The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-17
CARED FOR BEAR
 AS FOSTER CHILD
Woman Reared Orphan Along With Her Own
 Children

Prevention Of Cruelty to Animals has awarded a gold medal to Mrs. M. Beal of Newburyport, Me, for having reared bear cub. Several other benevolent societies have announced their inten- tion to honor her with similar marks If distinction. writes Elizabeth Ellam in the New York World.
 Twenty-one years ago the Beals- father, mother and five children, three of their own, and two motherless babes soi the fathers brother-lived in a cabin \ at Gordon Camp, deep in the Maine , woods. The man worked as cook for the force of lumberjacks. The woman struggled in primitive hardship to care for her brood, She had a gift for lnotherly tasks.
 Something had been frightening the horses one frosty January morning. AL bert Beal went to investigate, He found at the foot of an old dead pine on the lumber trail hole in which was q big black bear. That was satisfac- tory enough. Bear hides were worth $25 apiece, there was bounty of $10 for killing bear, and the camp needed fresh meat. Some prodding and polk ing, and the bear crawled out of the hole. A shot, and quickly several men sa WSIS SklIlHlNB tuS GATCdSS.
 .i Adopted By Family.
 A plaintive whimper came from the hear den. Beal crept in and emerged with a tiny cub in his hand It was as big as a squirrel. It fitted nicely m his overcoat pocket. There was great excitement among the children when the ftther came home and rlaced the little cub on the cabin floor. The infant H. child. It was not difficult to reason out the cause of it's unhappiness. IL was hungry. Mrs. Beal fed it from her breast as there was no milk in the camp. Otherwise it would havs starved.
 At the insistence of the children, the Beals decided to keep the cub. The little animal was chirstened Bruno, and took its place regularly as the fos- ttr-brother of the mothers infant girl, who now was appropriately called Ursula, from "ursus," bear. Later a bottle for it was procured and con densed milk fed to it. T %.s The story of the adoption of bear into the family at Gordon Camp spread around and came to the ears of party of travelling men. These reasoned that profit could be made by exhibiting a trained bear. They went to Gordon, the owner of the camp, and he under took to sell Bruno to them. Mrs. Beal wept when they took her strange fos- ter-child from her, and the Beal chill dren walled.
 Sold But Returned.
 Bruno was carried to the travelling mems cabin, to leave the camp with them in the morning. But the bear be- haved precisely as a human child might have done. He yelled all night. Half the camp could not sleep that night, and in the morning the lumber packs, weary, short of temper and in sympathy with the unhappy bear, de- livered an ultimattion. If the bear were not returned to the Beal family they would quit The bear went back to the Beals.
 Soon afterward, attracted by stories of the bear in the family, w. Lyman Underwood, naturalist, lecturer and author, visited the camp. He wanted to buy the bear from Mrs. Beal, but though, that when Bruno became large enough to be a danger to her children, she would let him have it.
 The bear grew fat and lusty. He had a warm, soft bed in a box behind the stove, but this did not please him, and whenever he could he would get into the cradle of Ursula to sleep with the child. He became a prodigious climber, and plundered the household stores of sweets as any child might have done. When his gluttony brought him the familiar stomachache, he cried like child and Mrs. Beal would give him the same medicines she gave her own children.
 Zoo His Last Homo.
 He became stronger and increased amazingly in weight. His teeth and claws becoming formidable. He dis played an increasing disposition toward rough play with his foster-sister, Ur- sula. The parents saw that the child was no longer safe with her strange playfellow, and decided the time had come to part with Bruno. They com municated with ". Lyman Underwood, and soon the young bear was led away.
 The naturalist studied his charge for two years and wrote an account of it's history and habits in the book ''Wild Brother" relating how the bear bad been cared for as the foster-brother of human children. Bruno, now huge and powerful, began to fall into alarm ing fits of temper. Finally, one day, he attacked his master and nearly squeezed him to death. He was sen fenced to pass the rest of his days in the Stoneham Zoo. He lived to be If years old.
 His foster-father, Albert Beal, saw him once in the ZOO, and marveled at the thought of the little cub that had slept with his baby daughter and now was grown into a shaggy 40O-pound monster. Mrs. Beal and baby Ursula @ever saw the bear again after it had left their home. But with the award of medals to Mrs. Beal by benevolent societies. the real heroine of the curious episode has stepped forth into public ity.