WEBVTT - Ep. 94: The Big Bear of Arkansas 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:08.880 Yes, I have it. I'll give you an idea of 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:11.559 a hunt in which the greatest bar was killed that 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:17.120 ever lived, none excepted. On this episode, we're going to 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:21.680 explore an uncanny bear hunting story written in eighteen forty 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:25.360 one by a man from New York. I'd be surprised 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.560 if you've ever heard it, but its influence almost single 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:32.360 handedly branded estate and plowed a furrow from which some 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:36.320 of America's greatest Southern authors set root in a rose. 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:40.839 Its impact was more than significant. We'll talk about the 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:44.400 remarkable and pretty darned new to Planet Earth power of 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:48.640 media to influence our imaginations about people will never meet, 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:52.160 places will never go, and how it can influence who 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:55.280 we think we are, for better or worse. It seems 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:58.360 we're putty in the hands of the creative storytellers of 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.400 our time. I got a three pack of some of 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:05.600 the greatest guests known west of the Mighty Mississippi, renowned 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:10.840 Ozark historian and author doctor Brooks Blevins, University of Arkansas 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:14.759 folkloris doctor Bob Cochrane, and like a hickory nut between 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:19.160 two acorns, meat eaters own Stephen Ranella. We're about to 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:23.120 dive in deep into a story called The Big Bear 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:27.760 of Arkansas, one of my personal favorite stories of all time. 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:31.600 And if you're a bear greezer at heart, I really 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:34.839 doubt you're gonna want to miss this one. I'm very 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:37.480 slow now to say, you know, just sort of with 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:42.000 tremendous confidence, there is no realm that that's out there 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.520 that I simply can't access. I think this is one 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.360 of the great things about the story. This good is 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:51.640 it makes us aware of that. And so across two 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:54.919 hundred years, you know, I can stand in that guy's shoes, 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:56.880 I can stand in the bear hunter shoes. I've had 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:01.120 experiences that are uncanny. Do not live in a world 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:12.040 did I fully understand? My name is Clay Nukeam, and 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.799 this is the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:20.520 forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, and 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:24.239 where we'll tell the story of Americans who live their 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:29.040 lives close to the land. Presented by f HF Gear 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:34.239 American Maid, purpose built hunting and fishing gear as designed 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.000 to be as rugged as the place as we explore. 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:50.240 A steamboat on the Mississippi frequently and making her regular 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:54.280 trips carries between places varying from one to two thousand 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:58.000 miles apart, and as these boats advertised to land passengers 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:02.720 and freight at all intermediate dings, the heterogeneous character of 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:06.000 the passengers of one of these upcountry boats can scarcely 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:08.400 be imagined by one who's never seen it with his 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.760 own eyes. Starting from New Orleans and one of these boats, 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.760 you'll find yourself associated with men from every state of 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.560 the Union and from every portion of the globe. And 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.639 a man of observation need not lack for amusement or 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.280 instruction in such a crowd, if he will take the 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:26.480 trouble to read the great book of characters so favorably 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:30.200 open before him. Here may be seen Joscelyn, together the 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.760 wealthy Southern planter and the peddler of tinware from New England, 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:37.560 the Northern merchant and the Southern jockey, a venerable bishop 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.880 and a desperate gambler, the land speculator and the honest farmer, 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:47.880 the professional men of all creeds and characters, wolverines, suckers, hoosiers, buckeyes, 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:52.440 corn crackers, and besides a plentiful sprinkling of the half horse, 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:56.840 half alligator species of men who are peculiar to old Mississippi, 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.200 and who appear to gain a livelihood simply by going 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.680 up and down the river in pursuit of pleasure or business. 