Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-04-10
THE WATERBURY EVENING DEMOCRAT WEDNESDAY, APRIL
WORKING A HOG.
How . Trio of Shnrpers Skinned tho Dig.
 nitarics of . Rural Town.

How . Trio of Shnrpors Skinned tho Dig.
 nitaries of . Rural Town.
 When entered tho village, situated among the hills of New York, at ten o'clock in the morning, all was peaceful and serene, and the pocket of every man who walked the streets had chink in it, writes Q New YorkSun correspondent. When I left, at four p. m., an excited mob had possession of the man street and every other man was dead broke.
 About noon Q man arrived from the north in buggy. He said he was drover, and looking for hogs. He bought half dozen before he ate dinner, and it was astonishing how closely he guessed at their live weight. He was within two pounds on four of them, and only half pound more on the others. These had been an attraction for a crowd of ldlers, and the general verdict was that the drover was as sharp as a barber's razor. Soon after dinner 0 farmer-looking boy drove a hog into town, and staked him out in front of the tavern. As he wanted to sell and the drover wanted to buy, they soon came together. "Mlght take him on Q pinch, but he's only a nubbins," sad the drover, as he sized the porker up.
 ''Nubbins! Why, that pig goes over 200 pounds p exclaimed the owner.
 Cant stuff me, boy. Two been in the business twenty years"
 "No one wants to stuff. That 'ere hog goes to BIO"
 "He does, eh9 Wish your father had come in. I'd like to have made a bet with him. Boy, you ought to have better judgment. Th,lt hog won't pull down 1SO". ''Guess you are off, too,' remarked a stranger who had quietly driven up ill 8 buggy. 'Pve raised hogs all my life, and that boy hain't five pounds out of his guess"
 "Ain't he. Raised hogs, have you? Ever raise any moneyl' "A little"
 "Perhaps you'd like to bet on that hogf' "Perhaps."
 Have you got s20 as says he goes 20OF '1 have-fifty-a hundred!'' "Then let's chalk. Anybody can blow" It was a chance to make a dollar, and the citizens improved 1t. The man Il the buggy was an accommodating chap, and somehow or other the farmer boy managed to fish up about a hundred dollars from the hind pock- ct of his overalls. The citizens stuck by the drover, having abundant proofs of his judg- | ment, and when every man in that town who had loose dollar or could borrow one | had made his bet the hog was driven to the scales ana weighed. "Gentlemen," said the drover just before weighing, 'I was never deceived in my life This hog won't go to 19O pounds" "Il take even bets that he goes over POO, :" replied the man in the buggy. This bluff raked out the last nickel in the crowd, and the hog was driven upon the scales. The record was 211 pounds. He
 was weighed and reweighed, but the figures stood.
 "Well, it's my first error in hog" said
 the drover, and all bets were st once handed | over. The farmer boy slipped out, the two l men drove of in the buggy, and half an hour had elapsed before a church deacon, l who had laid his ten with the drover and lost, suddenly declared that it was put-up 1 job to skin the town. 'Durn my buttons if it hain't,' yelled two hundred men in a chorus, but it was too 1 late. The town had been skinned, and the l trio had escaped. All the mob could do was 1 to turn loose and wreck an old vinegar fac 1 tory and pass a resolution to the effect | that liberty was sham and delusion.