56 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 



shadow appears, the little animal beats a hasty re- 

 treat, and six more weeks of frigid weather moves 

 in. But if the day is dull, as was Wednesday, (1921) 

 then the groundhog remains on the surface and spring 

 is here. For those who wish to believe in this legend, 

 we would remind them of Groundhog Day in 1920, 

 when -the little animal experienced the same cloudy 

 day as Wednesday, and do you remember that real 

 blustery weather that made last winter without a 

 parallel for many a year ?" Some feel, and with good 

 reason, that the legend has become "twisted," as a 

 dark, overcast day presaging continued winter is 

 more reasonable than a bright, clear day, which ought 

 to carry with it the intimation of spring. 



Jake Karstetter, of Loganton, Clinton County, 

 known as the "oldest volunteer" because he fibbed 

 about his age so as to 'be admitted to the Union Army 

 in the Civil War as a sharpshooter, was a brilliant 

 bear hunter in his day. Unfortunately, he mistook a 

 boy on top of a tall chestnut tree in Sugar Valley for 

 a bear, and shot him. 



For years, until the war broke out, he never touched 

 a firearm. After "picking off" divers Confederate 

 Generals and Colonels, he was at length captured, and 

 led through -the streets of Richmond', Virginia, with 

 a collar and chain around his neck placarded as "A 

 Wild Yankee from trie North." 



Like many soldiers, he had not cut his hair since 

 enlisting, and many aristocratic Southern belles, ac- 

 cording to Willis Reed Bierly, of Harrisburg, stroked 



