Evening Star Newspaper, March 5, 1922, Page 57

FICTION Part 4—8 Pages WASHINGTON, D. C., SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 5, 1922 Famed Naturalist Lives on Mountain Peak Among Wild Animals HAT animalis the most dan- gerous to human beings if cornered? When this ques- tion was put to Enos A. Mills, famous naturalist and wild ani- mal stalker, The Star representative expected to hear, perhaps, one of the following answers: “A lion, a grizzly bear or a wild cat. It is generally admitted that Mr. MiHs' knowledge of animal life is ex- pert and profuse, and his opinion on Questions concerning comparative ferocity of beasts would accordingly be of considerable interest. It was. “A horse,” was his reply. Anticipating an expression of sur- prise and a natural feeling inwardly of incredulity on the part of the ques- tioner, and obviating necessity for a request for explanation, Mr. Mills, in that quiet, convincing tone that breeds confidence in what he is say- ng, went on: “Yes, I would rather face any other animal, wild or tame, than an enraged Thorse. Ammunition or muscular strength failing, strategy can be Trought into play with some effect “with any angry beast except a horse. Once cornered and with his pride hurt, nhis nerves strained and his temper fully aroused, a horse is easily the most dangerous animal to face, in my opinion. Possessed of limitless yower and a keen eye, he will leap forward with distended nostrils and cxtended forelegs into an attack which means certain destruction to any living thing pounced upon. His lieavy hoofs do the damage and leave death in their wake.” * * % x less interesting than Mr. Mills' observations and opinions is the aman himself. The first impression of slight stature is offset by the wiry build and rugged features of this Jover of life in the open. Years of 1racking through virgin wildernesses or scrambling over rocky summits from one end of the Rockies to the other have inured him to relentless elements. Yet, in spite of this cultivated armor against the most severe aftacks of nature, like Achilles, he has a physi- cal weakness, and it took our own climate of the east to discover it. A ake-up which was sufficient to withstand the terrors of blizzards on Colorado’s mountain peaks in a busi- sess suit, to live for days in the ilds stripped of food or gun, and to survive landslides, strange as it may was not rigorous enough to the weather of the Atlantic 4 seem, fight Consequently Mr. Mills has cut short his tour of the cities and has returned to his little cabin far up on the slopes of Longs Peak, Col, to recover his health in an environment that would mean suffering and death 10 those unaccustomed to long ex- Posure. B “I am suffocating for want of fresh air,” declared the noted nature guide of Rocky Mountaln National Park, just before leaving for his home, after bringing his interrupted trip to an end in Wachington recently. “My system demands the air of the moun- tains. I am unable to become accli- mated elsewhere. Frankly, I do not understand how human beings can breathe the adulterated, heavy at- mosphere of the cities and live.” Mr. Mills came to Washington to yrotest to Congress against what he lorms “government-sanctioned mo- mopolies” in the national parks of the west. Private corporations, he told 1he legislators, have been given abso- iute control of transportation and ho- el facilities in these federal reserva- tlons, to the discomfort and indigna- tlion of motor tourists of the “tin can” and other varieties who wish to wvisit there. The latter are compelled 10 pay high tolls in order even to gain entrance to the government-owned land, purchased out of national taxes, he asserted. * % ¥ % ASen author, Mr. Mills is not only prolific, but highly rated. His hooks on the habits of wild animals of North America, written atter| months and years of privations ex- perienced in gathering first-hand in- Jormation about his subjects, are gripping as literary compositions and are cited as authorities by na- ture and animal students. A characteristic incident in the iman's career is'a seven-day tramp through the woods a number of years ago on the trail of a single grizzly hear, which later became the central figure in a book covering his obser- ~vations. On this hike Mr. Mills car- ried no food and no weapons. All his shooting was done with a small camera, and he claims to have gotten naps” of grizzlies from closer points of vantage than ever were taken in the actual haunts of the ‘bear. [P | Asked to describe interesting points of this tramp, Mr. Mills told of how he followed for days the tracks in the snow of his quarry, always re- maining far enough in the rear to avold detection, and yet often creep- ing up close emough on the unsus- pecting bear to focus his camera at