“A wild bear chase, didst ever see?
Then hast thou lived in vain.
Thy richest bump of glorious glee,
Lies desert in thy brain.

When first my father settled here,
‘Twas then a frontier line:
The panther’s scream, filled night with fear
And bears preyed on the swine.

But wo for Bruin’s short-lived fun,
When rose the squealing cry;
Now man and horse, with dog and gun,
For vengeance at him fly.”

-Abraham Lincoln
The Bear Hunt (excerpt), 1846