ALEX.: Now we'll begin, you just forget it's there.
ALEX.: You said you did what? Took a Christmas present to them?
CRICKARD: During the holidays, why they'd bring up the Christmas checks for
me to distribute to these men that had worked long enough to be entitled to a
fifty or twenty-five dollar check. Well, I'd go around and see all of them
Course, I guess, if I'd get around, why I'd be pretty well fixed myself. Most of
'em would be pretty happy, you know, on Christmas. You couldn't get away from 'em
They had, they was all celebrating Christmas, and I'd have a big time, too.
Well, I'd come to get the veterans pensions, why, I had to fingerprint 'em and
fill out all their applications. If they wanted anything or if the doctor was
out of town, and one of 'em would get hurt, they'd come and hunt me up to doctor
him. Oh yes, fix him right up. They depended on me. Then finally when they
closed the store up there, there was a few families still there, and I took care
of the supplies for 'em, for Mr. Hickman. He had me to reshelf the supplies and
keep track of 'em, and charge 'em to 'em and send the bill down to 'em. I helped
load out the stuff they took out of there and moved it into Cass.
ALEX.: These blacks live in, you say, there are blacks up there, too?
CRICKARD: Oh, yes, they had all nationalities. They had Austrians,
Hungarians, Germans, Swedes, and colored folks. Most of 'em was, quite a lot of
'em come out of Virginia, oh, about, Roanoke, in that section, and a lot of 'em
come from the brush country here in Pocahontas County. The last bunch of
railroad workers were colored. They come from the brush country up there. Course
I'm still acquainted with all of them. I see 'em here in town. They're just
awful tickled to see me, shake hands with me like they had met somebody.
ALEX.: Yeah. You worked, they worked on the job, too.
CRICKARD: Oh, yes. They worked on the railroad laying steel. Course in later
years, after I took over the engineering, we didn't build any bridges. We build
big culverts and used a bulldozer. I only built one bridge. That's on that, up
there where they take water going up to Mower Run. That's about the only bridge
we had. For small streams, we build a wooden culvert, and then fill over it with
dirt.
ALEX.: You had no idea how many feet of lumber came off of that mountain
there? I know the lumber didn't come off, but logs came off. Roughly how many
feet did you bring off there a day?
CRICKARD: Well, at the Cass mill it wasn't, the biggest cut they ever made
there was a hundred and ten thousand, or two hundred and ten thousand feet. Of
course, they just rip them big logs up into pulp wood and run them through the
slasher and Luke, Maryland. They wasn't much in the lumber business for years
there. When that first started it, they called it, it was the Spruce Lumber
Company. It wasn't the West Virginia Pulp, Spruce Lumber and Paper Company. I've
got one of their old checks over there at home in a desk, that is, just a bank
check for it was the Spruce Lumber and Paper Company. It was along and everybody
called it the Spruce Company, went by that name for years until it finally
changed to West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company. Then they formed the Greenbrier
Cheat and Elk River Railroad Company. That took over all the railroads, and I
worked for the railroad company.
WIFE: Now anytime they started a new program, well they yell for him on
account of the men.
CRICKARD: After I surveyed all that land, they bought a hundred and some
acres off of the Wilson Lumber Company there where Snowshoe is. This high part
of the mountain back there. I surveyed all that land out, and put a railroad in
there. They skidded logs out with overhead skidders, called 'em steam skidders,
and I had to survey all the landlines and paint 'em. I surveyed all them from
Cass to Hosterman on the Greenbrier side, and I think from the Valley Head to Stoney Flats.
ALEX.: Well, you know, Blackhurst, in one these books talks about a property
dispute up there. Is that all fiction, do you know what I'm talking about? It
talks about a tree being taken out on the corner marks, or something. Is that
fiction, or is that the truth he talks about in that book?
