They soon learned the
boundaries of this unfenced Park, and, as every one knows, they show a
different nature within its sacred limits. They no longer shun the
face of man, they neither fear nor attack him, and they are even more
tolerant of one another in this land of refuge.
Peace and plenty are the sum of earthly good; so, finding them here,
the wild creatures crowd into the Park from the surrounding country in
numbers not elsewhere to be seen.
The Bears are especially numerous about the Fountain Hotel. In the
woods, a quarter of a mile away, is a smooth open place where the
steward of the hotel has all the broken and waste food put out daily for
the Bears, and the man whose work it is has become the Steward of the
Bears' Banquet. Each day it is spread, and each year there are more
Bears to partake of it. It is a common thing now to see a dozen Bears
feasting there at one time. They are of all kinds--Black, Brown,
Cinnamon, Grizzly, Silvertip, Roach-backs, big and small, families and
rangers, from all parts of the vast surrounding country. All seem to
realize that in the Park no violence is allowed, and the most ferocious
of them have here put on a new behavior. Although scores of Bears roam
about this choice resort, and sometimes quarrel among themselves, not
one of them has ever yet harmed a man.
Year after year they have come and gone. The passing travellers see
them. The men of the hotel know many of them well.
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