Bruin as a Fisherman

May 1902

Old hunters say that the black bear does a good deal of fishing at this season. It is said that carefully studying the sun and approaching so that his shadow will not be cast upon the waters, bruin creeps cautiously to where he sees the telltale fins, and dexterously throws the fish out of the water with a sweep of his paw.

A couple of lads came across a different kind of bear at St. Mary's Lake, near Hull, Canada.

This one preferred having some one else do the fish catching for him.

The boys had got a good sackful of pike, which they had left near a stump while they amused themselves on a raft they had thrown together. They looked ashore after a time to see a big bear walking off with the bag of fish over his shoulder.

He paid not the least attention to their shoutings, having, as it transpired, taken the precaution of breaking the stock of their gun across at the grip before carrying off the fish.


Lovers' Thrilling Experience

Fred Tieman and Miss Rosie Beard, living a few miles below Evansville, Ind., in trying to reach a preacher's house to be married, were forced to cross a long streak of bottomland covered with about ten feet of water. The buggy was upset and the occupants thrown out. Tieman held his sweetheart in his left arm while he cut the harness, freeing the horses from the buggy. The lovers then held on to the horse's tail until the shore was reached, a distance of nearly a mile. The wedding ceremony was postponed for a day. — St. Louis Republic.

Molasses Covered Pigs Stick Together

Pennsylvania, 1915

Stanley F. Smith, of near Irishtown, Secretary to the Oxford Township Board of Supervisors, had a very peculiar operation to perform among his swine on Sunday morning.

It was simply this: Mr. Smith, on Saturday evening visited town, and on his return home, when he alighted from his buggy, took a kettle containing one gallon of molasses from the vehicle and placed it upon a stone in the barnyard, where he expected to get it and take it to the house with him after he had stabled the horse and placed the buggy in the shed.

It happened, however, that Stanley had forgot about the molasses when he went to the house, and did not think of it until Sunday morning. It happened, also, that there were a number of shoats running at large in the yard, and during the night they discovered the kettle, overturned it, and spilled the contents. They not only ate of it, but layed down and rolled in it, and then went to sleep in a huddle.

On Sunday morning when Mr. Smith approached the yard he found three of the shoats sticking together — so much so that they could not separate and neither one of them could move without taking the other along. Finally, the only way that Stanley could contrive to separate the squealers was to cut them apart with a large mule shears, which he succeeded in doing, only after getting himself well soaked with the contents of the kettle, which now covered the shoats.

—New Oxford Item, New Oxford, PA, Jan. 14, 1915.

Using Electricity as a Horse Tamer

1878

A late issue of the San Francisco Chronicle has the following: Professor R. H. Tapp sought yesterday to tame the singular horse Cognac, known as the "man eater," with the newly invented electric bit.

The bit is designed to subdue fiery steeds, and particularly to arrest a runaway horse by suddenly intensifying his excitement with a sharp shock of electricity. The battery is carried in the coat pocket and the current transmitted by means of brass buttons on the driver's gloves, to a wire in the reins, and in that manner to the animal's mouth.

There was a fair attendance of persons anxious to see how the carnivorous Cognac would act under the new influence. While the bit was being arranged in the brute's mouth he evinced a fierce desire to masticate the adventurous Professor by snapping at him viciously.

When the arrangements had been perfected the Professor completed the circuit by touching the brass button to the rein and the horse reared up convulsively, as if startled suddenly by a pistol shot. The movement was instantaneous and the horse resumed his normal position with a bewildered look.

The second shock propelled him still higher and excited the equine ire. He seized the rein in his mouth and darted at the electrician, who skipped out of the way, however, and the horse's assault was checked by a rope passed around the centre pole. He was then treated to a succession of shocks, which turned his rage to frenzy. He foamed and snorted in his mad endeavors to trample the Professor under foot until his hide was in a lather.

After a few moments the battery was withdrawn and the animal became quiet as a lamb, probably from exhaustion. The electricity appeared to have made him wilder while it was being applied, and its utility as an adjunct to a pleasure buggy is, to say the least, questionable. The Professor claimed to have quieted the horse in some degree, although some doubting ones in the assemblage wanted him to insert his head in the animal's mouth as a satisfactory test.

Automobilists or Horsemen - Who Has Most Cussedness?

South Dakota, 1909--

FAULT ON BOTH SIDES

Automobilists Say that Horsemen are Often in the Wrong

Much has been said and written locally of late referring to the carelessness and all around cussedness of automobile owners as a class, but no one has come forward to assert that there was another side to the matter, until this morning when one of the most enthusiastic motorists of the city ventured into the Huronite office and remarked that the chauffeur had his troubles as well as anyone else.

At a recent city council meeting the matter of fast and careless driving was brought to the attention of the city fathers. The complaint was that some of the autoists of the city were in the habit of speeding on First street, and thus endangering the lives of all who dared to put foot on that highway. The chief of police was instructed to obtain the numbers of all who thus violated the city ordinance and to bring them to time, and this was a wise and timely act.

All motorists, however, are not bent on the shedding of human blood along the public thoroughfares, and they in their turn meet with difficulties presented by others on the roads. It is a known fact that a prejudice exists among certain people against automobiles, and that they refuse to give them even the half the road that is their's. They will turn to the left and do other things to inconvenience the drivers of machines. If they acted thus upon meeting another team they would expect sooner or later to have an accident, and there is the same possibility in the case of trying to tease the automobilists. There should be fairness on both sides, and the police should be instructed to look after the irresponsible among horse drivers as well as among auto drivers.

--Weekly State Spirit and Dakota Huronite, Huron, South Dakota, August 26, 1909, page 7.

A Weird Horse and Buggy Story: Horse in Reverse!

Decatur, Illinois, 1902--

Turned Clear Around

An unusual sight was witnessed at the intersection of Main and Water streets Tuesday morning. A horse hitched to a buggy driven by H. Carmean slipped and fell and when he scrambled to his feet he had managed to turn around in the harness and faced the rig. When the driver pulled on the lines the animal proceeded to back but in a direction away from the buggy, and started to drag it down the street. He was finally stopped, however, and straightened out.

--Decatur Herald, Decatur, Illinois, September 5, 1902, page 3.

Posse Captures Laprobe Thief

Robert Lee, of Southwest 6th St., was arrested after being pursued three blocks by a posse of pedestrians at noon today. He had taken a laprobe out of the buggy of Mrs. James Newby of South 21st St. and McKinley Ave., while she was away.

Witnesses passing by say they saw Lee take the laprobe. Three persons started in pursuit and by the time he was captured, 20 more had joined the chase. He was cornered in the Sabin house at 4th and Chestnut streets.

Detective Denholm arrived on the scene, and Lee is now in the city jail.

--Original source, Des Moines Capital, Nov. 7, 1913, p. 1, rewritten.