CRICKARD: No, that's the truth, I'll tell you. I surveyed the landlines
after we come around where they claimed that, this old Mr. Cromer, he used to
survey the railroads. I worked with him, too, a lot. But the corner run up here
and cornered on a maple and a spruce. Well, he cut that spruce off below the
ground, and when I come around, according to Mr. Vaster's* survey, he was the
engineer that was there before I was, he come right out there and he had to, but
he couldn't find the corner. Well, I took a grubing hoe, and fellas who worked
for me, and took 'em over there, and, where the distance run out and everything,
I had 'em to dig down there, and we dug up spruce roots, great big spruce roots
and maple roots. I piled up a pile of stone there and painted it, and said
that's the corner. Well, that was above this railroad, and Cromers run a
railroad around there when they first started in there. He got, hadn't held his
railroad up high enough. When I got in there, had to survey the landlines and
mark 'em. Well, I discovered this discrepancy. That's the reason why I went over
there and dug around where my distance run out? and everything. Hand dug around,
and dug up great big spruce roots as big as your roof*. I had one there about
four foot long and pried it out of the ground and dug out, and I'd set it up in
the center and put a lot of rocks around it and then painted it all. That's
where they had moved the corner, there's no question about that.
ALEX.: Blackhurst talked about Upper Raccoon or Lower Raccoon or something
like that, some creek like that. He said they kind of switched it by one creek,
one tributary, or something. But that's what he said in his book, you know. I
remember reading that. Well, this fellow, Cromer, you say it's Cromer? They're
still around this country, aren't they?
CRICKARD: The boys are. They're older people. There's not many of the boys
living. They had how many boys?
WIFE: Ten.
ALEX.: Ten boys. You mentioned the Wilson Lumber Company.
CRICKARD: Yes.
ALEX.: Now, is that the same Wilson out of the Durbin Mercantile up here? Or
is that someone else, is that another Wilson?
WIFE: That was a Carl Wilson out of Elkins. What was his name? He hasn't
been dead a long time. There was Mark, and what was the one at Bridgeport?
CRICKARD: May.
WIFE: Yeah, May Wilson was his name.
CRICKARD: That was one 'twas at Richwood.
WIFE: John Hammel. John Hammel would be a hundred years old if he was
living.
CRICKARD: I don't know. What was that one at Richwood? He'd come over here
once and wanted me to get him a job.
WIFE: He used to live here, Allen, had those two boys, what was his name?
CRICKARD: I know him just as well.
*: Burt.
CRICKARD: Burt Wilson. I was with Burt when the Wilson Lumber Company had
its mill at Mill Creek. They brought Hank, Strum*, Gold, and Shaw*. But the
Wilson Lumber Company bought that when they come into Mill Creek, and I was with
them all through the woods when they was buying the timber off of it, was about
five or six hundred acres off of my father in different tracts up in our
section. They tried to get me to work for 'em, and I went down and tried it a
while. And they was too cheap for me. I went back to corn pickin' country.
ALEX.: I guess you saw Cass grow up then, didn't you?
CRICKARD: Oh, yes. I remember when there was one restaurant there, and used
to have a hospital there. Fellow get hurt in the woods, they'd bring him down
there to the hospital, and he had to pay the bill, though his bill; wasn't paid.
It's not like things are now. I've been there at the hospital when they had
that.
WIFE: All the company doctors were interested.
CRICKARD: Oh, yes, they brought 'em down to be handy. They could doctor 'em.
They looked after 'em.
ALEX.: Well, these company doctors, you know, we talk about industrial medicine,
we say that a company doctor is a man who tells you that you're well and you
should go back to work. How were these fellows?
CRICKARD: Well, they kinda left it up to you. They would ask you when you
thought you'd be able to go to work and so on. They're not, wasn't as bad. They
had a good deal of consideration, the ones that I was acquainted with. We had a
Dr. Arbuckle up there first, and Dr. Hannah. Dr. Albert Boyce, he doctored up
there, the one that's writing the Randolph County history. Oh, they changed
doctors about every two or three years.
WIFE: What was the one that saved your leg?
CRICKARD: Dr. Osburn. Yes, I had a wreck with my motor car, and I got
infection, uh, blood poisoning in that leg. And Dr. Hannah wanted to take it
off, but Osburn said, "I think we ought to save that leg." He'd been a doctor in
Pittsburgh in a steel mill. He said if I can stand it, he said, "I can save that
leg." I said, "Well, I'll take a chance on it just to save it." Course he stayed
with me for about two or three weeks, night and day.
ALEX.: Got the poison out?
CRICKARD: Yes, give me something that scattered it through me and took
multiple arthritis. I couldn't move a finger without just screaming. I'd lay in
one position for 24 hours. Finally, I decided I was able to go home, and I went
home and went to bed, and I just laid there in the same position and I told 'em
not to touch me or don't even look at me cross-eyed. I couldn't stand to be
moved. Well, my father and another neighbor that lived close, she come over and
said, "I want to move you," and they turned me over. And I just, it was a close
thing. My heart just about finished me. But I was doctored for three or four
months and got 'til I could get around on a cane, and somebody would give me
medicine. I took 72 pills every 24 hours. Seventy-two pills and three kinds of
drops, that doctor give me. Break a man up now according to the price of pills.
