The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-24
A CHAMPION
BEAR STORY
Comes From Orange County,
Florida
LETTER TO oY DE vRz
Rruin stole n pig. Built a Pen, Put the
Pig In Ii and Fat6ened the POrker
on Corn-Pig Has More
sense Than Monkey

From the Chicago Tribune.
The worlds weter-weght champion
bear story was thrust forcibly upon Cy
de yry, head keeper of the Lincoln Park
zoo. one day last week. 1t came by mail,
and. after attempting to assimiliate Its
monstrous details. Mr.. de Vry flew to
the metropolitan section for relief ana
succor. The writer OF this geological cat
apult, 1t seems, was prompted to do SO
by lecture recently delivered by Mr.. de
vry, In which he stated that from obser-
walton he came TO believe the bear
more Intellectual beast than the lauded
monkey.
The amazing missive, dated from Niles,
Mich, follows
Mr.. Cy de vry-Dear Sir: l see by
the Tribune that you, In a lecture, claim
for the bear a higher grade of intellt-
gence than that of the monkey
'I have long held this opinion myself,
and in several ways 1 have felt myself
confirmed in this conclusion.
Some yeasr ago I was one of the early
settlers in Orange county, Florida, and
my shack was on the edge of the thick
pine woods. I was working 20 acres and
had an outfit about like the usual crack
era small field of corn and two pigs,
mostly shoats-one of them was fat and
Slick but t'other was lean and hungry.
and l couldn't get him fat. One night In
September, I was awakened by squeals
and growls, and hurried to my pig pen
only to find that the lean and hungry
shoat had lost his mate, and by daylight
l saw by the tracks that a bear had an
nexed my fat pig to his distant house
hold in the thick woods.
II laid In wait for Mr.. Bear for several
nights with the old army Springfield
musket heavily loaded. but no further
trouble ensued for some two weeks. The
bear then paid me a second visit, and
much TO my disgust, l was left pigless
and shoatless.
1.-The third night after finding myself In
this precarious condition l was awakened
by the growls of Tige. my faithful coon
Nog. and, stealing cautiously from my
humble abode, / saw a shadowy form i'll
my corn patch and heard the rustling OF
the stalks. 1t was a large black bear.
Overcome by curiosity, I watched to see
what Mr. Bear was hunting for. knowing
that he was not fond of corn. The moon
was full, and Ii was almost as light as
day. The bear separated good armful
of stalks, the corn not yet having been
nuSkSu, ana IL WSli uiiuCi haS al IA
and took up a pumpkin, which he bal
aaced on his head and held 1t there by
one paw. Then, rising to his hind feet
Qegs or paws,) he started for his home
My curiosity was so great that I followed
him carefully and full of wonder.
After about two miles and half he
arrived at ravine, where he had a pen,
in which was my lean pig, and the new
proprietor of this pig proceeded to feed
him part of the corn and pumpkin, while
looked on with mouth and eyes wide
open.
1.-THE bear rested his elbows on the
fence and looked at the pig, seemingly
with great satisfaction, as near as I
could tell, as ! was distant some eight or
ten rods. The bear was fattening that
pig. | was SO impressed by the evident
intelligence of the bear and so much as
tonished that had not the heart to blaze
away at him with the old musket.
though had It pointed his way, so that
in case he heard me I could shoot, for l
felt sure that If I was discovered l was
lost.
II write you of my experience, knowing
that you are friendly to bears and realize
that they are as intelligent as many men
Yours. BILL MONTGOMERY