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:11.760 I have frequently found myself in such a crowd. In 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:15.160 the beginning of our story, the listener finds himself on 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:19.080 a Mississippi riverboat headed north out of New Orleans. This 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:23.039 wasn't America's first riverboat tail, but it was close, and 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.760 the cultural atmospherics were beyond interesting to people in the 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:31.599 East hungry for tales of frontier life. The regions west 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.599 of the Mississippi were mysterious and in some ways a 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:38.600 blank slate to Americans. But nothing on this planet can 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:42.080 sit long without being labeled. Like a cockle bird of 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:46.919 cotton riches, identity has barbs and attaches itself and won't 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:50.320 let go. But no one knew how much these early 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:54.520 stories would stick. We're reading a story called The Big 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.640 Bear of Arkansas, written in eighteen forty one by a 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:02.360 New Yorker named Thomas bangs Or, who moved to Baton Rouge, 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:06.240 Louisiana in eighteen thirty seven for health reasons. He was 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:08.920 a painter and an author known for his ability to 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:12.240 describe nature, and even though he was new to the South, 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.960 he was enamored with folk speech and was gifted at 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:20.240 capturing the dialect of his subjects. The Big Bear Story 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:24.719 would become the greatest by far story of this genre 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:29.640 of writing called Southwest humor. Later will learn how influential 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:33.800 it was on the young state Arkansas. And yep, I 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:38.280 am foreshadowing. Do y'all remember when that iTunes reviewer said 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:42.799 I foreshadowed too much? In this first section, Thorpe used 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.719 colorful phrases to describe the men of the Mississippi River Valley, 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.680 one that had been heard before, spoken by none other 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:55.600 than David Crockett himself. While passing through Arkansas in eighteen 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:58.360 thirty five, he said at a public speech in Little 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.880 Rock that was recorded in a newspaper, he said, if 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:04.840 I could rest anywhere, it would be in Arkansas, where 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.119 the men are the real half horse half alligator breed 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:10.800 such as grows nowhere else on the face of the 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:17.720 universal earth. It's interesting that Thorpe used Crockett's exact words. Anyway, 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:21.599 We're about to be back on the riverboat, and our narrator, 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.000 an anonymous city slicker from New Orleans, is about to 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:34.559 introduce us to an interesting character. While I was thus 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:38.560 busily employed in reading, and my companions were more busily 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:42.279 still employed in discussing such subjects as suited their humor's best, 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:47.200 we were startled most unexpectedly by loud Indian whoop uttered 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:49.599 in the social hall, and that part of the cabin 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.159 fitted off for a bar. Then was to be heard 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.040 a loud crowing, which would not have continued to have 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.880 interested us, such sounds, being quite common in that place 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:02.800 of spirits, alcohol had not The hero of these windy 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.839 accomplishments stuck his head into the cabin and hallooed out 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:11.000 Hurrah for the Big Bear of Arkansas, and then might 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:15.720 be heard a confused hum of voices. This continued interruption 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:20.520 attracted the attention of everyone in the cabin. All conversation dropped, 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.360 and in the midst of this surprise, the big bar 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.120 walked into the cabin, took a chair, put his feet 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:29.119 up on the stove, looking back over his shoulder past 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.240 the general and familiar salute of strangers, how are you? 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:36.640 He then expressed himself at home as much as if 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.280 he had been in the forks of the Cypress, and 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.520 perhaps a little more so. Some of the company at 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:46.720 this familiarity looked a little angry and some astonished, But 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.120 in a moment every face was read and a smile. 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.440 There was something about the intruder that won the heart. 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:57.200 On sight, he appeared to be a man enjoined perfect 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.920 health and contentment. His eyes were a spark Lena's diamonds, 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:05.720 and good natured to simplicity. Then his perfect confidence in 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:12.920 himself was irresistibly droll. The word droll means curious or 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.760 unusual in a way that provokes dry amusement. I had 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:18.920 to look that up. This writing is now over one 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.800 hundred and eighty years old, and I find myself lost 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:25.840 at times, but by the next sentence I'm usually understanding again. 