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
WIFE: They were miracle workers. They had, oh, well they loved them, those
doctors.
ALEX.: They liked their doctors, did they?
CRICKARD: Oh, yes. Most of them.
WIFE: The doctors liked their patients, too.
CRICKARD: Well, you see, the doctors there, they had a doctor at the Green
Bank, and one at Spruce. They'd always find out if I, which way I was going so
they could go with me. They wouldn't have to take their motor. They could go
with me and get around the lumber camps. I'd generally accommodate 'em. Only the
one doctor at Salty Fork, he was kind of cranky, and I was over there, and my
motor broke down, and I had to get to Spruce. It was 14 miles, and he was going
to Spruce, and I asked him if I could ride over with him. Worked his motor too
hard, and he wouldn't take me. So I just started out walking, carrying a bag of
electric tools. He passed me about half way, had a dog sitting up on the seat by
him. Just went flying. Didn't even see me and about run over me. I was on the
track. But I walked into Spruce, and the next time I was over there, he come out
with his medicine bags and said, "Going up to Tea Creek?" I said, "No, not by a
damn sight." I said, "I'm going down to Leatherwood." Oh, he didn't want, he
wanted to go to Tea Creek. I said, "I'm not going down there." I did intend to
go, but I wouldn't go just because the way he done that. Fourteen miles is a
long walk when you're tired.
ALEX.: Yes, sir, when you've got a load.
CRICKARD: Yeah, and been working all day.
ALEX.: It doesn't take much of a load that at the end of 14 miles, it'll be
a big load.
CRICKARD: I thought I'd give him as good as he give me.
WIFE: He didn't stay too long after that. But the doctors visited in the
community, too.
CRICKARD: Oh, yeah, they had a pretty good practice around the country
there. There was no other doctors handy.
ALEX.: What can you tell me about Cass just as the town grew up? It was a
regular boom town, I guess. That's what Clarkston says in his book.
CRICKARD: Yes, it was. It was, well, when they first started there, of
course, they had bootleggers, speakeasies. I was there when they had
speakeasies, about nineteen hundred, and it was a pretty wild town; just like
all lumber towns in them days. Take up at Horton and over in my section, and
Mill Creek, where I was raised, that wasn't so wild, got pretty wild, too. But
they, where I lived at Valley Head, these people would come from Tolberson
Speckers*, that's over at Cumberland Forest, Tolbersons worked for them, too.
Worked in hauling bark. But they'd walk through the mountains, and come up next
to Pickens there and come in to Valley Head. Way over there they was a apple
brandy still there. They could buy ten gallon apple brandy. Course, you'd only
have to take a pint if you wanted to; they'd keep the rest for you. That's the
way them distillers done at that time. They'd come in and get a pint or two or a
quart of apple brandy, and stay there at this hotel two or three days; and have
a spree. And then headed on across the mountains there. Lumber camp's on Cheat,
that was a near cut, they'd walk through there. Then the ones out at Websters
County that worked on Cheat, they'd do the same thing. They'd come in to Valley
Head and get 'em a jug of brandy and stay there at the boarding house. Got their
spree out then go on over, walk up from Valley Head there through the Cheat
River. That old man, Salfouler*, he was working over at Tolbersons Speckens* in
the Cumberland Forest, and they'd come over from down what's known as Clay Run
now, and stay at old man Crouch's. He had a place there, oh, a building a little
bigger than this room. He had four beds in it, and he'd give 'em a place to
sleep for a quarter and meal, twenty-five cents. Well, this Salfouler*, he said
he'd come over there. Next morning he said he knew the old man Crouch. They was
all paying their fifty cents for a nice breakfast. He said I said to him, he
said, "Mr. Crouch, I'm sorry, I don't have the money to pay you." Old man Crouch
said, "Why didn't you tell me that last night?" He said, "I told him, 'God, I
hate bad enough to tell you this morning.'" Then he said the next time he was by
there he paid him.
WIFE: I believe he was over 100 when he died if I remember right.
CRICKARD: Oh, yeah, but it was about the only penny that ever got away from him.
ALEX.: He took care of it, huh?
