A Close Call with a Cub in the Woods
A young boy's attempt to capture a bear cub nearly ends in disaster when the mother bear returns to defend her offspring.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
One of Mr. Lampoon's boys came near having a serious encounter with a bear the other day. While going to work he met a large bear and two cubs. The mother and one of the cubs took to the woods, while the other cub climbed a small tree. The boy thought to capture the cub, and climbed up after it, whereupon the cub set up such a wail that the mother soon returned and started up after the boy. It was now his turn to wail, which he did quite lustily. Owing to the smallness of the tree the bear could not reach the boy, but he felt the situation was anything but pleasant during the interval that elapsed before the arrival of the boy's father. The old bear took to the woods, but they succeeded in capturing the cub by means of ropes and gunny sacks, and took it home.
“It was now his turn to wail, which he did quite lustily.”
Encounters with wildlife are still a standard feature of life near the Cascades and the Sound, though modern safety guidelines would strongly advise against the behavior documented here.
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