Huntsville gazette., 1885-05-09
TOUGH AND FEARLESS.
Two Remarkable Able Yarns
About the Peccary.
Drove Tackles Railroad Train and
Dies on the Track to the Last Hog
Battle Between Wild Hogs and
Tornado.

IOrn3uOs
T'll never forget the first time I ran
into drove of peccaries," said an Erie
locomotive engineer, recalling some of
his experiences.
"a drove of peccaries!" said the re-
porter, and his tone must have grated
on the engineer, for he replied, testify:
"Yes, drove of peccaries! You'll
admit, Is'pose, that there are peccaries?
Didn't you ever hear that they ran in
drovesP'
"Oh, certainly" said the reporter.
''But they're down in South America,
Mexico, or Central America, some
where.''
..Are theyp Thank you!" said the
engineer. Ibid you s'pose I thought
they were roofing round in this rail-
road yardl Had you an idea that 1
meant they were chasing the beechnut
and the acorn up along the Erie line?
/ know where peccaries are, and think
F'ought to. And it wasn't in South
America, Mexico, nor Central America
that / met EN-, neither. It was in
Texas, and, as said before, I'll never
forget the first time I ran into drove
of 'em."
II had gone down to take job on a
Texas railroad, like good many other
sap-headed railroaders from the North.
l didn't know any more about Texas
than-well, than you do, but I went
down there to run train, and l thought
I could do it. got a passenger train,
and had q fireman who was from the
North. Ihad got the hang of the road
fairly, and was billing along one day
through . piece Of woods when all of
. sudden my fireman hollers:
''Jewhillikins! yonder's q drove of
hogs on the trackr'
"Sure enough, about three train
lengths ahead was big drove of the
ugliest looking hogs ever saw. They
were taking their time in walking
across the track. At first I thought
I'd sock on the brakes and try to stop,
but on second thought I made up nv
mind that it would be safer to cut
through the drove with full head on.
/ pulled her wide open and let the
whistle sing. OF course, 1 thought the
sound of the whistle would scare the
hogs and likely cause them to scatter
and make an opening for me. But the
minute they heard the sound they all
stopped dead, and the ones that had
got off of the track came crowding
back to get on again. Every hog bris-
tied up and showed fight, and when 1
struck 'em they were standing there
like wall to receive me. Of course
the engine knocked 'em right and left,
and cut swath through the drove like
a red7hot iron through piece of but
ter; but the ones that were left few
fiorcely at the wheels of the cars as
they passed, and were crushed to
death by the dozen. When we got
through them l looked back, and there
stood the remnant of the drove, as de-
fiant as ever.
We'll says I to my fireman, is
that gritp'
."Is 'ite says he. Is No. sandpaper
grttp"
= Funny looking hogs, amt theyp'
says ].
49, NO -4DerkSmre IN EN-, you bet,
says he,
$50 when we got to the next station
I says to the agent: Y
az ran into drove O. somebody's
hogs back yonder, and killed couple
o. dozen of 'em. Is'pose we'll find out
whose they are when the suit for dam
ages comes in to. the company, says I,
as pulled out. The agent just laid
down and howled, and I wondered
what allied him. When we got to the
end of the run / was telling a native
railroader about the drove of ugly hogs
and he says:
'''Oh! that's nawthin'. Them's
pee ries. Lucky ye didn' stop yer train.
"Whyp says l.
tt'Why! says he. 'Waal, eff We had
. stawped them prec' ries d bounced
inter yer cab quicker'n t'rantuly kin
kill q mouse, an thud chawed We up
thrum yer cow-hck down to yer last
bunion. Then thud a s'rounded them
cars, an the fust galoot that opened
door thud q chawed him up. Arter a
day or SO. the comp'ny d a missed the
rain an d . sent another ingine out
to look it up, an when the ingineer
found it an stawped his ingine to hook
on to it, them pec'ries d bounced on
his ingine an chawed him up, an so
it'd gone on, an the business O. the
road d a suffered.
According to that says /, the
peccaxy must Be pusher.'
Got more vim in him. says the
pstiye, than any other citizen O. Texas