CRICKARD: Oh, yeah.
WIFE: You tell him about bringing the bear cub off the mountain?
ALEX.: Yeah, what about these bear stories. I hear a lot of talk about those fellas telling me about them.
CRICKARD: Well, you want to have some fun, you want to try and carry in one
that weighs about 175 pounds, bring him in alive, that's the way to get him in.
Well, there's an old fella from down Hinton up there. He'd build bear pens, and
he'd catch bear. He had one tied up down there at the camp. He was fattening him
up; going to have bear meat. Well, this fella Hivick, he was a master mechanic
and train master, general train master for the Greenbrier, Cheat, and Elk, he
run around with me a lot, and, course he'd come with Shaffer up with another
driver to Spruce. And he wanted to go to Elk, he'd get me. We'd go to Elk, we'd
go down the Cheat. They generally go opposite directions, and I'd wait there at
the Spruce line. I had my headquarters at Spruce. Well, anyway, this old fella,
he had us some bear pens set, and he was there at Spruce, stayed all night, and
he was going down to the camp. He was making car stakes. Hivick would devil
him, and me, too. If you catch a bear, we want to bring him alive. Hivick said,
"Oh, yeah, Bruce and I'll lead him. We're gonna carry him in." Hivick was six
foot six, great big tall man, big for his size. He said, "I'll go in front
coming down the hill and that way we can hold him about level." Well, anyway, we
was going down the railroad, here Daddy was out there, and he flagged us down.
Says, "I got that bear up there for you to carry out." Hivick said, "All
right." Asked where he was, and said, "Well, he's up the holler here, you can go
up an old skid road." Hivick said, "Well, we better get a push truck and tie on
behind the motor car, and when we bring him out, we can throw him right on the
push truck and bring him into the camp." Well, that was all right. Well, we went
up there, and we took the bailing wire, gathered up around the barn what they
used to bail hay with, and a small link chain, he had, was just small links, but
it would slip, you know, and it had a ring in the end, had a hook on the other
end. It was about 10 or 12 feet long. First, we'd do is chop a hole in the lid
of the bear pen, I don't know whether you ever seen a bear pen or not, built out
of big logs. Oh, as big as that. You have 'em big 'cause they'd eat out through
the side of 'em. So is big logs on top, and when the lid falls and they're in
there eating and snaps the trigger, why it knocks the bear down. It knocks him
down, cramps his legs up till don't have any power. Well, we chopped a hole in
the lid, had an ax, put a hole in it so we could get the chain down punched
around through, goes around his neck, so you can put a choker on him. Well, that
was all right. Well, we decided . . . well, had his feet wired, after he got in
through under there and got the wired snares around it and wired his feet, Daddy
said, "I don't know whether I can get his mouth shut or not." Well, he finally
got a snare around it, and got his mouth wired shut. Then he got sticks and got
it around his nose and twisted till he couldn't open his mouth nearly at all.
Got his mouth wired shut. Well, he said, "I believe we can let him out." And I
said, "All right." And I took my chain around two pine saplings there and got
off to the side. He said, "Now hold tight, hold your chain tight. He's gonna
come out of there." Just as soon as they raised that lid that much, that bear
just come out of there like a bullet. Of course, had that chain around his neck.
Had a collar on him too with a rope on it. But the bear come out of there, and
of course, he just up- ended when he run the length of that chain. He come out
of there so fast, flopped over on his back. Hilvick hollered, "Here, let's put
these poles between his legs, so we can carry him." But we didn't have time. The
bear scrambled around there. We finally got the pole between his legs, and got
him on there. Hivick was holding one end of the pole, and I was on the upper
end. Hivick was down the hill. It was on a slope down the road, and he was
holding the pole up. Daddy, he took that chain that it had around his neck, and
it was drawed tight enough to choke him to death. He took the chain and wrapped
it around and around the poles, you know, to keep it tight. He had his head down
the hill, and I said, "Daddy, you better take a rope and tie his feet back here,
so he can't slide far." "Oh, he won't go very far on that chain," he said. Well,
we started down the log road. It was a pretty good grade, but the road was open.
