The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1885-04-04
TOUGH AND WITHOUT FEAR.
Remarkably Abls Yarn AbSut the WIli bog
Of Texas.
New York SUM-

II uofCA leAkCb eho hASt hu'S
l ran into a drove of peecaries,s
said an Erie locomotive engineer,
recalling ssme of his experiences.
"A drove of peccariesr' said
the reporter, and his tone must
have grated on the engineer, for
he replied testify:
"Yes. a drove of peccaries
You'll admit, suppose, that there
are peccariesi Didn't you ever
hear that they ran in droyes 7"
"Oh, certainly said the report
er. But they're down in South
America, Mexico or Central Amer
lea, somewhere"
"Are theyi Thank your' said
the engineer, Did you s'pose /
thought they were roofing round
in this railroad yardi | know
where peccaries are. and l think |
ought to. And it wasn't in South
America, Mexico, nor Central
America that l met 'em, neither.
1t was in Texas, and, as l said be.
fore, I'll never forget the first
time 1 ran into a drove of 'em.
81 had gone down to take job
on Texas railroad. ike a good
many other sap-headed railroaders
from the north. / didn't know
any more about Texas than-well,
than you do, but l went down
there to run a train, and thought
I could do 1t, l got q passenger
train, and had a 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 a sud.
den, my fireman hollers:
"Jewhillikins yonder's drove
of hogs on the trackw
"Sure enough, about three train
lengths ahead was a big drove of
the uglisst looking hogs l ever
saw. They were taking their time
in walking across the track. At
first ] thought I'd sock on the
brakes and try to stop, but on sec
ond thought ! made up my mind
that il would be safer to cut
through the drove with full bead
on. / pulled her wide open and
let the whistle sing. OF course ]
thought the sound of the whistle
would scare the hogs and likely
cause 'em to scatter and make an
opening for me. But the minute
they heard the sound they oil
stopped dead, and the ones that
had got off of the track came
crowding back to get on again
Every hog brlstled up and showed
fight, and when / struck 'em they
were standing there like wall tc
receive me. Of course the engine
knocked 'em right and left, ant
cut q swath through the drove
like a red hot iron through piece
Of butter, but the ones that wer,
left few ficrcely at the wheels o
the cars as they passed, and were
crushed to death by tie dozen
When we got through them
looked back, and there stood tn,
remnant of the drove, as defian
as ever.
"Well,' says /, to my fireman
lis that gritr
"Is it 2 says he. rs No. A sand
paper gritp
"'Funny looking hogs, ain
theyr says l.
"'No Berkshire in 'em, you bet
says he.
$50 when we got to the mex
station says to the agent:
"'I ran into drove o. some
:, !, body's hogs back yonder an
killed a couple O. dozen of 'em.
s'pose well find out whose the
: are when the suit for damage
comes in to the company says
!, as / pulled out. The agent JUS
laid down and howled, and | wor
dered what allied him. When W
got to the end of the run l wa
=. telling a native railroader abou
the drove of ugly hogs, and b
says:
"Oh! that's nawthin.' Them
pec'ries. Lucky you didn't staw
yer train
!, "'Whyp said l.
"why ? says he. 'Waal, eff )
, had q stawped them pec'ries ID
bouced inter yer cab quicker'n
o t'iantuly kin kill a mouse, an thu
chawed ye up thrum yer Gov
. tick down to yer last buniol
} Then thud a s'rounded them car
u an the first galoot that opened
door thud chawed him NJ
; Arter day or SO the comp'ny
. q missed the train and a sent al
F." other ingine out to look 1t mp, al
when the iDgineer found 1t al
" stawped his ingine to hook on I