Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 126, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1903 — BEAR BLOCKED HIS PATH. [ARTICLE]

BEAR BLOCKED HIS PATH.

Man Wai Willing to Give Brnin tpe Whole Lor, but He Couldn’t. Conductor Dave Houston, of the Southern Pacific Railroad, who is taking a ten days’ vacation at Seaside, had a thrilling experience with a big bear which lie will not soon forget. He only told a few of the incidents, as he desired to keep It quiet, but the story

leaked out. Conductor Houston Is a great fisherman, and never lets an opportunity slip to cast the line. He had hardly got settled at the seaside when he went out on the Necanicum river to have a fish all by himself. He made his tvay through the until he came to a log, one end of which projected out Into the creek. "Tlfht's the very placed’-thought the and, adjusting his line and pole, he crept out on the log, where he found himself perched above the cool water of Necanicum creek. Houston lighted Ills tried and trusty pipe and then cast bis line. He fished and smoked perhaps an hour without getting a bite. Suddenly there was a movement in the bushes back of him, and then ho felt the log he was sitting on tremble. Instinctively the conductor turned around, when to his amazement he gazed Into the face of a big black bear. The latter seemed to be sizing him up and estimating how much of a meal the conductor would make, and whether he would “scrap” when It came to the point. For the conductor there seemed no escape. The bear sat complacently on the shore end of the log, and it was not possible for Conductor Houston to get past the monster. The bear held him there for several hours before a hunter came along and killed the animal. The bear weighed 250 pounds when dressed. Conductor Houston oow has a few more gray hairs In his head as a result of his experience. Oregonian.