And we'd go about a hundred yards and that bear would just "Ooooooooh", squeal,
and make the awfullest noise. Well, he just wore the skin off your shoulder,
that old rough pole, you know. I said to him, hollered to Hivick, "Let's lay
him down. I can't stand it any longer." Laid him down and let him draw a few
long breaths, but he couldn't do much with his mouth wired shut. Let him lay
there, and of course, I had loosened the chain when we let the pole down, you
know the chain had, the loops would slip and that's all there was to it. He'd be
very quiet. He was breathing hard, but . . . Well, we'd pick him up and go about
the same distance, the same thing over. Boy, oh, he took some awful fits. So, we
had about half a mile, I reckon, or three quarters to carry him, but we spelled
on and worried along. Finally, we all got him down there, and I'd pulled off my
shirt. It was in July and the sun was just awful hot, and I just melted. I'd
pulled my shirt off and put it on my shoulder. Was just in my BVD's, and I was
seeing if I could stand that. Well, come to a kind of a flat place and going
across there. The bear just rode along fine, but just as soon as we broke over
another break, well the same thing, he just I said, "Let's throw him down,
Hivick" "Oh, let's take him a piece further," and I said, "No, I'll just lay
him down here and let him rest." We took about a dozen trips like that, spells
on him and got down where they had this rough tumble place. That's where they
brought logs and just rolled 'em over. They didn't deck 'em, you know, they had
to load logs with loaders. Well, the landing was all torn down and cleaned out,
and we come down where the log loaders come back. O, I get down off an awful
steep place where this landing had been, creek run right along the bottom. It
was practically dry. Well, I wanted to lay him down before we started down over
this steep hill. Hivick said, "Hell, no. Let's put him on the truck." I said,
"You can stand to put him on the truck," and I said, "Well." Going down that
steep place that bear just, uh, cut an awful shine. Well, was going through the
creek, and still he was, "Mmmmmmmm" . . . And he was making that noise, and took
an awful spell when we got about halfway in the creek. And I wanted to throw him
down in the creek. I said, "Let's throw him in that hole of water. That'll cool
him off." I said, "Let's put him on the truck." And he just went on. He weighed
about two hundred and fifty pounds, the big man says, "Ah, come on. I'll drag
you through there." And I said, "All right, go ahead." We took him up and laid
him down on the truck, and he was dead as a hammer. Choked him to death; that
last spell there. We had a pole in there about as big as his leg. Well, the old
bear weighed about a hundred and seventy-five pounds, I'd say. But he was dead.
I said, "Daddy, you won't have to fatten that one." So then we told Daddy, "Now
the next one you catch, we're gonna make him come in under his own power. We're
gonna lead him in. We're gonna put a chain on each side." And, "I'll let you
know," he says. But we never did bring in, never did have another bear to bring
in.
WIFE: He's got a lot of power, a bear has.
CRICKARD: I'll tell you now, you take one that's, weighs a hundred fifty
pounds, you've got a lot, even a little old bear cub that you can grab by the
back of the neck, come over you.
ALEX.: He was pretty rough to handle, was he?
CRICKARD: I caught a cub up there. I was fishing, and I had a navy revolver,
a thirty-two twenty, army special, maybe you've seen 'em. I had it in the
holster. Course, I had a license to carry a gun then. I was a deputy sheriff.
They had a strike up there, and I was a deputy. And we could carry guns. They'd
come up there, swore us in from Elkins. And I had this old gun strapped on me,
and I went fishing up this creek. It was a pretty good size run. I was fishing
along, and I seen way down below there the water was kinda muddy in a place or
two. Anyway, I kept slipping along the weeds, the weeds were about that high.
Kept slipping along, and finally I got to where you could see these little old
cubs coming out of the weeds, going out in the creek. Oh, they just worked like
thunder for about a minute, and then they'd just fly back into the weeds. I kept
slipping along, and finally got up to where I thought it was gonna come out. And
one come out, and I just grabbed him by the back of the neck and had my fishing
reel in the other hand, in my left hand. But I held onto that cub and it bawled.
Well, that old big she bear raised up, and she must've been nine foot tall.
Well, I just, I had soft-nosed bullets in my gun, and I just, bang, bang, bang,
and the old bear just dropped back down. Course, I seen when she dropped back
down, I just dropped the cub too. Didn't want any more cubs. And I thought my
gun didn't sound right, but I looked at it, and it was big, the barrel was as
big as my two thumbs. My brother had been out in Oregon, and he'd brought these
two army pistols, he'd had 'em out there, and he had bought 'em, and I'd got
one, and he give me a whole, about a half a sugar sack, five pound sugar sack
full of shells. But there wasn't a thing. The powder was dead, and just the
primer exploded, just forced the bullet out in the barrel. And I'd drove two
lives* ones in on that one, and that swelled the barrel. I still got that pistol
there. I had to send my pistol back to the Colt factory to get a new barrel put
on it. I'll tell you the difference in things. It cost me two dollars and
seventy-five cents, postage and everything, to get that rebarreled and
resalvaged. Now, it'd cost you twenty-five dollars.
