Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1873-10-18

| l re raised yOur rents .Hrc per cent. 0lI
around. Now shout for your Queen
and country and for your landlords and
protectors
"And they paid it?
"Of course they did, and we're thank
full to get off SO cheap. Wasn't Sir
John paying shilling in the pound for
the country all the time? O, you're a
very loyal race !"
"And so we are, Captain, and very
fond of Queen Victoria, and we don't
mind paying for her, too, Captain
only what we've paid before it's the
new things we don't like, Captain. And
what did Sir John do when the war was
over %
"Hc forgot to take off the five per
cent"
Dear me that was clever. Yes, l
give in to you there, Captain Sir John
was a very clever man. But we've
got clever men in these days, too. Cap
tain.
"But we were talking about intel
lect," said the Captain, after a pause,
during which the coach had driven off,
and the square in front of the hotel had
resumed its normal quetude. Now,
to my mind, as far as intellect went, l
never knew anybody to beat old David
Gaur, of Penllyn."
"Oh, come, Captain, now, that won't
do, Why, David was half an idiot"
"That may be-" said the Captain.
81 don't say he was clever all round.
The finest intellects have flaw some
where; but, in his particular way,
David was the cleverest man ] ever
knew"
:'Bnt, indeed, what Was his way,
Captain? l never knew him do any
thing but run about at fairs, and earn a
sixpence where he could"
"What did you never hear of David
Gaur and the pig-tax?'
q" No, infect"
' Then you don't know half the tra-
ditions of your country. Why, Jones,
I, w'o'm half an Englishman, and
have followed the colors half over the
world, I'm a better Welshman than
you are. Why, l thought everybody
knew about ravid Gaur and the pigs"
"Tell it to us, Captain tell us the
story"
"You know" said the Captain, hem
ming and stroking his moustache medi-
tativcly, "that David had peculiar
gift. How he acquired it, nobody ever
knew; it was said he was taught it by
old Morris Morris, who lived to be n
hundred and twenty, and that Morris
father had it from the fairies. But how
ever he got it doesn't mattcr-hc had
it and as he never impaired the secret,
it died with him. | offered him soye-
reign once, to show me how he did it,
and swore most solemnly I'd keep it II
profound secret. But no. | wish I'd
bid higher now; it would have been
something to fall back upon in ones old
age-something that Lawyer Jones
couldn't lay his claw upon.
" But what was it, Captain? What
was the secret he had %
"It was the art of frightening pigs"
said the Captain solemnly. " All, now
don't go away with the idea that that's
nothing. / don't mean startling em :;
any fool with an umbrella can cry,
'Shoo shoe 7 and do that. But what
mean is downright frightening them,
injecting their very souls with fear ;
making them mad, so that they'll jump
out of their very skins with terror.
New, you know, they're very imagina-
tive beasts, are pigs, and at the same
time they re very cunning. They're not
to be taken in ; and if you were to make
all the horrible noises you could put
your tongue to, they'd quietly whisk
their tails and cock their eyes, and
think you fool for your pains. Bat
this was how David went to work. You
knew thst Penllyn May fair is tremen-
dous fair for pigs. They all come
from the north side of the coun-
ty, and must cross the bridge
over the Dulas to get there at all,
and when they've crossed the river
there's long, straight piece of road,
with grass on each side of it, and high
stone walls beyond the grass. Well,
here it was David would take his stand
or scat, rather, for he squatted himself
down in the grass, and then he made
himself a round hole like n basin, a foot
deep, at the side of the road and there
he'd sit from early daylight collecting
his tax on the pigs. If there were less
than ten he charged penny, and so
on, penny of every half-score. That
was David's tax; and very good tax
gatherer he made. He wasn't always
altering it, moving it up and pulling
it down; but he put on a reasonable
figure, and stuck to it.
But suppose the people wouldn't
pay it?'
"That's just what they made up their
minds to, one fair day. The principal
proprietors held a meeting on Llanfer