Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1879-08-30
A SERMON ON HOGS, &c.


to say there are some who oppose this
and insist on equal rights between
people aud pigs in using the streets,
and protest against disturbing the
statu quo of Notwithstanding
swine, of pavements a lapig stye and
streets and alleys whose s'o4ence is
rank"
1t is estimated that the fences in
Lexington cost forty thousand dol
lars. The entire value of hogs and
COWS in town according to the asses
sors books is about four thousand
dollars. Americans are known as the
most extravagant people in the world,
but what shall we say of = town like
ours that INDUCED in the luxury of
ten dollars worth of fence to protect
itself against u dollars worth of
hog! Or to look at it another way,
the cost of repairing the fences and
the interest on the money invested in
them, equals every year the entire
value of all the hogs and cows in
town. (The value of COWS is only
about $1,000.
The only argument against a hog
law that is worthy of consideration
is that giving the streets up for a stock
range enables the poor to live easier,
by raising hogs, &c. If we would
separate the poor and make q close
calculation we would fluid that they
are put to an expense of at least five
dollars for fencing for every one dol
lars worth of hogs they own,averag-
ing the matter through. If a poor
nan wants to build a house aud make
q little home for himself and family
he must put at least fifty dollars on
his fence, whereas five had a stock
law he need not have a fence at all,
aud the fifty dollars could go for a
more eligible building lot or higher
ceilings in his house, which mean
more fresh air ; or the presence of an
additional fifty d%ollarsin a poor mans
furniture or among his family's cloth
lug would be of very much greater
utility than IN a fence. In fact we
can scarcely find a'place where it is
worse buried than in a fence, and the
wonder is that people have gone on
for SO many years burying money in
fences to keep out animals of one
tenth of the value of. the fences.
According to a calculation lately
made If we were to start in to-day to
replace all the fences in town with
undressed pine fencing, the bill for
the plank alone, before buying a post,
a rail, or digging a p%osthole, would
be ten thousand dollars. We could
buy all the stock and give it away
and still be six thousand dollars
gamer. Building. fences is just the
same as digging holes and filling
them up; it belongs to the category
of unproductiye labor, SO the opera
ton cannot be claimed as beneficial
in giving employment.
II we look over Lexington we find
a large portion of the property is
owned by poor men. They want
some sort of q reasonable market
value to attach to their property,
want it to be salable. Everything
that tends to give us the appearance
of a progressive town makes prop
erty worth a little more, From time
to time we find persons in the coum-
try who for their own reasons wish
to NOV to town. In nearly every
case we find them to be persons of
some means. 1t is all advantage to
the town to have such persons to
come and settle among US. They in
crease the aggregate of capital among
us. They keep up the price of real
estate. They furnish work for the
poor. We should make the town at
tractive to such persons and tempt
them to come here instead of going
elsewhere. We certainly cannot take
a better step than to keep stock out
of the street and forbid the emptying
of all amer of filth in them. In-
stead of keeping the country towns
so attractive as to entice men of
to come to them and settle the
usual rule is to keep them so disagree
able that men of means all want to
move to the cities. I'll
There is no one interest of so great
importance to us now as our schools.
Suppose a person coming here for the
first time to look at our schools with
a view to sending his children to
them. Suppose he were to walk
along under our shade trees, with not
a fence on his right or his left, but
everywhere blue grass and flowers,
just as it may be seen in the towns
in the northern states ; need we say
that he would be charmed at once
and say, tsas it is education and re-
fnement that | want for my children,
this is the place to send them" AS
it is, Columbia is already ahead of us
and this very years. taking patronage
from u own county that was ours
last session. We hear from time to
time of persons who want to move
from the country to be with their
children while they attend school,
Such persons are virtually a per-
manent addition to our population,
and We ought to spare no pains to
make the town attractive to them.
But imagine the feelings of a lady as
she would walk every morning
through the reeking odors of Main
below Coal street, and
..Turn up her nose in q style quite imperious,
For it smells not at all like u night blooming
Cereus,"
She would probably lose no time in
taking a walk" to Columbia or St.
Joe and putting her children to
school there. 1t cannot be doubted
that the improved appearance in
town that we a make would III one
year cause an increased attendance at
our schools that would represent all
expenditure of money among us
equal to five times the value of all the
stock referred to.
One argument for the liberty o.
hogs is that they are "such gooc
scavengers." One must admire the
candor of a person who pleads guilt,
to such habits as require this ANNA
for this purpose, but there are
great many who decline to be place
in that category. One need onl,
watch our female population Will
skirts in hand carefully picking thei
way, eUen on our Placements, and no
half a square from our finest stores
and he will say that as a scavenge
the Lexington hog is not a success
but creates more filth than he re
moves. There are places stoo mum
erous to MENTION" where the sud
from the hebdomadal washtup al
poured out to "smell to heaven" be
cause our shogs are such good scav
engers." The barkeepers' tubs q
> sour beer and rinsing water, til
scrubbings of saloon floors, and tn
cooks dishwater. all go into tn
1 streets and alleys on the plea tha
"hOgs are such good ~scavengers.