Document text
Forms to be Filled out for Eacn Interview
FORM A.
Circumstances of Interview
SATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Earl E'owran
ADDRESS 86 7est 12th St. 1\ew York Uity
DATE January 19, 1939
SUBJECT "OLD KLYST:ia A DRIZZLY"
=LE SIE-:E 1-10R16C1.: TORY.
1. Date and time c interview
2. Place of interview
3. Name and address of informant Harry fLeece (Dace.)
63 WasIlf.nL,ton Sc. So. R. Y. C.
1/14 /39
4. Name and address of person, if any, wno put you in
touch with informant.
(See previous interviews)
5. Name and address of person, if any, aceowpanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
FORM C
Text of Intervinw (Unedited)
STATE NE7 YORK
N!:.NrE OF WORKER EARL BOWMAN
ADDRESS 86 7:',est 12th St. raw York City
DATE January 19, 1939
SUBJECT "OLD HAYSTACK MS A GRIZZLY"
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
My Uncle Steve Robertson who was a ioneer with a great deal of
experience in the Far 'iest in the very early days indeed, often remarked that
...any daned ran who tells a bear story, or I-Gawd, for that matter a fish
story, is danged nigh sure to be a cussed 'xeggeraterthat stretches th' truth
till she snaps and flies back and hits him in his darned fac9,and I-gosh,that's
something that jest ain't fit to be endured-- I mean a damned 'xeggeraterl"
But on one occasion my Uncle Steve yielded to temptation and t old
about "Old Haystack and "Old Haystack" was a bear.
77e were h.inting deer in the i=lack Lake country up in the Seven Devils
mountains of Western Idaho, and one evening after supper I suggested to uncle Steve
that it would give me a lot of pleasure to shoot a bear or two while we were
up there in the high hills.
Uncle Steve lcoked at me with the sort of pitying expression that
Pioneers of the Far West of the early days often look at young men who have
not had very much experience as "pioneers" and told me about "Old Haystack"....
I..Gawd, I figeer it depends a hell of a lot on what kind of bear you
shoot --and what you shobt him with -whether or not there's any "pleasure" in
shootin' him," Uncle Steve said.
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Probably it wouldn't he so damncd much pleasure to shoot a bear like,
woll, hell, like "Old Haystack" was, for instance. Old Hyrystack Was a grizzly
an ,cb and me called him "old aystack" 'cause he was as )-ig as a darned
haystack --although mebbe, to be plumb truthful an' accurate, they might be some
haystacks bi_ger'n he was, but damned if us pionesrs had any haystacks that was
any bigger. Actually it wusr't cob or me that named him "Old Haystack", but it
was Lam --she was wife --that named him that.
Yam looked out of the winder one day jest as Cob and me was sittine
down to dinner when we was livin' down in Salubria Valley and she yelled to Fob
and me: "Bob, you and Steve come here quick an' look over yonder across the
river.., a cussed grizzly bear as big as a doggone haystack is carryineroff
that two-year old heifer of "Old Blossom's" that we was figEerinl cn havine
for a neyr cow-- Fer God's sake, Steve--Bob--git yer guns an' do somethin:"
I -Gaud, Main was right. There was tht biggest grizzly that ever lived,
I reckon, draggin' off that six -or -seven -hundred pound heifer jest like a hound
dog would pack a rabbit its caught.
"Gawd-a-mightl" cob, yelled, "they ain't no gun biz enough to kill a
bear that si2,e--leastwise, no gun littler than a damned cannon an' we ain't
got no cannons around here, so 1 reckon we'll jest have to let him co:"
So that's what we done. -e jest let him co that
time.
But that was jest the start. "Old Haystack" had found out where
toEt meat cheap an' easy and in three or four days he showed up again and that
time he got a mule --it was "Old Yaller", the same one that was hit by the gila
monster oncet and was still a little stiff in his leg that was bit...but a
damne d gri zzl y that's big enough to drag off a mule, even one that' s been b it
by a gila monster, has got to b e a hell of a big grizzly as anybody that knows
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anything about mules and grizzies ought to know without bein told.
Then, I-Gawd, before long he showed up again and got another two-
year old, but it was a steer that time and not a heifer.
