The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1862-05-31
CALLING THE HOGS.

A correspondent of the Cincinnati Times
writing from Huntsville, Alabama, says:
The people in this part of the country are
very "Yankeeish" in some ways. For in
stance, take their mode of assembling their
hogs in the morning for breakfast, and if il
is not real 'tY ankeeish," will give them
the credit of having some brains. For the
benefit of your readers, l will give the
whole modus 0perandi, knowing that it will
be novel to some, at least:
In the first place, the hogs in this part OF
the country are musically inclined, and all
come up to breakfast to the tune of "Dixie. -
On every plantation the oldest ''darkey'
has the honor of playing music to the hogs
for about an hour every morning, and from
the very moment when he first CONNIE noes,
to the end of the piece, the shrill, piercing
notes Of the hogs are heard coming from all
directions, and blending with the music oil
the darkey, from the full grown SOW to the
very smallest Of the litter, these notes are
audible mile distant. I can never forget
when first witnessed the scene; and, for
the life of me, could not tell or make out
what it meant. I was on my way from
Shelbyville, Tenn, to Huntsville, Ala, and
being alone, 1 started very early, so as over
take the army, who were day in advance
Of me. Riding up very steep hill, heard
shrill, sharp sound, and thought it must
be a locomotive. At this time | was sur
rounded by trees on either side. The sound
continued. Finally, heard such terrible
put spurs 20 my horse, and started off as
fast as I could go; and the further and
more swiftly I sped, the greater the rum
bling. At last l came to the serious con-
cluaion that was "played out" and must
surely fall into the hands of the rebels. I
halted, and in less than FIVE minutes I saw
hogs of every grade, color and species, max
ing the tallest kind of tracks down the hills
toward where the music came from. There
were black hogs, white hogs, yellow hogs,
speckled hogs, and gray hogs, all running
in one direction. 1 paused for moment
and surveyed the scene, and finally follow
ed in the train, and as l descended, there
stood before me niger, as black as ebony,
blowing away on an old horn, and sur
rounded by at least five hundred attentive
listeners, in the shape of hogs. AS ap-
preached, the old darkey saluted me with a
"Good mornin', massa."
sWell, my FRIEND" remarked, "what
in creation are you blowing that Internal old
horn for 90
Old Ebony opened his wide mouth, dis:
playing, at the same time, as fine set of
teeth as I ever looked at, and laughed as
loud as he could, and then said:
''Massa, you'se bein' from de Norf,
whar none of these things is gwine on. -
answered eyes; but what does it all
mean ?'i
"You see, massa," responded the old
man, call dem hogs dar. Before I begun
playin', dar wasn't one hog yere, but when
I list blowed dis horn dey all started from
every part of de woods and come up yere.
Use at dis bisnis for de good Lord knows
how many years, and / has brought in
millions of hogs with dis music. set to
play every morning at daylight along side
dis fence and den stop for one hour, and at
de eend of de hour all massa's hogs are in
from de woods. Use good music man,
massa, l isl
I then asked him what tunes he liked
best and played most to rally the hogs. He
responded, "Dixie." Well, thought to
myself, can it be possible that the South
ern chivalry and the Southern hogs both
march to the same tune?