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Show Editorial Sketches, MONTANA STORY TELLERS. The old-timers in Montana, especially especial-ly those who came originally from Missouri, beat all creation telling stories, and can be as solemn while discoursing about the ground hog as they would be in going over the dips and angles of an Indian ( fight. The joke comes in when these yarns are printed in the Butte papers, and just now there appears to be a competitive , contest going on between the reporters ; of the Inter-Mountain and the Stan-j Stan-j dard over a reward of merit to the one who "gets next" to the most versatile ver-satile liar in the state. The latest I stories told by the pioneers and getting get-ting into print are about bears, and ! to say that they are wonderful addi-I addi-I tions to Munschausen literature is giving giv-ing to the reporters of the Butte press and the story-tellers only half the credit they deserve. A Butte hardware man, John E. Davis, who went out for a duck shoot, gives to the Standard a thrilling night experience .with Bruin on the outside of his tent, eating all the grub, while the hunter's gun remained in another tent, as useless for defense r.s the Dutchman's anchor. The Standard describes de-scribes the terrible plight of the hardware hard-ware man in glowing language, and we reproduce one paragraph to show that the literature of the greatest mining min-ing camp on earth is not behind any turned out of Boston or New York. "As the ravenous beast munched and munched," says the Standard, "the lone dweller of the canvas castle lived on and on, passing through generation I after generation, his hair gradually turning gray and his form bending; un- j der the weight of torment. Of course, once the pile of grub was disposed of the bear would evince cannibalistic proclivities and leave nothing but well-licked well-licked bones of a man to hold iilent watch within the walls of the tent. It was useless to give the alarm. The bear was master of all he fastened his vicious eyes upon. Thoughts of home and friends coursed through the brain until there came a dizzy sense oi oblivion. ob-livion. And the bear continued to munch and fill up on the good thincs the hunter had brought from town." Meanwhile the man in the bed resolved re-solved to take his death philosophically. philosophical-ly. He quit breathing, and thus gave the bear a fair start on his mission of annihilation. But the bear did not annihilate, an-nihilate, else Davis would not be in Salt Lake selling hardware and telling this story. Instead, Bruin ambled off in the direction of the lake. Next morning, loaded with courage and a gun, Davis espied the bear lying on his back near the lake and in evident evi-dent distress. NoJ wishing to take chances, the hunter put a ball into the animal. Instantly there wa3 a report that shook the whole camp. It was like a charge of dynamite in a prospect hole. Developments followed. It was found upon inspection of the grub pile that had been attacked in the night that the bear had eaten a 10-pound package of dried apples. It was further dis covered that the bear had gone to the edge of the lake and had drank water, j how rftuch will never be known; but enough, however, to agitate the dried I fruit to such an extent as to cause j the bear (using the vernacular of Missouri) Mis-souri) to swell up and bust and pass in his chips. In proof that the story is true, Mr. Davis exhibits the hide of the bear. - The above Is a pretty good story, but the Inter Mountain beats It by another and it is not told by Postmaster George Irvin either, nor by Colonel Saunders. An old prospector relates it, one who was in the state before Butte and Anaconda Ana-conda were ever thought of. That's lucky for the prospector, because on this evidence his story gets into the Salt Lake Herald. Briefly told, the prospector shot the bear amidship, the charge from the gun making a bay window clear through his body. The animal fell" and began licking the wound on the opposite side of the hunt- er, and in doing so "he saw the hunter through the window in his body. The animal started towards the prosoector, but in some way got his head jammed into the bullet hole. In his efforts to extricate his head, the bear fell and relied reli-ed down the mountain side, his carcass resembling the letter P as he sped along. The hunter beat the bear to the blacksmith snpp In the raoe, "and there," says the story teller, "I dropped my rifle, seized a pair of tongs and a hammer and, as the bear rolled past me. I reached through the bullet hole with th tongs, caught the animal by the tongue and beat it to death with the hammer." These stories, over which Montanans have lots of fun, are published in the eastern newspapers as grave facts and garnished by illustrations in the yellow yel-low journals. It is small wonder, then, that Yale students are sent out there with quires of paper and cameras to make reports on observations taken while Butte is "sliding down hill," in the same manner as a party of scientists scien-tists are sent to Africa or somewhere else to observe the transit of Venus or an eclipse of the sun. |