By that time Mam was zittin1 pretty darned impatient and wouldn't
hardily let Bob or me neither have a minute's peace but kept naggin' us to
"fer God's sake do somethin' before that cussed grizzly got tire of mule and
beef meat and carried her or Bob or some of us offt"
Bob and me finally talked it over 'n1 Bob said: "Steve, I'll
be damned if I know what to do about Old Haystack. You know cussed well that
even my old Sharp's 45-120 wouldn't even make a impression on him-- Hell, no,
it wouldn't make any more impression on him that it would on a cussed elephant,
and your Springfield wouldn't neithr--so what th' hell we goin' to do about it?
You'll have to figger out something, Steve, that's all they is to it," Bob said.
That's th' way us Pioneers always had to do, some one or other of us
always had to jest figger things like Old Haystack ant how to git rid of him
out, and me bein' theest figzerer I always had to do it for Bob and Yam and
me. ut I went to work on it and I fig-ered an' figgered until I didn't
hardly sleep at nights, clst tryin' to figger out what to do about Old Haystack
'cause I knowed if he kept on comin1 he'd finally git tired of mules and calves
and so forth and was jest as apt x as not to git Bob or Mam or me some night
for by then he was gittin' so he'd cone around at night as well as in the day time.
I knowed damned well that jest shootin' him wouldn't do much good
probably jest make him mad for a little while but it couldn't possibly kill him.
So, I didn't know what th' hell to do. But I finally realized that if 'could
jest figger out some scheme to make it damned uncomfortable when he come around
that neighborhood maybe he'd zit disguested and quit comm' aroundthere.
So that's what Imas doin1 one night after Bob an' Main had gone to bed
and Iles settin' there by th' fireTlace, danged near zittin th' headache worryin1
-4
about how th' hell I could make that damned grizzly so uncomfortable th'
next tire he come around that he wouldn't want to come around any more. All
of a sudden I happened to glance up at the mantle over the fireplace and saw a
half -gallon fruit jar clanged near full of carpet tacks Mam had brung out from
Arkansas when we'd migrated outwest--thinkin, that some day maybe she could
make a rag carpet, an' if she did, she'd have the tacks handy to tack it down
with...
I-Gawd, them tacks was ry inspiration!
I figgered that no damned bear had ever been shot with carpet tacks
and if one was shot with them he'd be so surprised and so cussed uncomfortable
that it would probably distust him with the neighborhood where he was shot
with 'em, and moreln likely he'd stay away from that neighborhood after that...
So, that's what I done, I-Gawd.
I jest pouredabout a pound and a
half of powder into my old muzzle-loadin' shot gun and then dumped danged nigh
that whole half gallon jar of carpet tacks in on top of it...tamped them dawn
ant set there waitin'. I figgered it wasn't any use makin' Mart and Bob up to
tell 'em what 'was plannin' on doin', ant if I done it they'd wake up anyhow
when th' old gun went off.
Well, I set there for about a hour--mebbe to be plumb accurate it was
a hour an' a half --but anyhow about that long, an' I-Gawd, th' first thing I
knawed I heard Old Haystack trompin' around out there by the corral where th'
caws was kept...he was figgerin' on beef that ni ht, I reckon.
So I slipped out an' it was a moonlight night and shore enough there
he was about twenty yards from th' house, jest startin to yank a couple of
poles off th' corral so he could go in an' git a heifer or maybe even a caw...
That was all I wanted to see. I jest poked that old muzzle-loadin' shot gun
that was about half full of carpet tacks in his direction an' pulled th'
trigger...
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That was the worst surprised damned grizzly bear anybody ever sami
Them tacks jest tacked his cussed hide right down on his belly before he knowed
what hit him —an' they must have been uncomfortable as hell for he let out a
roar that waked Bob and 1,a1/1 and soared hell out of the mules and cows, and then
he started on a gallop for SOMB place else—runnin' his damndest, and that's
the last we ever saw of Old Haystack... So that's the way it was. And as far
as I know, I-Gawd, he's still runnin' and never wills
Yeah, us Pioneers in the :-ar 1.:est in the early days shore as hell
had lots of things to figg-er out --but somehow or other we always managed to
dot it....
My Uncle Steve Robertson was very careful to be accurate in his
yarns and 'despised anybody that' xe&serated which anybody was almost
certain to do if they told bear stories —so perhaps that's why "Old Haystack"
wasthe only bear story he ever told to me."