LAWRENCE MARLENEE AND THE BEAR

Ward County Farmer Has Clothes Torn Off From Him and is Severely Bitten on Arm by Vicious Animal.

Lawrence Marlenee, a farmer living near Sawyer, was attacked by a nearly full grown bear, which he has had in captivity. The man's clothes were torn from his body and his arm was badly lacerated by the enraged brute. The bear was a cub a year ago when John Marlenee captured it in British Columbia and brot {sp} it to this country. Lawrence has kept the animal chained, and altho {sp} it is partially tamed it has never become perfectly subdued. When Lawrence arrived home from Velva the other day, the bear had become free from its chan {sp} and Lawrence tried to chain the animal up again. The bear attacked him and tore nearly every stitch from his body and wounded him horribly in the arm, the flesh being torn an inch deep.

After Lawrence had appealed in vain to the hired man to assist him in letting loose of the bear, he managed to get out of the clutches of the animal and went after him again. He struck the bear over the head with a stick and knocked him senseless, when he chained him securely.

Ward County Independent, 4/6/1911