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Miss-miss Spared

Miss-miss Spared image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
September
Year
1897
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

"There is but one beast that the Indians are really afraid of," said Egerton Young, the Baptist minister who recently returned from a long sojourn among the Hudson bay tribes, where he was the pioneer missionary. "That is the grizzly bear, the tiger of North America. Only ouce have I heard of a grizzly being captnred alive, and in that case the feat saved the life of a fameus old warrior. "Among ruauy of the Hudson bay tribes it is the custoni for the ablebodied to put to death the old men and women who are no longer able to do their share of the work. The old wornen are simply knocked on the head without ceremony. The process of getting rid of au old man is more elabórate. The Indians do not think it well to stain their hands with the blood of one who was ouce a warrior. So they delégate the task to their hereditary enemies, the wolves, to which they render all assistnnce in their power. "When it has been decided at a solerán powwow that any particular old man is to die, instructions are given to a number of young men to take measures to get rid of him immediately. Among the executioners are always the sous of the condemned man. The day af ter senteuce has been passed these executioners cali on the veteran, attack him with stoues and spears and drive him into the wilderness. There they leave him to his fate. A few days later they return and collect a few well gnawed bones, which they bring back with fitting ceremonies. "Among all the warriors belonging to a tribe with which I made a long sojourn, none had a more glorious record than Miss-Miss. ButMiss-Miss was getting old. His eyes were dim, his hands were slow, and rarely did he bring home a fat buck. Furthermore, food was scarce, and Miss -Miss retained an excellent appetite. One morning MissMiss got orders to be prepared to receive the next day a delegation of young braves led by his two stalwart Bons. "But Miss-Miss, though Jbe had assisted in many such ceremonials in his day, had not yet come to consider himself old and uselesa. He was very angry. Just as Miss-Miss had done reviling the ingratitude of the young a boy rushed in to say that a tnige grizzly was feeding a short distance from the camp. Here was the veteran's chance. All the braves were away at tbe hunt. Children and sqnaws and Miss-Miss were the sole occupants of the camp. He knew tbat to face a grizzly single handed was certain death, but it was the death of a rúan. So Miss-Miss armed himself with bis spear and tomahawk and went forth to seek the bear. "He had not far to go. Within a few hundred yards of the camp he espied the largest and leanest bear he had seen for years, raaking a scanty meal off dried roota. Crawling up as close as he conld, he hurled nis spear. The weapon struck the bear in the flank. As he had calculated, the wound had no further effect than to infuriate the brute and turn its atteution upon him. Miss-Miss took his stand with his back to a tree, grasped his little tomahawk firmly and awaited death. "Now, had it been an ordinary little black bear the peril of Miss-Miss wonld have been small. A black bear wonld have risen on its bind legs when it came to close qnarters, aod leaving its chest quite unprotected, tried to insert its paws between the man and the tree in order to hug him to death. All MissMiss would have had to do would have been to wait until it came witbin arm 's lengtb and plunge his hunting knife into its chest. One thrust would have been sufflcient. But a grizzly is different. It strikes with its mighty claws. Miss-Miss awaited the onset. When the bear came to close quarters, it rose on its bind legs and made a mighty, sweeping blow at his body. Setting his teeth, Miss-Miss struok at its head with his tomahawk. The weapon was dashed from his grasp and he was hurled to the ground, but, much to his surprise, uniujured. Instead of the sharp claws in bis side he had feit a mighty buffet as if from a huge boxing glove. MissMiss scrarubled to his feet The next glance explained matters. Like himself, the bear was a veteran. It had lost its claws long since. Miss-Miss dodged round and round his tree and from one tree to another. The bear, whose sight was dim with age, aimed blow after blow, with no other effect than that of bruising its paws against the trunks. The fight went on, and Miss-Miss' stiength was giving way, when through an opening in the forest he espied the blaze of the campfires close at hand. The bear saw it, too, and with a grunt of disgust and disappointment tnrned round and trotted back into the depths of the forest to resume its meal. "Miss-Miss hastened back to the camp and called the oldest of the boys together. 'Take your lassoes,' he cried, 'and we will capture a grizzly alive. ' So out they went. When the party arrived within range, Miss-Miss whistled. The bear raised its bead and the boys cast their lassoes. One noose feil over the brute's neck. "When the braves retDrned in the evening, prepared to chase Miss-Miss into the wilderness, they found a huge, roaring grizzly tethered in the middle of the camp. No one of the tribe ever had done such a deed. They concluded the Great Spirit had willed that MissMiss should live, and Miss-Miss is alive today and in high honor with the tribe. " - New York Sun. Oounting all classes of reserves, Germany can in 24 hours raise an arruy of 4,000,000 dieciplined men.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News