Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1914-03-04

| ~
EsW old gentlemen with d1spo-
y sition to growl.
| A bear behind cage-bars
has small charm for me; he isn't what
you might call sprightly enough. 1t is
! out upon his native heath, with burs
in his coat and the stain of wild rasp-
berries on his nose that he Is truly
interesting. Not that l have exactly
seen those raspberry stains, but |
| have lately met bears under condi-
| tons which made such stains logical,
writes Meta Marquis in Los Angeles
| Times.
The dictionary says a bear is a
plantigrada carnivorous mammal OF
the genus Ursus. l wouldn't be sur
| prised if he is. The first bears we
saw in the Yellowstone looked just
that way.
! This was at Gibbon, lunch camp
on the way to the Upper Geyser Basin.
! 1t was our first day of travel in the
| park, and we we're a-gape for sensa-
! tons, so. when the cry of Bears!
was raised, we raced around the cor
ner of the dining tent, into the pines
at the edge of the camp, to see what
was there.
We were just in time to witness the
most spectacular tree-climbing exhibit
ton of our lives. A little black cub
| had been chased away from piece OF
meat by a bigger brown bear, and the
| lively way the two Skinned" UP the
| pine tree left one in nc doubt what
ever as to the tree-climbing ability of
black bear kind. They were spright-
| ly enough to suit the most fastidious.
There were five or six bears in evil
0ence altogether at this camp. They
| ought to be-and apparently we're
the most blase animals in the world,
fed for the sake of their advertising
value, stared at day after day by
hordes of tourists, and photographed
by armies of kodakers.
But our real intimacy with bears
began later, at Yellowstone lake.
Find More Bears.
After dinner on the evening of our
up bears This was the customary
thing to do. A whole party of us
went down the dusky road between
the pine trees toward the hotel, cut
across the hotels back yard, skirted
an imposing woodpile, and struck a
narrow path leading through the
woods to a clearing where the refuse
from the tables is dumped.
Other parties were on their way
and we found a goodly company OF
pleasant people already there when
we arrived-people who would nc
more spend an hour in such close
proximity to a garbage heap under
| ordinary circumstances than they
would go into the rags, sacks and bot
ties business.
Two swaddie-park parlance for sol
diers-were at hand, each with his
little gun, ready to fire upon any rude
bear which showed a disposition tc
mistake a tourist for discarded pork
chop.
And out in the clearing, about a
block away, four big black bears were
nosing around in search of their even
ing meal.
We stood patiently and waited fol
something to happen. Nothing did
however, except that the lovely color
in the sunset sky above the pines was
changing momentarily. I wanted tc
watch the reflections of that color or
the lake. That would be more excit
ing than four stupid bears a BLOCK
away. So excused myself and went
back alone to commune with the twi
light
Of course, I missed the big event by
SO doing Four great grizzlies, the
size of cows, came charging out O.
the woods together just after l left
put the black bears to rout like sc
many dogs, and reigned over the re
fuse dump with true silver-tip selfish
ness.
I felt that had chosen the better
part, however. / saw the softest o
pearly lights over the lake and thu
splendid mountains opposite In tn,
west a pink-and-salmon glow burne,
softly, with the black pines standin,
in sharp silhouette against it Thel
the salmon turned a delicate blue, ant
the rose light leaped across the lak'
70 the far mountains, where 1t fade,
gently into mauve and violet, wit
enc white star shining down and bury
ing it's beams In the bosom of tn
clear waters.
The next morning. Phyllis and