Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-10-30

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To quit these questions of political
economy, with which I trust I nave not
wearied the reader, I would note that,
in the past, the chief product of many
OF these mountain districts were gaunt,
razor-backed" hogs, which, seldom
fattened there, were collected in droves
every fall, and with infinite patience
driven to the corn-felds of the East
Tennessee valleys, the Hiawassee and
others; apd, turned loose in them to
riot and destroy at will; would in the
end take on fat enough to make them
acceptable and salable to the planters,
lower down, of the Oarolinas and Geor-
gia, when driven thither finally. The
method in vogue was to pur-
chase the field of standing corn
at an agreed price, the hogs
to gather as much of it as they could.
And, perhaps, harder set of chaps for
any sort Of fun that offered could scarcely
be found anywhere than these same hog
drovers. On the cars coming from the
coast to Atlanta city on one occasion, a
gang of them had-as it were-taken
possession Of the car of which was an
occupant; and all night long they kept
up constant uproar of coarse witt
cisms and stunning outlaws, hideous to
listen to, yet impossible not to laugh at.
One of their dramatic performances was
travestying q Methodist " anxious meet
ing;;" and carried out in the most reckless
and even impious manner, with prayers
and hymns, one could but know that
their opportunities had been complete
to have educated themselves to every
thing that was better. Interrupted in
their sport by the announcement of
supper, one of them, a great six-footer,
on his return to the car uttered q most
characteristic declaration: Boys, that
was splendid supper; I was eating for
fifty cents, but they only charged me a
quarteri"' -.
Besides the considerable amount of
hogs that the mountain districts of
Kentucky furnished to the lowland con-
sumers, great numbers of beef cattle
found a market thence, On foot; while
Central Kentucky and Upper-Middle
Tennessee furnished in the same man.
ner great droves of mules for the cot
ton fields OF the Gulf States, and fine
horses for all sections. Speaking of
horses mething that, more than hemp
or tobacco, perhaps, might be called the
great staple of Kentucky-the moral
code in regard to trading is represented
as remarkably loose, every horse-buyer,
or trader, being accredited and compli
mented with smartness enough to take
care of himself. Cali fair in horse
swap" appeared to be the beginning and
end of any rule governing the matter,
so that whoever presumed to hope for
much, if any, speculation out Of these
sharp traders was as likely as any way
to find his hoped-for balance on the
wrong side of tho ledger. The "sharp-
est practice" that I remember of becom-
ing acquainted with in this line was
boosted of by the fellow who was the
principal actor in it, and happened in
this wise:
Being the owner of very fine horse
whose only and marked deficiency was
that he had regular "rat TAIL" he had
failed in all attempts to dispose of him
on that account, until accident suggested
and threw in his way the means of sup
plying the want. A neighbor having
lost fine horse who happened to have
large flowing tail, it occurred to the
roguish horse-trader that, if he could
somehow appropriate for his own steed
that desirable member. it might be made
themeans Of accomplishing to advantage
the long-deferred sale. Acting upon
this idea, he carefully separated it, leav-
ing nothing but the hide, to which of
course the hair chung fast, and this he
strained over his own horses stump,
sewed it tightly, and then hurried off to
find purchaser. This he accomplished
without delay; and the buyer, much
pleased with his bargain, took him home
and put him in stall. The next morn
! ing early he was summoned to the
stable by the noise made by the horse,
who was kicking the sides of the stall in
the intervals OF looking backward as if
in distress; and after a good deal of
investigation into the cause for
the trick was performed so neatly
that it quite bafaed him at
frst-he found the rawhido of the false
tail had shrunk, and, sewed strongly,
was pinching the poor horse so unmer-
cifully that he couldn't stand still. Re-
ieved of it there stood his neighbours
rat-tailed horse; and when directly
afterward the scamp was charged with
it, of course he did it, he said, un-
blushingly, indeed with hearty peals OF
laughter, as if it was the climax of good
| jokes, winding up his confession with
the received axiom, "Al fair IN horse
swaps" and that he expected his neigh
Dor to Grade on his oeU7a Judgment u
as he himself had done. OF course the
cheat didn't get into the courts; it was
too novel and too acute, "too good" for
that; but the victimized pocketed his
loss, relying upon getting even with
the successful trickster some day in the
future, or, at least, making himself
square" off of somebody else