The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-12-03
BEARS IN A s('sii
Startling Adventure Of SsrooI
Teacher in Wilderness.
TWO Animals Get Into Building
Through Dugout and Spring Lock
After Observation-Disclosures
ed by Honey.

cross Fork, Pa.-When Miss Lydia
Musser, teacher of country school in
Eulalia township, opened the door of
her schoolroom the other morning she
was confronted by two pupils who
were not enrolled in her book. Two
black bears got into the building
through trap door in the floor, which
led into dugout underneath used for
the storage of wood
OF course Miss Musser, who was
alone, didn't tarry to ask the new
scholars their names, nor whether it
was the first time they had been to
school. She slammed the door shut
against the spring lock and the bears
were again made prisoners, for It was
subsequently discovered that they had
cut on their own egress by the route
through which they had come by acct
dsntally slipping the catch on the trap
door after they were in the room and
being unable to open It.
When Miss Musser opened the door
the bears made a lunge toward her.
doubtless In an effort to reach the door
and escape, but the young woman be-
lievsd that they were about to attack
her, 20 that in her haste to get the door
shut she tripped on her skirt and fell
from the porch, landing in such a man.
ner az to turn her foot and sprain her,
ankle 80 that she was unable to rise,
and sustaining an injury from which
she Is not apt to recover for several
weeks.
She screamed at the top OF her voice.
The schoolhouse is fully a mile from
the nearest farmhouse, though fortu-
nately, teamster who was within ear
shot in passing heard her and went to
her rescue. Several pupils on the way
to school also heard her alarm. Miss
'Musser Informed the man of what she
had seen, but prevented him from I'M
locking the schoolhouse until she had
been helped out of the reach of dan
ger.
The arriving pupils peeked through
the windows and saw the bears. The
animals were paving back and forth
like Gagged lions and showed every evil
dence of their fright at being prison
ers in the schoolhouse under the gaze
of the fast gathering throng and
aroused by the noise made by the af-
frighted boys and girls.
The teamster sent some of the boys
down the road to the nearest house for
a rife, but before the gun arrived the
bears took ii into their heads to do
M 80
them appeared at the window farthest
away from where the school crowd
had collected, and with one great push
of his paws sent the glass flying in a
hundred pieces, following the crash
with plunge that brought his shaggy
form all a tumble on to the ground. He
had no sooner landed than the second
bear followed suit, and In another sec
ond the animals were streaking 1t into
the woods, while the boys and girls. of
course, were making pell-mell In the
other direction.
evidently cut its paw, for blood In pref
ty good quantities was to be found
along the route taken by the animals.
When the schoolroom was opened and
an examination made it was discov-
cred that the bears had played havoc
with the books and maps. They we're
evidently in search for food, and the
books and other articles coming within
the reach of their search had been
roughly handled.
This is the schoolhouse In which
during the summer colony of bees
took up their abode between the wall
and the weather boards, where they
stored q quite generous supply of hon.
ey before being discovered and their
sweetmeats confiscatsd. 1t is pre-
sumsd that the bears were drawn to
the place BY the smell of this honey.
or the bees may have made some OF
their comb In the little basement of
the building, and that this is what first
attracted the attention of the bears.