San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1883-01-25

day came the spare-rios VIII Ineii
crisp and clinging fat, and the back
bone with its unutterable marrow
These elemental delights past, then
came the more intricate process OF
cutting the leaf lard into little white
blocks that were thrown into the pots
from which came the sweetest and
purest lard, and those dry brown bits
into which all the SAVIOR and the es,
sence and the soul of the hog seemed
imprisoned-the cracklings! (Stop a
moment y pardon this emotion. There
its over now. -,
And from the cracking the fatty
bread-and the head cheese, and the
gatherings, and the smoked lowls,
and the brains, and the liver, and the
shoulder, and the feet, first boiled
and then fried in batter. And after
this the over-worked sausage-grlnder,
that wheezed and soughed as it was
well nigh choked to death with
chunks of fat and strips of lean, or
strangled to death with red pepper
and salt, or tickled to death with sage
leaves, but nevertheless filled pans,
pots and skins and maws with odor-
Gus sausage, until it must have itself
been astonished at what it had done.
And then the mince meat, which IS
at once the meeting point and the re,
sultant of all the edible felicities. And
last of all-after every part and par,
ticle of this precious animal, save and
except the brain and hasletts, bad
been absorbed with thanks and praise
the old smoke house with it's earthly
smell, it's dim, religious light" its
"smouldering fire." of hickory chips
in the pit dug in the centre of its dirt
floor, it's winding rat holes haunted
the winter through by keen young
sportsmen, and it's vague and black
ened rafters beyond the aspirations OF
all save the most daring climbers, and
their slender cross sticks from which
were clustered festoons of sausage
links sweetening in their skins as
nuts in their shells-genial middlings
on white oak splints and hams that
ripened and grew favorous in their
seclusion, absorbing month after
month the aroma of the earth, and of
the sifted ashes that were sprinkled
over them, and of the sweet
chips that burned beneath them, and
of the odorous smoke that foated
about them, and of the night winds
that stole through the loosel y-shin-
gled roof above them.
This may all be very foolish. 1t is
fashionable now to berate the hog,
mainly, 1 think, because hog-killing
has become O. business now instead of
sentiment, and because hogs are
killed in slaughter-pens rather than
in the open woods, and sausage made
of beef rather than pork, and hams
sweetened in night with sugar and
cured in day with chemicals rather
than with the gentle influences bred
of air and earth and forest in the long
and patient vigils that nature requires
of all things she brings to perfection.
Be this as it may, the hog in all it's
particulars is appreciated in high life.
The late Senator Hill loved nothing
so well as q plate of gatherings.
1 have seen Governor Herschel V.
Johnson eat pigs ear with infinite
relish. What were Governor Browns
collards q refuse to spell it coleworts)
to that great and good man, if under
lying historic love for this fine escu-
lent there was not an unconfessed
love for hogs jowl. I once saw Gen
eral Gordon rushing through Wall
street, when we beth had more stocks
than was healthy, with bucket of
hogs brains that he had bought from
a downtown butcher for his table at
the st. James. Gov. Stephens dotes
on broiled ham, and the nearest to
death Gen. Toombs ever came was
from indigestion caused by overeating
of head-cheese; so that little more
hogs head might have prevented Sc
cession.
More than one historian holds that
Lees army was never whipped until
the bacon had given out and it had to
fall back on beef.