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.440 You might be the same. The author is setting the 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:32.080 context for our story. The riverboat is full of strangers 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.480 from all over the country. When a loud, charismatic, and 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.920 unusually likable man enters the cabin, introducing himself as the 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:44.000 Big Bar of Arkansas. The author spells the word like 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:47.760 he wants us to say. It be a r pronounced 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.400 like an iron bar with a little more belly in 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:54.120 it bar. Many in the South still say it this 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:58.600 way today. Later we'll learn that our storyteller's given name 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.559 is Jim Doggett. He goes on to tell a story 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.480 about killing a forty pound turkey and how planting corn 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.400 in Arkansas is dangerous because he once had a soal 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:11.319 hog fall asleep on some corn seed and the percussion 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:15.280 of its sprouting killed her. He then says, I don't 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:19.440 plan anymore. Nature intended Arkansas for a hunting ground, and 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:24.480 I go according to nature. A passenger then asked, in disbelief, 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:30.280 where did all this happen? Again, here's dogged Where did 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:34.680 all that happened? Ask to cynical Hoosier, happen. It happened 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:38.200 in Arkansas. Where else could it have happened? But in 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.920 the creation state the finishing up country. A state where 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:44.560 the soil runs deep to the center of the earth, 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.240 and the government gives you a title to every inch 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.640 of it. Then it's airs. Just breathe them and they'll 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:53.080 make you a snort like a horse. It's a state 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:59.520 without thought. It is dog it. The Big bar describes Arkansas, 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:02.520 which he spells with a W at the end, as 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:07.160 a state without thought, the creation state, the finishing up country. 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.280 Its meaning is a complete mystery. But it's clear he 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:16.080 knows something we don't. The descriptor is clearly spiritual, almost 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:19.160 as if God created Arkansas first and the rest of 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:23.240 the world resulted from its wake. Americans on the frontier 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:26.880 were heavily influenced by Native Americans, and this was particularly 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.840 strong in the Mississippi River Delta region of eastern Arkansas, 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.400 where the fictional character dog It lived. Many tribes had 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:36.880 site specific religions and believed their homelands to be the 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:41.000 center of the world. I'm speculating, but dog It's doctrine 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:45.679 doesn't mesh with Western religious doctrine. Arkansas became a state 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:48.959 in eighteen thirty six, just five years prior to this writing. 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:53.000 Some of the first reporting of the Arkansas territory going 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.719 back to America was in the eighteen twenties from a 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:58.520 dad gum New York Yankee, and I'm not talking about 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:02.920 a baseball player, but a real Yankee named Henry Rose Schoolcraft, 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:07.160 who despised the people he met here and spoke extremely 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:12.679 critical of their backwards, grubby, crude Frontier lives to this day, 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:17.800 Schoolcraft's demeaning accounts still sting a little. It's interesting that 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:21.120 Thorpe chose for his fictional character dogg It to be 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:25.040 so certain that this Arkansas spelled with a W was 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.559 a place without fault. We're gonna learn that they were 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.640 actually making fun of us, and this could easily be 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:35.320 traced to a trend in the twentieth century. And I'm 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:38.920 saying us because I'll have you know that my great 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:44.640 great great great grandfather, Thomas James Newcomb came to Arkansas 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:48.400 via Kentucky in the early eighteen thirties, So this whole 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:52.920 thing is close to home for me. Back to our story, 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.439 the New Orleans traveler has now heard the big bar 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:00.760 mentioned bears, so he asked if he hunts them and dog. 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.679 It quickly brings up his two favorite things, his gun 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:08.959 and his dog. The way I hunt them. The old 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.559 black rascals know the crack of my gun as well 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.440 as they know a pig squealing. They grow thin in 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.520 our parts. It frightens them so, and they do take 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.959 the noise dreadfully, poor things. That gun of mine is 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.839 an epidemic among bar If not watched closely, it will 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.200 go off as quick on a warm scent as my 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:31.080 dog boy knife will. And then that dog, whoa why 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:33.520 the fella thinks that the world is full of Barry 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.439 finds them so easy. It's lucky he don't talk as 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.360 well as think, for with his natural modesty, if he 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:42.160 should suddenly learn how much he is acknowledged to be 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:45.280 ahead of all other dogs in the universe, he would 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:49.080 be astonished to death in two minutes, strangers. That dog 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:51.480 knows a bar's way as well as a horse jockey 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:54.880 knows a woman's. He always barks at the right time, 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.800 bites at the exact place, and whips without getting a scratch. 