LINEMANS FIGHT WITH EAGLE

NEWSPAPER ITEM FROM SAN BERNARDINO VALLEY IN THE GUTHRIE DAILY LEADER, GUTHRIE, OKLAHOMA,  SATURDAY , FEBRUARY 17, 1894.

Bert Barnes, telephone lineman of Los Angeles, California, at work in the San Bernardino Valley ,recently had a lively experience with a large bald eagle. 

He was alone in a lonely part of the valley, no one within a rifle shot of him.  He had just finished a job and about to descend from the pole he had been working atop., and observed a shadow circling  on the sand below and looking up saw an eagle whirling around in the sky, a very large eagle, and it
  was keeping its eyes fixed on him.  He had no weapon, except his hammer, and decided to make it a serviceable as possible. There was no time for any misgiving as to what was going to happen, as twice the monster bird came it to the attack. A sudden turn, set wings, and the bird was very close to him, it's talons curved and legs drawn  up, ready to strike, it's beak half open.  His spiked  'climbers' had  him fast to the pole, no where to move.  He was firmly driven into the wood.  Fortunately, on the second pass of the eagle, directly in front of him, he had enough space to allow a full swing of his right arm and hammer, and swing with a vengeance he did, not knowing exactly where the hammer hit, but a moment later the great bird lay fluttering on the ground at the bottom of the pole with the hammer beside it.  The eagle was not dead, only stunned, and down the pole he came,  quickly tied it with twine.  He now has it, alive, at home.