short range and, once or twice, al- most to touch his fur. Proper re- gard for direction of the wind and care in approaching were necessary to sccomplish these dangerous sal- lies, he explained. “This old fellow, apparently on an individual foraging expedition, was tickled to death with himself and the world generally,” said Mr. Mills, focusing his eyes in retrospect in a manner characteristic of him. “Bears, when left to themselves, are as frolicksome and carefree as a Kkit- ten, but when they suspect the pres- instantly assume that stald they ors. This grizzly, on one of the days I was following him, came upon & long, steep incline down a hillside on which was a thifk layer of snow. Coming to a balt and glancing cautlously around, as though to make sure no spectators were about, he deliberately and slowly sat down on his haunches, at the edge of the de- cline, gave himself several starts with his paws and coasted in this erect posture the entire length of the grade. On reaching the bottom he arose methodically, shook his heavy frame to loosen the accumulated snow and slowly retraced his de- scent to the starting point far up on the hill, whereupon® he repeated the slide. - “Then, appearing still to have his taste for fun unsatisfied, the ungain. ly -beast took a third slide in an amusing rough-and-tumble fashion, rolling and bumping with abandon, sometimes with all feet in the air, again on his side, or backwards or in other positions, such as an unbalanced barrel might take in a similar trip dowre the hillside.” * x k% NI!L MILLS told of furtker antics of the same animal a day or so later. The bear was confronted with a deep stream racing between high, slanting banks. He came to the bank, paused, evidently in contemplation of some original way of descending Into the water, and then turned a com- plete somersault down the bank, land- ing with a great splash in the cur- rent. Not content with this and scorning the adoption of customary methods of swimming in beardom, the old grizsly proceeded to cross the stream in a series of dives, back- lashes, somersaults and other trokes” designed to create much commotion in the water. Asked what he would have done had this giant grissly caught sight of and started after him, Mr. Mills smiled and countered: “What could I have done? But I was careful not to let him see me, although I took many chances. He had claws perhaps six inches long. one sweep of which would have cut 2 man to shreds. Grizslies, however, attack their enemies by hugging them to death in their strong embrace. Once In this grip, there is no hope for the unfortunate eaptive.” The naturalist took occasion at this juncture to tell of a small black bear cub which he adopted and raised to “bearhood” in his home. The cub was discovered in & den at the point of starving because of the death or cap- ture of both parents some time previ- ous. About the size of a half-grown airedale, the cub made instant friends with his rescuer and became a play- ful household pet and a stanch friend and protector. In fact, the grown-up pet became so stanch a friend and protector that no person but Mr. Mills or his wife could approach the cabin without endanger- ing his life, and eventually the faithful bear had to be turned over to a z00. ‘The example of devotion and self-sacri- fice for nis master set by this bear ex- ceeded even the most famous stories of canine trustworthiness, according to Mr. Mills, He was 80 jealous of his master's affection and so solicitous of his wel- fare that visitors were menaced. * K % *x )WEVER, this apparently undy- easily have been turned to resentment and antipathy, Mr. Mills stated. All that would have been necessary to incite friend with relentless ferocity, found. Mill® love of animals and-his under- standing of their fears and likes and “WENT TO ALASKA AND MUSHED ALL OVER THE KLONDIKE REGION SEVERAL YEARS PRIOR TO THE HISTORIC GOLD RUSH” 4 ence nearby of some other animal, sedate attitude familiar to zoo visit- ing attachment to his master could ; ENOS MILLS, in Washington, Tells of Hig Adventures With Grizzlies; Moun~ tain Goats and Other Animals of the Rockies—He Once Followed a Bear for Seven Days to Study Its Habits—Says an Enraged Horse Is Most Dangerous of Four-legged Creatures—Mushed Through Klondike Region Long Before the Fa- mous Gold Rush—Trouble in Raising a Bear Cub—Talk With John Muir Which Led to the Fascinating Life of a Naturalist. - “ROLLING OR BUMPING WITH ABANDON, SOMETIMES WITH ALL FEET IN THE AIR.” the pet to fury would have been an un- | dislikes led to the adoption of a number warranted punishment, such as a kick|of other wild beasts. Probably one of or a slap. Saattering the misplaced con- | the rarest bits of taming ever accom- fidence of a pet bear.is risky business, | plished was his