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:02.000 I never could tell whether he was made expressly to 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.760 hunt bar or whether a bar was made expressly for 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:10.000 him to hunt. I hope you're beginning to hear the 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:13.719 colorful way dog it speaks. What made this story so 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:18.840 famous was the brilliant dialect capture by Thorpe Doget's dog 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.400 bowie knife was so good. It isn't clear whether he 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:25.439 was made to hunt bear or the bear was made 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:28.480 for him to hunt. What a brilliant thought. This man 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:32.040 was a genius. The Big Bar was a larger than 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:36.439 life character, articulate and opinionated. He proclaims his gun is 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:40.400 an epidemic amongst bears and Bowie Knife, who is naturally 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.160 modest but is the best bear dog on planet Earth, 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:48.160 is kept humble only because he can't talk with his verboseness. 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.360 The big bar is setting himself up to be one 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.760 of those most interesting men in the world characters. The 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.400 passengers are mesmerized and shocked at the life he's revealing, 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.800 one that is more complex and interesting than their own. 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.880 And I haven't even mentioned the wildly risque and suggestive 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:08.840 horse jockey metaphor. We'll talk about this in a minute 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:12.920 with Doctor Cochrane. Now, our narrator asked dog It for 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:17.680 a bar hunting story in this manner, The evening was spent, 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:21.520 but conscious that my own association with so singular a 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:24.760 personage would probably end before the morning, I asked him 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:26.800 if he would not give me a description of some 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.200 particular bear hunt, adding that I took great interest in 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:34.280 such things, though I was no sportsman. The desire seemed 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.360 to please him, and he squared himself round towards me, 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:40.080 saying that he could give me an idea of a 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.840 bar hunt that was never beat in this world or 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.920 in any other. His manner was so singular that half 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.960 of his story consisted in his excellent way of telling it, 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:53.200 the great peculiarity of which was the happy manner he 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:57.040 had of emphasizing the prominent parts of his conversation. As 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.080 near as I can recollect, I have italicized them and 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.880 given the story in his own words. Stranger he said, 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.800 in bar hunts, I am numerous, and which particular one, 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:10.560 as I say to you, I shall tell, puzzles me. 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:12.920 There was an old she devil I shot at the 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:15.520 hurricane last fall, and then there was the old hog 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:19.400 thief I've popped over at the bloody crossing. And then, yes, 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:22.400 I have it. I'll give you an idea of a 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.840 hunt in which the greatest bar was killed that ever lived. 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:32.360 None accepted. Our New Orleans narrator includes how striking the 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:35.680 delivery of the story was. You can feel the intensity 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:39.520 and passion of the big bar. This is a fictional story, 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:43.000 but it's clear our author Thorpe had heard men like 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:47.760 this before. Doggett is an exaggerated caricature of the half horse, 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.360 half alligator men that Crockett met here. This was the 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:56.080 early stages of the Southern storyteller speaking in dialect being 0:15:56.240 --> 0:16:00.840 exported to broader America, which will learn would be highly 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:05.640 interested in for centuries to come. Some would laugh, some 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.400 were endeared to these people. Some would see them as 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:12.560 sensational and simple minded, crude and grotesque, and some love 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.800 to just have someone to sneer down their noses at. 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.800 Whatever the reason, America couldn't get enough of the Southern voice, 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:23.840 the big bar dog. It is now going to tell 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.560 us about the greatest bar that ever lived, none excepted 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.320 well stranger. The first chase I ever had with that 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:37.800 big critter, I saw him no less than three distinct 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:40.680 times at a distance. The dogs would run him over 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.640 eighteen miles and broke down, and my horse gave out, 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:45.920 and I was nearly as used up as a man 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:50.280 could be made by my principle, which is patent. Before 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:53.640 this adventure, such things were unknown to me to be possible. 