Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1885-05-16

"I'll never forget the first time ran
| into a 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, TO. he replied, testify:
Yes, a drove of peccaries! You'll
admit, s'pose, that there are peccaries?
Didn't you ever hear that they ran in
droves?' |
"Oh. certainlyr' said the reporter. !
But they're down in South America,
| Mexico, or Central America, some
where
Are they? Thank you'' said the
engineer. Did you s'pose l thought
they were roofing round in this rail
road yard? Had you an idea that I
meant they were chasing the beechnut
where gsa 4 aEe and a saHk s5Rk
America, Mexico. nor Central America
that met 'em, neither. 1t was In
Texas, and. as I said before, I'll never
forget the first time 1 ran into drove
of en-
; IL had gone down to take a job on n
Texas railroad. like good many other
sap-headed railroaders from the North.
| didn't know any more about Texas
than-well, than you do, but went
, down there to run a train, and thought
! could do it. l got passenger train'
and had q fireman who was from the
North. had got the hang OF the road
fairly, and was billing along one day
through a piece OF woods when all OF
sudden my fireman hollers:
..Jewhllikins. yonders drove OF
. hogs on the track!
Sure enough, about three tralr
lengths ahead was big drove OF the
ugliest looking hogs l ever saw. They
were taking their time IN walking
across the track. At hrst L though
I'd sock on the brakes and try to stop
but on second thought l made up M.
mind that it would be safer to Gu
through the drove with full head on
| pulled her wide open and let tn
!? whistle sing. OF course, thought tn
= sound of the whistle would scare tn
hogs and likely cause them to scatte
en and make an opening for me. But IN
minute they heard the sound they a
stopped dead, and the ones that ha
r. GOT off of the track came crowdin
back to get on again. Every hog bri
tied up and showed fight. and when
- struck 'em they were standing thel
", like a wall to receive me. VI cours
nd the engine knocked 'em right and lef
all and cut a swath through the drove Ill
Of a red-hot iron through piece OF bu
ork ter, but the ones that were left fle
lst, tiercely at the wheels of the cars
Al Al they passed. and were crushed
~ death by the dozen. When we g
are through them looked back. and the
leir stood the remnant OF the drove, as
ap fiant as ever.
AL well says I to my fireman.
. that grit?'
Is it?' says he. Is No 4 sandpap
grit?,' .o,
Funny looking hogs, amt they
z says l.
...No Berkshire in 'em, you be
says he. =.
so when we got to the next stati
l says to the agent:
~ ran into drove o Somebod
and hogs back Wonder. and killed coul
. :. ~ Is o. dozen of en-. l s pose we ii hnd I
sses whose they are when the suit for ds
fur apes comes in to the company, say:
lers, as | pulled out The agent just
Gas down and howled. and l wonde
reSss' reS' what allied him. When we got to
IN. end of the run l was telilng ma
raiIroader about the drove of ugly b
and he says: -,
, oh. that's nawthin'. The
pec'ries Lucky We didn't stopyer tr'
ar. ..Why?' says l.
VII ".Whyr SAYS he. WAL, eft ye
stawped them prec'ri d boun
inter yer cab quicker n rantuiy
kill a mouse. an thud chawed W
thrum yer cow-lick down to yer
bunion. Then thud s'rounded Il
cars, an the fust galoos that open
door thud chawed him up. Are
day or so the comp ny q missed
~ hnrs -