gaining of confidence of for once his feelings are hurt and his|a Rocky mountain goat, noted for its anger aroused he will attack a former | timidity and habits of seclusion. Mills | years of daily persistence, mingled with proper discretion, he succeeded in se- curing tae friendship of this goat to an extent that permitted him to feed (tf'u born and reared in Fort Scott, After -Jand mushed all over the Klondike re- ] THE librarians, by the way, knew something ef Enos Mills before they met him in person. They had become acquainted with him through his writings, which have found thelr way to a place of prominence in every library of this country and, in fact, abroad. He is widely known as a lecturer on nature subjects and on what he calls “emancipation of our national parks.” He has become indelibly as- sociated with the *“See America First” idea, and was the originator of the slogan, “Get America Ready to Be Seen.” He has long advocated, also, that citizens “see their own state first.” The findomitable spirit and phy- sical endurance of Mr. Mills was admitted by the state of Colorado when it appointed him to fill a posi- tion, especially created for him, of “state snow observer.” All that the incumbent of this office, since abol- ished, had to do was to climb about the snow-covered mountain tops of Colorado and measure the snowfall, 80 that residents in the lowlands would haye some idea of the amount of water which the melted snow would produce in the spring. Mills gladly accepted this posfion, and with no special protection from the elements, and with only a few raisins in his pockets for food, scaled the highest peaks in that section in the face of raging blizzards and poten- tial dangers under foot. Such ventures are greatly enjoyved by this unusual man. The same tem- perament which urged him to seek out the most precarious precipices in the Rockies as resting places led him, while in Alaska years ago, to climb a.massive iceberg and sleep there at great risk to his safety of limb and life. While unable, perhaps, to dupli- cate these feats of an earlier day, Mr. Mills is still a habitue of the wild country about Estes Park, and with him often go two of his best companions, Mre. Mills and his little daughter. Mrs. Mills was Miss Esther A. Burnell. The couple were married in 1918. < A conception of the respect which Colorado and the west holds for Mr. Mills may be gained from the fol- lowing editorial printed in the Den- ver Post in 1915: * * ¥ ¥ ¢«JT was Enos Mills who conceived the idea of conserving nature’s wonderful workmanship in the Longs Peak region by placing it in the keeping of the United States govern- ment, and, single-handed, he set out to accomplish this result. Single- HE City of Washifigton was fast asleep when fire broke out In the Treasury building early one Sunday morning in 1833. Even the twenty-year-old night Wwatchman in the Treasury had retired for the night. He had examined all the rooms except those in the fire- proof part of the building at 10 o'clock and had found the fires in | the grates, as he supposed, entirely safe. Strange as it may seem, he was allowed to go to bed after he had made his 10 o'clock tour of inspection. | Fortunately, & man living at the | corner of 14th and G streets happened | to wake up about 2:30 that Surday | morning. He noticed a light in the | Treasury, and as he watched, smoke |and flames burst from a window on the second floor. He rushed out on | his porch shouting “Fire!” The first persons to arrive on the scene found the Treasury door bolted and the guard within still asleep. Finally they awakened him by their repeated pounding and he opened the door, wondering what all the excite- ment was about. Men rushed into the building, but as there were no lights burning, they returned to have the young man find them candles. One man had the presence of mind to race down to the Franklin engine house, at the gorner of 14th street and the Ave- nue, in order to ring the fire bell and been erected in the neighborhood. One of these placards, for instance, bears this inscription: “What do you want with an armful of flowers?” - After turning this pointed question over several times in his mind, the tourlst usually decides that, while it's nobody’s business but his own, he will refrain from having to answer the query even for his conscience, by retraining from gathering flowers. Practicing carefully what he preaches about conservation of the many forms of forest life, Mills erected his big log-cabin-shaped inn out of fire-killed trees. The porch supports are also giants of wood, still rooted in the earth, where thelr growth was stopped by some con- flagration of former years. The small cabin where, as a young man, Mills firat brayad the mountain storms, is visible from the inn. ~With_the