Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1889-12-20
THE RAZOR BACK.
the Racer of the Tennessee Mountains Z
Always hungry.

Always Hungry.
Whoever places the horse or the dog
next to human beings in the scale of in
telligence and sagacity has never made
tlae acquaintance of the Tennessee hog,
the razor back One who knows the pig
only as the fat, sleepy, grunty occupant
of the sty has no idea of the spirit and
wisdom, the daring and enterprise of the
species, when born and reared among
the rugged mountain regions of the Cum
berlands. In contrast with the close pen
which is all the world his northern cousin
ever knows. freedom is the very air his
pigship breathes from the time when he
opens his narrow, speculative eyes, in the
beechen shade of the hills, until the I'M
lucky day when he is cornered by human
craft and numbers and reduced to bacon.
His education begins in infancy, guided
by his mother, who shows him the way
into all the best gardens, orchards and
cornlields. "EIe is a shifty fellow" was
the recommend given by Cumberland
valley farmer 10 recent northern settler
of the porher he was about to sell him.
"He has allus shirked for hisself." The
purchaser gave one thought to his own
garden patch; but not enough, for his
summer was spent in devising barriers
over which. or under which, or through
which it was pastime for that hog to
make his way, and the mans anger was
finally lost in admiration of the sagacity
of the animal, whose feats of agility and
ingenuity enabled him to maintain his
own healthy condition; and also to treat
his friends, for he is not wholly selfish.
have seen him plant his long snout
under gate, and raise it more and more.
until he had wormed himself hallway
through, then hold it, resting on his
strong "razor back until the drove of
half dozen or more followers under his
charge had squirmed through, then,
with an expressive grunt, he would lead
q raid on the corn field, where a forest
of tall stalks, from twelve TO seventeen
feet high, had been left supposedly bare
to decay during the short, wet winter
Piggy knows, however, that now and
then an ear has been overlooked: and he
enters the rows, cooking his head, now
on this side now on that, squirting up
at the top Of each tall stalk. until he sees
an ear at the top; then quickly he strad-
dies the bottom of the stalk, and rides
it down" within his reach, Quickly it
is devoued and another sought out and
captured, until the field is cleaned; when
he rallies his troops and guides them into
pastures new Gates and bars are
laughing stock to him. Barbed wire is
an agreeable irritant to his rhinoceros-
like hide; and the hopeless farmer is
often at his wits end until the time
when friendly autumn strews themount-
ain sides with mast" which proves
more attractive to these ubiquitous mon
archs than are the cultivated gardens.
The Tennessee hog knows that the
laws OF his native state protect him,
while the human would be masters OF
the soil must look out for themselves;
and loac's accordingly An unpleasant
who o? temper, They will turn in
u b., md chase a man and dog till
bnlh ad to mount out of reach on
fallen .e; and there they will hold
them at bay, with backs erect, in sharp
line Of bristles--whence their name
and with gruntings which cannot be de
scribed, gnashing their long, savage
teeth, remind one forcibly of the wild
boar, whence sprang their ancestry
American Agriculturist.