THE EDITOR AND THE BEAR.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 435, 17 April 1875, Page 3

THE EDITOR AND THE BEAR.

It is a notorious fact that itinerant circus companies pay very poorly, and that the man who does not get his money in advance is not likely to get it at all. Col. Bangs of the "Argus," has suffered a good deal from these concerns, and when the "Great European Circus and Metropolitan Caravan " tried to slip off" the other day without settling its advertising bill, he called upon the sheriff and got him to attach the "Rocky Mountain bear for the debt. The bear was brought in its cage and placed in the composing room, where it consumed two dollars' worth of meat in two days (the Colonel's bill was only twelve dols.) and scratched <me trousers leg off the reporter who was standing in front of the cage giving the foreman a lecture on zoology. On the third day the bottom fell out pf the cage, and as the Rocky Mountain bear seeded to want to roam around and inquire into tilings, the whole force of compositors all at once felt as if they ought to go suddenly and give the animal a chance. With that mysterious instinct which distinguishes dumb animals, and which goes far to prove that they have souls, the bear went at once to the door of Bang's sanctum, and it broke in just as the Colonel was in the middle of a tearing editorial upon " Third Term and our tendencies towards Cwsarism." The Colonel, however, did not hesitate to knock off. He stopped at once, and emerged with a fine airy grace through the window, bringing the sash with him, and then he climbed up the water spout to the roof, where he sat until a hook and ladder company came and took him off. The " Argus " did not issue for a week, for although the Colonel bombarded that bear with shot guns pointed through the window, and although the fire-engine squirted water at him, he always got along very comfortably until Saturday night, wheji he tried to swallow a compos-ing-stick and choked to death. When they entered the room they found that the animal had upset all the type, and had soaked himself in ink and then rolled over every square inch of the floor, while the Colonel's leader on the "Third Term" was saturated with water and perforated with shot holes. After this, circus advertisements in the " Argus " will be paid in advance. — " Danbury News."