St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-10-19
TALK.

Pigs Pigs ! 1t would take Cuvier to
classify them in their social varieties. Nat
urally we are more interested in the kinds
running at large in our own presence, who
may be termed representative pigs, because
they are largely made prosperous by public
concession.
One of the most rampant of the animals is
usually to be seen any fine afternoon on
Third street. He hasn't much to do but
grow fat and give routine attention to the
few enchanting forms of business made
easy by rich corporation.
He is very sleek. His high stiff hat and
fine overcoat, with silk facings deliberately
folded outward, have a sheen that
smites the eye with sort of chal-
longing prosperity. He is rich enough
to have town and country homes, and so cir
cumstanced that he can secure the recogni-
ton of people who ridicule his ambition and
jeer at his grammar, yet who will accept
his invitations quite as much for the amuse-
ment he and his snowy spouse viii occasion,
all unconsciously, as for any other selfish i'm
pulse. This would-be nobby pigs face shines
with good feeding, like Squecrs show pupil,
the glazed look of whose skin was triumph
antly declared to be the result of eating too
much rich pastry. The feed is of the piled
up, profuse order rather than the rarely dis
eliminating goarmdndise of the gentleman
educated to it and in it. The animals eye
is dark and handsome, if it
| only had one ray of refined
intelligence, but it merely enables him to
sight the material advantages, without the
faintest perception of there being anything
else in life worth seeing.
1t is not "the harvest of the quiet eye,'
mentioned by Wordsworth, but it is the har-
vest of all the creature comforts compassable
by a big pocket book filed with INSCRIPTIONS
hands, and protected by big corporation.
Yet the pig is unconeealable amid all the
| Haunting gains of life. The human face,
which is the minds dial. showing the tracery
of time in fine or coarse experiences with
unerring legibilty, is wholly given over to
the coarse indications in the pig. For in
stance, the pig in question is
never more in his element
than when he can snub poor and unsuccessful
gentility. He is quite impatient that they
should expect recognition and civility from
gaudy and prosperous pigs, and he feels that
such success as his must not fail of its les
son of humility in these poor people. The
expression of his face as he mods to some
women with his high slick hat on is worthy
of Hogarth's pencil. You soothe your injured
self-love by supposing that he doesn't know
any better. You never were more mistaken
in your life. Wait until you see with what a
| uOf ;eb bo hat of
the approach of wealthy society danes in
carriages. His bald crown is lustrous with
graciousness and his face unctuous with
tributary toadyism. His manner
is replete with servility, and
the consciousness of so much
gratitude to these ladies for KIN owing him at
all, must be oppressive to him. Still, he
squares the account with his dignity by
Withdrawing civility from the women who
are really nice enough in their way, poor
things. but are not of the least advantage in
the society he affects.
They have encountered his pigship per-
haps in some house, or in some fashion
which causes them to look at him with the
stereotyped greeting of the social FORM. only
to have their politeness made disagreeable
boomerang. Some of them feel, too, that
showing any politeness to the pig, is lauda-
tory-inasmuch as they have no veneration
for the animal in any circumstances, least of
! all in his prosperous existence.
Looking back to the early decades of the
towns settlement, it is comfort to
muse on the scarcity of the
pig in the men of the past,
and the women who have memories of them
can afford to let the pigs who have fattened
on the possibilities they made apparent, have
sway In high shining hats of graded civil
service.
When one recalls the men who have
walked these streets in prosperity or misfor-
tune with the same unvarying outward gra-
ciousness, the pigs are mostly accidental
after all.
A Scheffer, a Mastersou, a Hatch, and a
score beside, will offset all the pompous pigs
which luck and greed can turn loose in the
streets, or exhibit in snowy cockaded, big
buttoned turnouts.
The male pig is rank-but the female pig
is funny. The bristles will come through
the cameps hair shawl, the silk gown, and
tbC COobiJ 1HC 10 oclui-SuDuuGu,
but no disguise is mp to the requirement of
forgetfulness or placement.
A contented sensual sati sfaction, born of
the security Of full trough, and excellent
shelter, has given Nine. Cochon lazy, good
natured receptiveness of all that is required
other without any bother. She mods, and she
laughs with stunning resonance, and there
is at times an alarming naturalness about
her, that makes you reverence the invention
of conventionalities, if only, as a safeguard
against such manifestation of the pigs as
routs humans.
She is perhaps the most boisterous pig in
animal spirits to be found in her locale. In
railway trains-she is much given TO travel
ing-she can concentrate the curious specu-
lation of a crowded car. Sometimes when a
cyclone of mirth whirls through the air the
explanation is that Nine. Cochon is near
Many social magnates who are half graci-
Gus to Monsieur CoChon entirely overlook
his extensively rugged consort, and strange
to say for p-g she is really sensitive over
it. With the p-g's undying tendency for
invading forbidden and barred premises,
Nine. Cochon is constantly on the alert for
the weak place in the fence where ingress is
likely, and you can see her often prospect
ing on the very edge Of the debateable land
looking longingly at the coveted exclu-
sion.
So far she is unsuccessful, and it is really
gratifying to see that while p-gs can feed
out of china and silver, and sleep on spring
beds, they cannot run amuck everywhere
they take a notion TO.