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:57.120 But strange as it was, that bear got me used 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.160 to it before I was done with him, For he 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:01.800 got so at lass that he would leave me on 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:05.119 a long chase quite easily. How he did it, I 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.880 never could understand that a bar runs at all is puzzling. 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:11.560 But how this one could tire down and bust up 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:13.840 a pack of hounds and a horse that were used 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:17.920 to overhauling everything they started after no time was past 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:22.400 my understanding. Well stranger, that bar finally got so sassy 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:24.680 that he used to help himself to a hog off 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:28.200 my premises whenever he wanted. The buzzards followed after what 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:31.200 he left. And so between that bar and the buzzard, 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:35.760 I'd rather think I was out of pork dog it. 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:38.720 Like any good storyteller, is setting us up with the 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.480 backstory of his hunt for a bear that will learn 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:45.680 is unhuntable. Things had gotten personal, as this sassy bear 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.800 was still in pigs and could mysteriously outrun his hounds. 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:53.680 And horse horses and hunting dogs are big thing down here, 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:57.040 and his desire to kill this bear starts to effect 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:01.080 his health, and agger is slang for the ague, which 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:06.280 is like malaria. Well, missing that bar so often took 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.280 hold of my vitals, and I was wasted away. The 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:11.960 thing had been carried too far and reduced me in 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.280 flesh faster than an agar. And I would see that 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:19.520 bar and everything I did he hunted me, and that too, 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:22.159 like a devil, which I began to think he was. 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:25.400 While in this fix, I made preparations to give him 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.320 a last brush and to be done with it, having 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:32.520 completed everything. To my satisfaction, I started at sunrise, and 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:35.280 to my great joy, I discovered from the way the 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:38.240 dogs ran that they were near him. Finding his trail 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:40.679 was nothing, for that had become as plain to the 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:44.200 pack as a turnpike road. On we went, and coming 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:46.439 to an open country, what should I see but the 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.399 bar very leisurely ascending a hill, and the dogs close 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:53.160 at his hills, either a match for him this time 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:55.880 and speed, or else he did not care to get 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.000 out of their way. I do not know which, But 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.720 wasn't he a beauty? Though I loved him like a brother? 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.080 In my opinion, this is one of the greatest moments 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:10.440 in American literature. Dog it seizes the bear with bay 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:13.640 and hounds surrounding him. He can't tell if the dogs 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:16.200 had him hemmed up and caught, or if the beast 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:19.280 just didn't care that they were there, but he declares, 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:22.760 wasn't he a beauty? Though I loved him like a brother. 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:25.879 You'll hear me and Steve Vernella talk about this later, 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:30.399 but Thorpe's insight seems beyond his time. This is also 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:33.399 when the reader begins to see that the big bear 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:37.960 of Arkansas is more than an uncultured barbarian. The hunt 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:49.119 continues on he went until he came to a tree, 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:51.639 the limbs of which formed a crotch, about six feet 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:54.840 from the ground. In the crotch he got and seated himself, 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:57.680 and the dogs were yelling all around it. And there 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:00.280 he sat I and them as quiet as a bond 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.159 and low water. A green horned friend of mine and 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.840 company reached shooting distance before me and blazed away, hitting 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:09.400 the critter in the center of the forehead. The bar 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:11.640 shook his head as the ball struck it, and then 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:15.040 walked down from that tree as gently as a lady 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:18.200 would from a carriage. Twas a beautiful sight to see 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:20.920 him do that. He was in such a rage that 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.480 he seemed to be as little afraid of the dogs 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:26.479 as if they had been suckling pigs. And the dogs 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:28.879 weren't slow and making a ring around him at a 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:33.119 respectful distance. I tell you, even Bowie Knife himself stood 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:36.919 off then the way his eyes flashed while the fire 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:40.000 