46 The Grizzly Bear 



became of them. Ben Franklin was caught, as a small cub, in the 

 spring of '54; Lady Washington, as a larger cub in 1853, and Sam- 

 son, as a large bear, in the winter of 1854-5; that is, if Adams was 

 truthful in his statements to me, as I thought and still think he 

 was. As to Samson's weight, my recollection is that Adams said 

 he had had him weighed on a hay scales. His show bills in San 

 Francisco gave fifteen hundred pounds as his weight and I never 

 heard it disputed, but as he was doubtless the big bear exhibited 

 in New York, it is possible that the exact weight could be ascer- 

 tained there. 



As to Adams's death, Barnum, in his autobiography, gives an 

 account of it, and I know nothing more than he tells except a few 

 items found in the newspaper at the time. My recollection is that 

 he died in Massachusetts. There was a depression in his skull 

 just above the forehead, which he said was caused by a blow 

 from a bear in the early part of 1855, as related on pages 313 and 

 314 of my book. On his passage around Cape Horn, on his way 

 to New York, he, according to report, had a fight with an ape or 

 baboon, which tore the wound afresh, and, though it healed again 

 sufficiently to enable him to go about and attend to business, he 

 eventually died from the effects of it. 



As to the comparative sizes of Ben Franklin and Lady Wash- 

 ington with Samson, I should say that the latter was nearly, if not 

 quite, twice as large as either of the others; so far as I know he 

 was the same bear that was exhibited in the Eastern States in 

 i860. He was untamed and had to be kept in a very large and 

 strong cage, though I never saw him very wild. 



In reference to getting Adams's story, I was in the newspaper 

 business at the time, and could get only an hour or two a day to 

 spend with him; and, as he talked, I wrote down what he said, 

 usually in his own language, but sometimes with some changes to 

 make it more grammatical. He knew little or nothing about the 

 geography of the country, and I therefore could not locate him 