establishment of this old- fashioned hostelry, Mills recognized the need for a guide who could show the visitors the points of interest and explain to them the wonders of na- ture. He was forced to recognize this need in view of the incessant de- mands*for his advice regarding the formation™"of this crag or the origin of “yonder valley. Consequently, he proceeded to devote much of his time to taking. parties of hikers over the slopes about his place, not on hunting or toraging expeditions, but on quests cabin on Long’s peak. His wife has|at a high pitch, and he says that the taken photographs of him performing |eventual discovery of gold in quan- this unusual feat. tities was-not a surprise to him or’ Among other pets which the naturalist | to others who had traversed the same i1as kept from time to time are & chip- [locality and listened to the same munk, a beaver, birds of various kinds, | stories around firesides. etc. It was while on a visit to San Fran- Mills is not & native mountaineer. He|olsco in 1889 that Mills was started on kis career as a naturalist. He was examining a weed which he had found on the beach when he was ac- costed by a stranger, who told him the name of the plant and engaged him in conversation about plant life. The man was John Muir, noted na- ture lover. Muir found that‘young Mills was eager to know more of the mysteries of nature, and the two be- came companions The result was that Mills determined to spend the remainder of his life studying outdoo! life, - Returning to his cabin in Estes Park, he surveyed the ground though it were new to him and fore- saw great possibllities for this mountairious section as a naturdl preserve. He mapped out & plan for opening up this territory to visitors from the plains and farther east, that they, too, might know of the splen- dors of the Colorado summits. His initidl step was to open an inn and establist rules that no guest should destroy wild flowers or hunt game on ‘his lands. Inoidentally, thére were also regulations against card play- ing, dancing and religious teaching at the imn. ‘| for knowledge concerning the handi- * % ¥ X work of Ahe. Creator. He has thus 3 piloted many dignitaries of this coun- HIS policy, 1aid down at the very|¢ v ana Europe over the .sides of beginning has been rigldly ad-|yongs Peak. Among his remarkable hered to through passing ¥ al- | collection of pictires taken in the though the inn has attained interna-{mountain country are ones showing tional fame as “Mills’ place on Longs{pim 4rith the late Franklin K. Lane, Pepke.” Tourists in' the Vvicinity of |¢ormer Secretary of the Interio: the _naturalists’ home today. are|Charles Evans Hughes, Otis Skinner this .connection was received other |brought- face to face With the doc-|ang various groups of visitors, in- announcements discrediting' the finde|trine through. numerous signa, forcl- cluding & popinsittes of librarians of would' be forthcoming. Nevertkeless,*bly,. yet simply: werded, Which have|ne Unitell Statess Kan., and it was in this country that he first nurtured a desire to explore the great west. His mother had told him of the massive peaks and deep valleys Jof Colorado as she remembered them from her honmeymoon, and his boyish determination to see for himself these I'ondm led him to work and save. in spite of physical weaknesses in order that his craving might be satisfled. At the age of fourteen he had accu-’ mulated enough money to pay his way to Colorado, and he did not wait to .save more. = Arriving in the mountains of his dreams, he buflt himself a little cabin in Estes Park and supported him- seit by working for & ranchman. His bellef that the change of climate wouid assist him in recovering from his iliness ‘was wall founded, for he became strong and.healthy and capable of warding off afifctions of all kinds. A * k% % arouse the volunteers. He found the door locked, so he dashed across the street to a hotel {on the site of the New Willard) and got the key. Horses were brought from & nearby stable and hitched to the engine. Eye-witnesses later testified that it was twenjy minutes after the first alarm befpre the fire engine arrived. three more came from s of the District. A fire fngine in 1833 was 2 crude af- fair, liftle more than a hand pump. The vojunteer firemen labored under many hjndicaps. They found that the fas too short, what they did ed badly and they had to tie rags to keep from getting Then the water gave out. -had-a good start before it R the next five years Mills took turns ‘at ranching, mining, pros- pecting; trapping and other vigorous outdoor. occupations. He - traveled from Colorado to Montana, where he dug ore for the then barely explored Anaconda mines. He went to Alaska from his hand outside the door of n-1 the whole country thereabouts was glon