Show KILLING A GRIZZLY John Glaflui Tells How He Does This Every Year A Man Who Never liefnses to Tell of His Encounter with His Favorite t Game Copyright 1892 Ono block sway from Broadway in the centre of what is known as the Dry Goods district of New York city elands a large stone building so plain in appearance that a stranger would probably pass without noticing it It is the largest business house in the world Go upstairs and you will see half a hundred hun-dred bookkeepers at work At one end or I the room is a space railed off but the gate i Is open Walk in and turn to the left and I you will see an inner office with an open I door There sits John Claflin Toll him your business as quickly as you can and goRe I go-Re has uo time to waste John Glaflm is only 42 years old but it IB I nineteen years since his father the famous Horace B Claflln made him a full partner in the business The firm then owed 25 000000 but this was all paid though 1S73 Vas a panic year and the great concern went on stung goodsfrom 40000000 to 70000000 worth a year In twentyfive years it has sold more than 1000000000 worm or merchandise It Is very curious to hear this quiot modest gentleman sitting in a business office in Now York tell with evident pride of the fact that he has not failed for a number num-ber of years to kill at least one grizzly bear each summer in the Rocky mountains He looks like a man who would be more at homo in a Suuday schoolroom than one who would face a grizzly but he has fought Indians well as bears Only be is so modest about it that he cannot be coased to tell particulars that would doubtless be of value as additions to the literature of exploration The writer tried for long time to get him to furnish the details of his South American journey but was compelled to give it up I have lost misplaced my notes of the trip he said I And there was really nothing about it that would be of great public interest i In this the public will nardly agree with Mr Claflin but so long as he remains at the head of tho largest mercantile house in the world it is hardly likely that he will i publish the story of his explorations And I that is likely to ba as long as he continues I In active business That again may very probably be a quarter of a cantury longer for he inherits his fathers physical stamina as well as his business ability and Horace B Claflln lived out the Scrip tural limit before laying down his business cares It is easy however to get Mr Claflin to talk in an offhand way about hunting t P LfA < c 4 U r 6 I t d TIRSD LtD KNOCKED HER OVJSR His face brightens at the word and as he pushes back from his desk he straightens out his tall slender wiry figure and I moves restlessly almost nervously as I if eager to be handling a rifle and facing a bear Rave you hunted much in other countries coun-tries than America I asked bun No not a great deal though of course I have shot more or less whenever and 1 wherever I have been in camp I have not taken the time for very many foreign tripe J but I go at least as far as the Rocky mountains mount-ains every sammer U Have you found your sport very dangerous dan-gerous 1 gerousNo I cannot say I have said Mr Claflin laughing I have been told times without number that I was putting myself in imminent peril And oddly enough it is the people who live in the bear countries I that are most strenuous on the point of danger I never go out without being told I by the people around that Im going to git all torn up That seems to be their favorite favor-ite word but so far laughing again I havent been torn up1 to any great extent ex-tent Are the stories of the ferocity of the grizzly bear exaggerated then 1 Yes and no They are true enough In one way It is just this In the olden time when the white man was unknown in the bear countries the grizzly roamed tho forests for-ests just as he does now but the Indians did not hunt him and he looked upon a man as his meat just tile same as all other animals are So he hunted the Indian when he found him But when the white man I appeared with weapons that the Indians bad not had Mr Grizzly found out that there was one animal that refused to become I be-come his prey So he stopped hunting him for the bear is the most wary of animals BO far as I know animals There are instances in-stances to be sure when the bear will for no apparent reason beyond his own sheer cussedness attack a man but such instances in-stances appear to be very rare So far as I I know ho is seldom dangerous excepting I in two cases First ho will certainly light if he Is cornered ana ne will mako a tremendously tre-mendously savage fight too Then he will surely follow and destroy a man if the man runs from him There is no earthly use in running away from a bear for you cannot possibly getaway from him He will follow fol-low you and certainly catch you and kill you if you run If you dont run he will almost always get away from you if U be can Have you ever faced them at close quarters quar-ters tIt tersYes I shot one once that wasnt more than ten or fifteen feet away from me I was out with a friend on the trail ana I was on one side of a hill while he was on the other side with my guide I heard aBbot a-Bbot and judged that my friend had found the bear and shot at him It wast at him cither It was a she bear with two cubs There was a sort of trail across the bill that I knew and I thought the bear would coma across that way so I ran to the end of it and Just as I got there the bear appeared ap-peared I fired and knocked her over but did not kill her and she got on her feet again and disappeared into the brush before be-fore I could firs again with anything like an aim Pretty soon my friend and the guides came around and I told them I had wounded the bear and was going into the brush after her That is the really dangerous dan-gerous part of bear hunting for they will turn on you at close quarters In the brush and one of the guides refused to go in He Laid the bear probably wasnt hurt She bad been knocked down by the explosion without being chit but I know better although we could not find any blood My guIde howeverthe other one Was a man I could depend on to do any tnlcp and ho and I Trent In Wo found n the marks of the blood after a time and presently my guide shouted Shes coming for yer1 She wasnt coming for me though but was trying to get up from where sbb had fallen and I saw her and shot her again Have you shot other bIg game besides bear bearOh yes The most of my shooting has Men in this country as I said because I do I o U not take the time for foreign travel but I have shot elk and mountain sheep quite considerably Of late years though I have hunted nothing but bear excepting of course when I do what shooting is necessary to keep the camp in meat while we arc in camp have kept up the record though of killing at least one grizzly every summer right up to the present time This last summer I only killed one for I only went as far as Montana I have been taking my wife with me of late years and when you have Q lady in the party you cant very well go to the less accessible places where there is really better shooting shoot-ing I am sorry II said the great merchant as he closed the interview that I canno give you more interesting and more valuable valua-ble particulars about traveling and shootIng shoot-Ing both i but it would take considerable time and unfortunately time is something I do not have enough ofDAVID DAVID A CURTIS |