Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-12-24
The wild Hog Of India.

Those who have formed their concep.
ton of pig exclusively upon the tame
pig of the civilized sly, have no ade-
uuate idea Of the free wild pig OF the
Indian Jungle. Like the North Ameri-
can Indian, the pig is debased by con-
tact with civilization. He becomes
cewardly, weak, dirty, and prey to
an inordinate thirst for swill. The dis
lance between the tame Indian of Sara
toga. who steals chickens and wallows
drunken in the gutter, and the fierce
warrior of the Western plains, is not
greater than that which separates the
despised pig Of civilization from the
wild and fearless quarry OF the East
Indian pig-sticker. The latter pig,
whose spirit has never been broken
with pig-yokes, and whose moral nature
has never been poisoned with swill, is
one of the bravest inhabitants of the
Jungle, and has been known to attack
| and put TO rout the majestic elephant
and the ferocious tiger.
The full name Of the East Indian pig
is .Sus Mdicus, though no one except a
punctilous scientific person ever calls
him 10y it. Among beginners in the
art of pig-sticking he is sometimes
magniloquently described as wild
boar-though he is very often wild
SOW; but pig-stickers of population
uniformly call him q pig, or Il hog.
lSus nlicus often grows to the length
of four feet and eight or ten inches,
, and reaches the height of three feet, or
, even forty inches, at the shoulder.
When full grown his strength is enor-
nous, and in speed he will sometimes
rival the fastest Arabian horse. He
enters upon existence in striped state;
subsequently lie becomes brown; when
in the prime of life, he affects dingy
black color; and when old, lie is gray
and grizzled. At no period can he be
honestly called a handsome or u grace
full animal, but his courage and tenacjty
of life demand our respect.
In point of teeth the tame pig Las
sadly deteriorated. The wild boar of
India, which is the type of the bar
( barrie pig of all ages, is armed with long
semicircular tusks. Those in the lower
jaw sometimes attain the length of
eight or nine inches. They curve
outward and upward, and the edges are
kept sharp by the pigs constant habit
of securing them against the tusks of
the upper jaw. The swiftness and pow
er with which he uses those tusks to
carve an enemy arc almost incredible.
A hunting dog is frequently cut nearly
in two by single stroke of boars
tusks, and horses and men are occasion.
ally killed by bears which have become
tired of being hunted, and which try
to infuse little variety into the affair
by hunting their enemies. When
wounded he is an exceedingly danger
GUS bea to face on foot, unless the
hunter is lawless ruffian who is capa.
BILE of killing him with a rifle. One
can scarcely imagine au Englishman so
lost to all sense of decency as to shoot
fox, and ut xt to that crime ranks, in
Anglo-Indian estimation, the loathsome
outrage of killing pig by any process
except that of pig-sticking.-W. L.
ALDEN, in Harper's Magoaine.
British Drinking Habits.
Brittania may rule the sea, but, &C.
cording to Richard Grant White in the
October Atlantsc, her Majesty's subjects
have very poor opinion of water as a
beverage. 1t is useful for navigation,
ablution, culinary and manufacturing
purposes, but as drink the great ma
jority of the English hold water in de-
testation. Social custom, doubtless,
has much to do with this as we'll as a
fondness for spirituous liquors. "Of
every other thing drinkable," says Mr..
White, you see plentiful supply all
around you; but Dives did not
beg Lazarus for wine; and if you have
that thirst upon you that nothing but
cold water can slake, you must needs,
like the rich man in the parable, put
up your special petition for it. And if
you ask butler for glass of water at
the dinner table, not improbably he
will receive the request with such
look of fsh-eyed wonder as he might
put on If chance whale should wal
low into the dining room and ask for
the material for q spout; and then you
may see him turn to a footman-lower
means suit lower ends-snd say,
"Tubbs, alb, ah, glass of-ah -wa-a-
ter"
The consumption of alcoholic bever-
ages in England is enormous, and Mr..
White is justified in calling it "a ma
tional vice." In that scene of Othello
(act H., scene 81 in which Isgo betrays
Cassie into drunkenness, he sings a
Gathering drinking song, as to which
he says to his victim, 81 learned it in
England, where. indeed. they are most
patient in potting; your Dane. your
German, and your swag-bellied Hol'
to your English" This of the English
man of two and three centuries ago,
and whose drinking habits are still
marked and dominant in the lattor
quarter of the nineteenth century.
Nevertheless. Mr.. White assures us
that this great and lamentable national
vice is gradually diminishing, not
positively, but in proportion to the
population" Those who have observed
society in England report change for
the better; not great but appreciable.
1t is encouraging to know that Eng.
land is gradually freeing herself from
the vice which for so many years has
been regarded as national in her and
whose influence upon the English
speaking peOD,. of Che Tnitea Stataa