Weisbrod and Hess, The Hunters

 

HAIRBREADTH ESCAPE

        George Weisbrod, Sr. and Christian Hess, who have just returned from their game preserve in the wilds of Pike County, had enough adventures with bears and other ferocious animals to fill a big book. Both men are enthusiastic hunters, and in the midst of a blinding snow storm that swept over Pike County last week, started out to do a little gunning.

       The ravines and passes were filled with snow, and after tramping around all day they lit their camp fire by the side of a high bluff. A couple of deer they had killed were soon roasting over the blaze, and the tired hunters were just ready to begin eating when they were startled by a crackling of twigs and boughs and in almost a twinkling twenty huge black bears were right in their midst. On the instant Weisbrod and Hess seized their Winchesters and blazed away. Both men are dead shots and two bears at once fell with bullets in their hearts.

       Seeing two of their number dead, the survivors stopped fighting over the half cooked deer and directed their attack against the hunters. Their angry howls brought twenty more bears to the scene, and Weisbrod and Hess were obliged to seek the top of the bluff, where they could fire with better effect. With howls of rage the bears began to swarm around them, and a battle for life began. The bears made furious rushes, and at times the men were forced to use their rifles as clubs. Seizing one big bear, Mr. Weisbroad, who is a powerful man, threw it into an adjoining ravine. As fast as they could throw cartridges into their guns the men fired, and it was not until daylight that the battle was ended by the bears taking flight, after twenty-six of their number lay dead. One giant animal, measuring seven feet and weighing 600 pounds, Mr. Weisbrod killed with his bowie knife in a hand-to-hand encounter. All the dead bears were taken yesterday to Amber and Adams streets, where they will be stuffed and mounted as mementoes of a night that both men will never forget.

-as reported in The Daily Republican, 1906