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From: "Maggie" <>
Subject: Re: Germans-to-Phila Bear loose in Mt. Airy
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:39:29 -0700
References: <BAY107-W78B87BADFA963FC03FF23C6FD0@phx.gbl>


Marvelous ! ! ! ! !

Maggie


----- Original Message -----
From: "Eugene Stackhouse" <>
To: "dtzouras" <>; "yahoo, allaboutphilly" <>;
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Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 3:07 PM
Subject: Germans-to-Phila Bear loose in Mt. Airy



>From the Evening Telegraph, May 9, 1908
BEAR LOOSE IN MOUNT AIRY
Bruin, Teased by Boys, Broke Leash and is at Large
Perhaps his name was Pietro, no one knows and apparently no one cares. Anyway the man was an
Italian, and he was going up Germantown avenue with his dancing bear, and all went well until Mt.
Airy avenue was reached. Here a crowd of boys spied the man and his bear, which was a black bear and
perfectly harmless, unless aroused. The boys were mischievous and began to pelt the foreigner and
his bear, but they did not reckon rightly, for when a missile lodged behind the ear of Mr. Bruin he
snorted, and with a mighty tug he freed himself from his owner’s grasp.
The boys saw the shaggy animal make his escape, and speedily the preceded to do likewise as
expeditiously as possible. Over fences and in and about every street went the lads, with the bear in
hot pursuit. The tormenters did escape all right and when the bear saw this he started on a rampage,
with his owner in hot pursuit. He first confined his uninvited visits to the vicinity of Mt. Airy
and Germantown avenues, and after he had frightened the residents of this section of Chestnut Hill
and given them the fright of their lives, he wended his way toward Mt. Pleasant avenue, stopping
here and there to drop in on a family who, on the approach of the shaggy visitor, fled
precipitately.
About this time the telephone bells in the police stations at Germantown and Chestnut Hill began to
ring.
“Oh, please send someone to my home quick, there is a bear going to kill us,” was the way the house
sergeants got it and under the circumstances they did the best they could by sending a detail to
look up Mr. Bruin. However, this did not stop the telephone bell from jingling, and it fell to thr
lot of the dog watch to quiet the alarm of those who sought refuge in appealing to the police.
The police detail went forth looking for the shaggy bear that had created so much disturbance and
caused the residents of Chestnut Hill and Mt. Airy to flee from their homes at the approach of the
animal. The last seen of the bluecoats they were dodging in and about Chestnut Hill avenue looking
for the bear that is somewhere in that vicinity but just where is not known at least not to the
police or to Pietro, who is searching high and lowlands out Germantown avenue looking for his
dancing bear, and vowing vengeance on the boys that started the racket. Gene
Stackhouse,Historian and Genealogist and Judge of Fine Beer,
if any problems please email me at
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