4 The Grizzly Bear 



nected with a book. I have often seen in the newspapers 

 and magazines replies of various persons of note to the 

 question, "What book has exerted the greatest influence 

 on your life ?" Most of these answers I notice are rather 

 hazy, but if I had ever been asked to reply to this question, 

 I should have been able to answer without any hesitation. 

 And my answer would have been, "The Adventures of 

 James Capen Adams, Grizzly Bear Hunter of California." 

 This book, by what chance I am unable to guess, was in 

 the town library of the village nearest our home. I sup- 

 pose that my father, thinking that its illustrations would 

 amuse his sons, had brought it home for us. At any rate, 

 although I have no recollection of seeing it for the first 

 time, I remember my father's reading aloud from it in the 

 evenings, and our repeated request that he would get it 

 for us again. I think that before we could read ourselves, 

 my brother and myself must have all but worn out the old 

 book looking at its pictures. 



Along about this time, in the early sixties, when I was 

 some six or seven years of age, Barnum's Circus made a 

 tour of the New England States, and their posters exhib- 

 ited the picture of a huge grizzly, which was advertised as 

 having been caught by this man Adams. You can, per- 

 haps, imagine the effect of this upon us youngsters, and 

 the condition we were in when the circus came to Nashua, 

 and our father consented to take us to see it. That bear 

 is about the only thing I remember about my first circus. 

 I know I went back every few minutes to look at him; and 

 I can see him now, pacing backward and forward in his 

 great cage. I can see just how his toe-nails looked and 

 can remember the exact color of him. There is nothing 