ALEX.: At least.
CRICKARD: Yeah.
ALEX.: At least.
CRICKARD: I still got the gun, and I got the barrel. Well, I decided then
I'd get rid of all them shells after I sawed the pistol barrel off just with a
hack saw to cut it off. I made a short barrel gun out of it. So I come over
here, next to Mace there, set in the motor car, and shot at a tree down over a
big field there where they made a big field. I had about three or four dead ones
in the bunch that I had left. I must've had fifty shells. But you could just
take a lead pencil and run through the barrel, and it'd just come right out,
that bullet. It wasn't tight or anything in there, but you drive a live in on
it, and the barrel must have twenty- five cracks in it for it to work, swelled
and cracked. Well, I didn't want any cubs after I happened to look at my gun
barrel. I stuck it back in my holster, and went the other way. I didn't want any
cubs or older bears either. I went up there surveying, and I had a spaniel dog.
Well, he got awfully excited, and I didn't know what he was after, but he treed
some cubs down from the, up near the top of Bald Knob there. Anyway, I was
following and looking around and there's a path there through the woods. It was
an old log road, and I was looking. Here come this old bear, her mouth open,
slobbering. I didn't have anything but, stick something like a Jacob's staff.
But just about the time, she got in about ten or twelve feet to me, why the,
this spaniel come and, yank, grabbed her by the heels, and she turned around.
She forgot about me. I don't know what I'd have done. I'd have rammed that stick
down her throat or tried it. I was there at the fire tower and had gone down to
the cabin. The cabin was down near where they have the lookout there at that
time and well, when I went down.____ This ol' big bear, well when I went down
the tree was blazed, but when I came back there were strips of bark two or three
feet long she had peeled that tree. You ever see where a bear marked a tree?
They have trees where they mark. There at Bald Knob there are lots of old
markings. They bite those trees and they claim that the way they mark 'em. But
when I come back, hadn't been twenty minutes since I went down, why that tree
was peeled there. I didn't have a gun, but I decided that I didn't have to
otherwise I would have carried my gun with me.
WIFE: We went up there one night, and it was a good way. And I carried the
lantern, and I carried the guns.
CRICKARD: Yeah, I had you carrying the guns.
WIFE: And he had it food packed, and he'd kept it in a tree and we come the
next day.
CRICKARD: Carry so much each day and leave the rest. Put it up on a wire.
WIFE: We got up to the cabin, and I had this white* and I didn't know what,
here was this old bloody bear head tucked up over the door, and the man who had
gotten firewood had killed that bear. And he knew we were coming up there, snow
and cold so he put that old bear head over the door.
CRICKARD: Well, when that experience was better than what I had seen several
of them in the woods. They will use their last effort to get away from you
unless they've got cubs and then they're dangerous when they've got cubs if you
bother them. You get their cubs, and they will take it right out of your hands.
I decided that after I had had that experience that I didn't want any bears. I
wouldn't even kill one.
WIFE: Now they're protected.
CRICKARD: A bear will use its last effort to get away from you. I have
watched them in the woods back in that Big Run country that where the railroad
goes out to Bald Knob. Sat there and watched them feedin' on the weeds, you
know. Another fellow was with me, and I just went out on this high cliff, sit on
a log, and I hear something and directly it would come out from under the rocks
and it was feedin' down around there. I oftened found to be quiet and slip out
there watch that bear feed on nettles and other weeds oh, for several minutes,
I expect fifteen or twenty minutes. Well I, he had a stick he finally moved it
and touched the brush or weeds away from him and that bear must have jumped
twenty-five feet. I've never seen anything like that. Funny part I was goin' up
to Mace one night on my way I rode a railroad bicycle. I'd been home or
somewhere 'spect somewhere I'd, but anyway I rode right upon this bear on the
railroad track right up as close as that door jam there, and I couldn't get
stopped. The bear got off the track and took down over there and I could hear
him a goin' clear to the top of the mountain. Well, now that bear was scared
worse than I was.