Year: 1877

lDeadwood Correspondence Cincinnati Enquirer.


A few days ago man named Mont
gomery Smith, hailing from St. Louis
had two singular and narrow escapes
rolled into one. He left a camp about
thirty miles up the hills to bring letters
here to post, and in trying to shorten the
distance little he lost the regular trail
and got into bad bit of country.
While hunting for the trail he came
across fresh signs of Indians, and while
hurrying out of the neighborhood he
ran directly upon large brown bear
which was sleeping on the sunny side of
a thicket. The thicket was on a side
hill, and Smith was going at a good
pace when he turned the clump. The
bear was so near when the man caught
sight of him that there was neither
chance to halt nor chance to turn out,
and bruin was cleared by flying leap.
He made a stroke at Smith as he went
over, inficting slight scratch on one
leg, and then set off after the miner with
the intention of eating him for dinner.
The flight led over broken ground, up
and down a ridge, and then along the
base of broken ledge.


Knowing that the bear would soon
overtake him, Smith had his eyes peeled
for some place of refuge, and he found a
good one. Close to the ground was a
rift in the ledge made by part of the
rocks settling down or crumbling away.
He saw it when only thirty feet away,
and the bear was not hundred feet in
his rear. There was no time to guess
whether the crevice was big enough to
admit the man, and too small to let the
bear in after him, or so small that the
victim would be there overtaken and
devoured. He had dropped his gun to
aid his flight, and running at full speed
be made dive and went into the crevice
head first, raking enough hide off his
shoulders and back to make a pair of
baby shoes. The bear wasn't ten
seconds behind him, and as Smith
reached the back end of the cave which
was not over six feet deep, the bear put
his head into its mouth and tried to work
in his body. This he couldn't do,
owing to his stout shoulders, but for a
quarter of an hour Montgomery Smith
was doubtless the worst frightened man
in North America. There was room
enough for him to turn around in, but
he was compelled to lie at full length
and look into the fiery eyes of bear
which could get within four feet of him
and wanted to come nearer. Bruin
didn't give up trying till he had sadly
cut and bruised himself against the
stones, and his snarls and growfs put
more religious thoughts into Smith
head than had ever lodged there. before.
The bear couldn't get him, but neither
could he get the bear. He had nothing
to shoot with, neither food nor drink,
and yelling at bear to clear out and go
home has no effect in this rarified
atmosphere. The mouth of the crevice
was ten feet long, and Smith could look
out over his trail for forty rods or more,
no matter at what point the bear was.
The animal was walking up and down
before the ledge, probably fishing for a
plan by which he might get something
better than roots for dinner, when the
miner caught sight of three Indians
creeping along on the trail he had made.
They had, perhaps, followed it for a
mile or more, and must have known
that the bear had the first claim. The
redskins had Just come into view when
they saw the bear, the bear saw them,
and Smith "saw" the whole thing, and
was willing to 60 one better.


The meat under the greasy deerskin
worn by Indians ranks next to white
mans meat, and these western bears are
always ready to take the "next best
thing" The bear looked in on Smith in
a despairing manner, and then made a
bee-line for the redmen. They fired al
him once apiece and then turned and
ran, and after about three minutes wait
ing Smith crawled out and made 2: 4C
time till his breath gave out.