The Portland daily press., 1872-07-09
How Chinese Bo-Bo made a Discovery


Here is alittle story that came to my fire.
side one night after i had been reading an
essay by Charles Lamb, and wouldn't 90
away until l promised ''to tell every word of
it' to the children:
Ages and ages ago, nobody knows just how
long Is was, there was man who kept swine
somewhere in China. His name was Ho-ti,
and he had great, overgrown and very stu
pid boy OF his own, named Bo-bo.
Ho-ti went one day into the woods to get
food (acorns or nuts or something-whateve
happened to grow in the woods of China so
long ago) for the pigs.
Bo-bo was left all alone in the cottage
His father had not been gone long, in fact he
had scarcely got out of sight, before the
naughty boy began to play with the fire.
spark fell into a bundle of straw, and all
in minute the cottage of the poor swine
herd was in blaze. Close beside it, in pen,
were nine fine young Chinese pigges.
Bo-bo did not care so very much about the
cottage, but the pigs and their mother were
precious, and he could not save one of them.
No one come near, and in short time the
house and the pen and the pigs were one
black and smoking mass.
Bo-bo was SO frightened that he wanted to
run away, but he was afraid that he could
never get over the big wall that shut China
in, and he was scared at what might be on the
other side OF it, even if he could get over; so
he staid by the burned place, crying and
wringing his poor Chinese hands and wonder
ing what his father would do to him when he
got home.
''What do ] smell ?'' said he; "what is it
what is it p' and he began to look around.
You must know that this-unlucky boy Bo-bo
had burned up his fathers cottage twice al
ready, but he had never scented such an odor
before.
He looked and looked, and at last found
little dark mass. He stopped down and
touched it with his fingers to find out if it
was quite dead, for he knew it was one of the
small pigs.
Bo-bo burned his fingers, for the pig was
yet roasting, and some of .he scOrched skin of
the creature came away on them.
To stop the burning he thrust his fingers
into his mouth, and that was the first time,
says the old Chinese manuscript, where the
story is told, Sin the worlds life, that any
man ever tasted cracking"
Bo-bo kept burning his fingers and cooling
them again in the same fashion until his
father got home.
As soon as the poor man discovered the
smoking ruins he made haste to look for Bobo
who naughty boy) was always plunging his
father into trouble. He found him still en-
joying his fingers.
80 you bad Bo-bo! You've been PLAYING
with fire again! 1 know you! Now, you'll
get a clubbing that'll teach you to let it alone
in time to comep' cried the father, and he
fell to beating the young giant.
To his astonishment, Bo-bo did not seem
to mind the blows in the least. You see that
was because the roasted pork was so nice
When Ho-ti had ended his whipping, Bo-
bO caught up the half of little pig, and,
thrusting it into his fathers hands, cried out,
''Eat! eat the burnt pig, father! just taste
itp'
The father tasted, and the story says that
Ho-ti and BO-bo never got through tasting
until the ninth pig was gone.
From that time the cottage of Ho-ti kept
burning down. Every little while it would
be found that only heap of ruins remained
in its place.
At length special policeman was detailed
to keep watch over Ho-ti and Bo-bo. The
awful secret was discovered. Whenever
roast pig was wanted the fire was built and
the house burned. Such an awful crime
could not be allowed to go on in China.
Pekin, since become great city, was only
small place then, but the swine-herd and
his son were arrested and taken there to be
tried. Some of the roast pig went up with
them to the court. Poor Ho-ti was just
| about to be sentenced to death when the fore
man of the jury (you know England claims
| "trial by jury" but China was used to iuries
before England was thought of begged that
the roasted pig might be passed up into the
| box. So up it went, and every man handled
| it. As they had no napkins, each man wiped
his greasy fingers on his lips as he passed it
over to his neighbors. Then, against all evil
dence, the judge of the celestial court, and
everybody, the jury brought in verdict of
'not guilty."
The judge slipped around into the jury box
and put his hand on the roast pig. just as
soon as he had dried his fingers on his lips he
went off and bought up all the pigs that he
could find, and a few days after that time his
fine town house burned up. 1t was full of
pigs that came ost burned to a crisp.
From that time fires could be seen in every
direction ON all the hills. Every insurance
office had to close up its affairs in few
months, and fire-wood and pigs became so
scarce that only the emperor could afford to
buy roast pigs.
Finally, some very wise body discovered
that pig could be roasted without burning
nm a house; but it took the Chinese so long
to get over the habit of initiating everything
exactly that when they did get over it there
wasn't pig nor bit of firewood left in the
empire.-Hedrth and Home.
RAILROAD LEGISLATION IN NEW HASIP.
sHIRE.-After a sharp scrimmage the Senate
Of New Hampshire on the last night of the
session passed the following: ''Whereas, by
the laws of New Hampshire, railroad corpor
ations are prohibited from incre asing theil