BRUNO IN BELMONT 95 



The fame of my pet had gone abroad, and many 

 people came to see him. By this time I had made 

 my photographs into lantern-slides and had told 

 the story on several occasions, illustrating it with 

 the stereopticon. I was bothered by frequent re- 

 quests from newspapers and magazines that wanted 

 the story for publication ; and about this time a 

 letter came from Mrs. Weldon, saying that a news- 

 paper man had been to see her. 



"He was crazy to get those pictures and have 

 me tell the story," she wrote ; "but I would n't tell 

 him a thing, and I would n't let him see the pic- 

 tures. He was real mad about it." 



One day, when we were out of town, a reporter 

 appeared at my home. He told the housekeeper 

 that he wanted to photograph the bear, and though 

 he was refused permission, he insisted that this 

 cub was in a way public property and, as his paper 

 had ordered him to make a story, he would have 

 to do as he had been told. So, in spite of all that 

 could be done, he had his own way ; and next day 

 there appeared in one of the Boston papers an 

 article which contained many misstatements and 

 was illustrated by a picture that looked more like a 

 St. Bernard dog than it did like a bear. 



It was but natural that my story of Bruno's 

 unique bringing-up should attract unusual atten- 

 tion. No one had ever heard of a woman doing a 