of them would have singed a cat's hair. In fact, 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:43.720 that bar was in a wrath all over. Only one 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:46.000 pup came near him, and he was brushed out so 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:50.399 to tally with the bears left Paul that he entirely disappeared, 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:53.679 and that made the old dogs even more cautious. Still, 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:57.440 in the meantime, I came up and taking deliberate aim, 0:20:57.480 --> 0:20:59.679 as a man should do, at his side, just as 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:02.360 the back of the fore leg. If my gun did 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:05.360 not snap, call me a coward, and I won't take 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:09.080 it personal. Yes, Stranger, it snapped, and I could not 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:14.840 find a cap about my person. His eyes flashed with 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:17.520 such fire it would have scorched a cap. And we 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.120 now see that this is no ordinary bear. He swatted 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:24.840 a dog and it vanished, and this veteran hunter's muzzloader 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:28.360 popped a cap, meaning it didn't fire. But now he's 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:30.960 beginning to plan for his final hunt, and if he 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.600 doesn't kill it, he's leaving Arkansas. Or maybe he'll be dead, 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:42.240 it's unclear. Then I told my neighbors on that Monday morning, 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.119 naming the day, that I would start that bar and 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.600 bring him home with me, or they might divide my 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:52.080 settlement among them, the owner having disappeared, well, Stranger. On 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:55.440 that morning previous to the great day of my hunting expedition, 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.040 I went into the woods near my house, taking my 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:01.440 gun and bowie knife along just from habit, and they're 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:05.160 sitting down also from habit. What should I see getting 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:08.840 over my fence but the bar. Yes, the old varmint 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:11.480 was within a hundred yards of me, and the way 0:22:11.520 --> 0:22:15.359 he walked over that fence stranger. He loomed up like 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:18.520 a black mist, and he seemed so large. He walked 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:23.119 right towards me. I raised myself, took deliberate aim, and 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:28.320 fired instantly. The varmint wheeled and gave yale and walked 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:31.720 through the fence like a fallen tree wood through a cobweb. 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:36.080 I started after, but was tripped up by my inexpressibles, 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:38.719 which either from habit or the excitement of the moment, 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:42.080 where about my heels. And before I had really gathered 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:45.159 myself up, I heard the old varmint groaning in a 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:48.480 thicket nearby like a thousand centers, And by the time 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:54.600 I reached him, he was a corpse. Stranger. It took 0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:57.480 five men and myself to put that carcass on a 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:01.399 mule's back, and old long airs waddled under his load, 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:04.280 and if he was foundered in every leg of his body, 0:23:04.440 --> 0:23:06.880 and with a common whopper of a bar, he would 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:10.720 have trotted off and enjoyed himself. Wouldn't astonish you to 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:13.840 know how big he was. I made a bedspread of 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:16.040 his skin, and the way it used to cover my 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:19.240 bar mattress and leave several feet on each side to 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:22.879 tuck up would have delighted you. It was, in fact 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:26.720 a creation bar, and if it had lived in Sampson's time, 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:29.359 and if it had met him in a fair fight, 0:23:29.800 --> 0:23:31.760 it would have licked him in the twinkling of a 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:35.280 dice box. But stranger, I never liked the way I 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:39.320 hunted him and missed him. There's something curious about it. 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:43.000 I never could understand, and I never was satisfied at 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:46.840 his given in so easily at last. Perhaps he had 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:49.320 heard of my preparations to hunt him the next day, 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:52.600 so he'd just come in like Captain Scott's coon, to 0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:55.520 save his win, to grunt with and dying, But that 0:23:55.600 --> 0:23:59.720 ain't likely. My private opinion is that the bar was 0:23:59.760 --> 0:24:03.320 an unhuntable bar and died when its time had come. 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:12.600 The bear was growning like a thousand centers. I'm impressed 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:15.119 that thorpe knew that a black bear is one of 0:24:15.119 --> 0:24:17.439 the few animals that we hunt on the planet that 0:24:17.520 --> 0:24:20.640 has a death moan. A double lung shot bear one 0:24:20.680 --> 0:24:24.920 that dies quickly will often give a loud, sometimes spooky, 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:29.280 elongated groan that can be heard at great distance. I'm 0:24:29.320 --> 0:24:32.959 talking like a couple hundred yards. It usually lasts longer 0:24:32.960 --> 0:24:35.200 than you think it should, and it's a sure sign 0:24:35.240 --> 0:24:37.960 of the bear's death. For a bear hunter, it's a 0:24:38.080 --> 0:24:42.159 bewildering moment of internal conflict, as the excitement of certain 0:24:42.240 --> 0:24:47.240 success wars with a sobriety delivered by the beast's grandstanding 0:24:47.400 --> 0:24:52.639 auditory expression of death. Both feelings are usually of equal measure. 0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:56.840