Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1897 — A BEAR STORY. [ARTICLE]

A BEAR STORY.

“You observe,” remarked the Jewel- i ry salesman, “I wear very little of my | own goods.” “Possibly,” suggested the listener, “It i is on the same principle that a doctor does not take his own medicine.” “No, not exactly,” laughed the drum- I mer, “for my jewelry, unlike the doc- j tor’s medicine, Is IS carat tine always.” “And there are no tricks in your 1 trade,” grinned the listener, who at ! that very moment was wearing a 15- i cent pearl scarf pin that looked as if It had cost $75. “However, why don’t you wear Jewelry? Can’t you afford it, or are your tastes too delicate and refined?” “Thereby hangs a tale,” said the drummer. “I used to wear a lot of It and of the most expensive kind, but I had to give it all up once upon a time and that taught me a lesson. At the same time you may think when you have heard my story that I ought to go around all the time loaded for emergencies.” “It takes you a powerful long time to get to the story,” ventured the listener, who had an Invitation to go to a thanksgiving dinner along In the later part of November. “Does It?” snorted the drummer. “Well, it’s good enough to keep and put In your Christmas stocking, but I won’t do that. Here sf!e goes. About seven years ago I was on my way book from the Pacific slope and I stopped for a week’s rest and recreation at a semlwild hotel in the Rocky Mountains. As usual In those days, I was loaded to the guards with jewelry and couldn't give It up even in the woods. Hut I was only there for a short stay and had with me my ordinary civilized city attire. I remember 1 wore a SI,OOO diamond stud in my shirt front; a SIOO chain to a SSOO watch; a SIOO diamond collar button, heavy link cuttles with a big diamond In each one; an uncut diamond worth SI,OOO for a watch charm, and so on until I was a glittering array of gems and things worth a small fortune. Resides, I was my own traveling advertisement and of goods In one. for whatever I had that struck anybody’s fancy and he wanted to buy 1 would sell on the spot. That was really the only possible excuse for decking myself out in such a fashion. Well, game was plenty In the mountains just around the hotel and a newspaper man from Chicago who was there for a month was putting most of his time In with Ills gun. lie was fixed for it, though, ind I wasn’t, so I let him go his way ind took his word for the sport he vas having. One afternoon 1 was siting on the piazza of the tavern array--1 In all my Jewelry, for the safest dace for it was on my person under uy immediate eye, when the Chicago ns a came dashing through the grounds vlth his gun, calling me to grab up i shotgun there was in the hall and ■oino on, for there was a bear up in the mountain back of the house. I night to have had more sense, I supnose, but I am fond of a gun, and before I thought of how little I was fixed ’or It, I caught up the gun. and noticing there was a powder horn and pouch hanging to It, I made a grab i-fid away I went. The landlord told me that it was loaded with buckshot, and to skip, which I did. The newspaper man took up one side and I the other, ana lu lUiout Uni* an uour I clear out of sight and hearing of everything, and the next thing I knew I ran slap Into a big bear that wasn’t looking for me or any body else, and evidently had not been disturbed before. I was so close on him before

I saw him that escape was Impossible, and besides 1 was up there to let him do the escaping If he could. On the Instant he was u,p on his hind legs and coming at me and on the Instant I banged away. Of course, I hit him, but It was a mo»t scattering kind of a hit and merely threw him off his pins for a moment make him a hundred times worse when he got at himself again. “Some way or other I must have upset the pouch with the powder horn, for when I dodged behind a tree and prepared -to load again, there wasn’t a buckshot or anything else in it. That left me in a pretty pickle, and I hadn’t any time to formulate methods of defense until the bear was coming for me again. It was an old muzzle loader, and In my wild anxiety to get something Into It besides powder and paper wad, I was about to shove the ramrod In and give him that, when it occurred to me that a ramrod might some In handy if ever I wanted to load again. In the meantime 1 had climbed up the rocks, which were big and plenty here among the trees, and was managing to keep myself fairly safe. As I slipped into the last niche of the rocks before I had to take chances and run across the open to a clump of trees, my heavy wrtcb chain caught on something and almost tore itself y>ut of my buttonhole. It gave me a thought, though, and In a second I had it loose and was ramming it down the gun barrel. A hundred dollars a load was rather expensive, but It was my life against the watch chain, and there were other watch chains. To make the chances in my favor somewhat better, I dropped my link buttons and a collar button into the other barrel. They were not so heavy as the chain, but the range was short and I was counting to do some valuable work In my behalf with that watch chain, which weighed half a pound, a friend of mine used to say and looked a ton. As the bear got on the level with me and rose to embrace me to his throbbing bosom, I tried to remember that my chance for life lay in that gun barrel, and I must be cool and collected and very brave, and I guess I must have remembered it.’b 't to save my neck I couldn’t be steady, and as I backed away to let the bear go on by me If he wanted to, I stepped into a hole In the rock, the gun went off, my beloved watch chain went whizzing out into the blue empyrean of the Rocky Mountain heavens, and the bear winked and growled, and came right at me. The next shot he got at short range, and collar and cuff buttons were hanging in his hair, while diamonds glistened like the mountain dew as I tumbled off the edge of the rock and lit on a ledge about six feet below. Here 1 was /safe for a minute or two, at least, and I stopped to think. Thinking at such a time is a thing a man ought never neglect to do. The bear, weighing about a ton, exclusive 9t th« .loads I had cut Into hi)n was on . J