club and stepped back.
Now come out, blame ye,' he
yelled to the bears.
But the bears wouldn't come out.
whether they were shocked at Jim's
language or knew there was a man
out there with a gun Jim nor Joe
doesn't say, but they wouldn't even
snow the tip of nose at either hole
After vainly trying various means
to induce the bears to come out, Joe
Balch dropped a piece of blazing pine
into one of the holes. Both bears
then came out of the den with a rush
that dismantled it, and Joe killed
them. New York Sun.