severah vears prior to the his- toric gold rush, and ended up In California by pursuing various lines of work. He recalls that while in the Klondike there was constant ex- citement over rumors of gold strikes, and that as soon as some report in handed he brought it about, for all the forces that have contributed 10 the victory were lined up through his efforts. Others have helped, to be sure, but it was by Encs Mills' par- sistent labor that they were made supporters of the movement. “He fought against apathy at home and active opposition in Washington. The lack of interest that existed in Colorado he finally turned into enthu- siasm. He had already aroused more public interest in the east than he found at home. “For six years every fall and win= ter, when he might have put in his time on work with personal profit, he has traveled through the «ast, preach- ‘h\g Colorado scenery and the national park, paying his own expenses. He ihas lobbied at Washington with ail the persistence and cnergy of a paid advocate of some special interest. He has written thousands and thousands of letters to men and organizations all over the country to enlist them in his cause. He has visited editors of great newspapers and magazines and won their support. “Besides the time devoted to this campaign it has been expensive finan- «fally, for he has spent between $6,000 and $7,000 of his own money in fur- thering a movement that will be worth millions to Colorado. : “So let Colorado take off its hat to Enos Mills, who has nationalized the state’s most beautiful park and capi- talized Colorado’s scemery, in which every citizen is a stockholders and dividend participant.” - Mflls' whole attitude in life is summed up in his following words, written on seeing a young oak push- ing its way to sunlight through a canopy of leaves and sticks: “I never see a little tree bursting from the earth, peeping confidingly up among the withered leaves, with- out wondering how long it will live and what trials and triumphs it will have. It will better and beautify the earth; love the blue sky and the white clouds passing by and even join merrily in the movement and music of the elemental dance with the winds. It will welcome the flower-opening days of spring, be a home for the birds and enjoy the summer rain. And, when comes the golden peace of autumn days, I trust |it will be ready with ripened fruit for the life to come. I never fail to hope that if this tree is cut down it may be used for a flagpole to keep our glorfous banner in the breeze, or be built into a cottage where love will abide; or, if it must be burnt, that it will blaze on the hearthstone in a home where children play in the firelight on the floor.” When the Treasury Building Burned Nearly a Century Ago (was discovered, so by the time the | firemen got into action the building |was one mass of seething flames. | Scores of men, many of them clerks in | the Treasury, worked frantically to save the valuable records and docu- ments in the building. In their haste they did not hesitate to pitch the books out the windows, regardiess of | consequences. Two sons of the chief clerk were among those who remained in the building until the last minute | before the roof collapsed. As the papers were carried from the burning building, the Secretary | of the Treasury, Louis McLane, direct- ed the disposal of this matter across | the street. The Secretary of War or- dered a military guard posted, in or- der to watch them until they could be | removed to safer quarters. By Sun- day noon Secretary McLane had rent- ed a row of five houses on the south side of Pennsylvania avenue as a tem- porary home for the Treasury De- partment. The next two days were spent in moving the papers and in bringing order out of chaos. On Wed- { nesday the Treasury opened for busi- ness &s usual. At first every one believed that the fire was accidental. Subsequent de- velopments led to the arrest of a man on the charge of setting fire to the Treasury bullding in order to destroy some fraudulent pension papers. He PICTURE OF THE UNITED STATES TREASURY BUILDING IN 1304. e - was tried four successive times, but the court failed to convict him. ‘When the Tressury was threatened by fire a month ago one of the first persons to discover the blaze was Fire Chief Watson, who wes MoKIuE out of his office window, In the wis- trict building. on the site of the old Franklin engine house. Fortunately, the fire broke out in the middle of the afternoon, when the employes were nearby to extinguish it before it could gain headway. In 1833 two or three hundred pees ple watched the futile attempts of the firemen to check the blaze, while in 1922 over 10,000 spectators saw an up-to-date fire department conquer the flames after & half-hour's stub- 1%, I FEATURES I | . |