The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-05-13
THE SQUEAl OF A PIG.
1t Made Trouble for the Owner, but Saved
$50, to a Bank,

1t Made Trouble for the Owner, but Saved
100000 to a Bank.
EARLY one morning not long ago a
pig up in Catawissa, Pa, squealed,"
said John Gilbert, the travelling grocer
man, "ahd hat squeal was worth sixty
thousand dollars. 1t wasn't worth that
to the pig. nor to the pigs owner, but
it had that solid value to the First Ma
tlona bank of Catawissa. Almost
everybody keeps a pig in Catawissa.
John Hulshizer, a modest citizen, owns
one. The Hulshizer pig is a particularly
obstreperous one, and hates confine-
ment. 1t is always trying to get out of
its pen, and now and then succeeds. 1t
makes its effort to escape always at
night, and citizen Hulshizer may be said
to have acquired the habit of sleeping
with n eye and both ears open in
expectation of having to arise at almost
any hour of the night to circumvent his
pig In some attempt to get out of its
sty.
o the occasion 1 speak of, Hulshizer
opened his sleeping eye and jumped out
of bed about half past three in the
morning. The agonizing squeal of a
pig was in the air. He recognized it at
once as the voice of his impatient pork
er. He hustled out to it's pen AS soon as he
could, and found that the pig had broken
Off a board at one side of the sly and
had attempted to escape through the
opening thus made. But the opening
was too small for the purpose, and the
pig had been caught amidships in it, and
could neither get any further on it's road
to freedom nor return to its prison.
Hence its vociferous squeal.
Citizen Hulshizer at once set to work
to enlarge the opening so that he could
get his pig back in the pen, but he over
looked the fact hat the enlargement
would give the animal an equal chance
to get out. Indeed, az soon as there
was space enough the ungrateful an
imal gathered itself together, sprang
clear of the obstruction, and ran at the
top of it's speed down the street.
Hulshizer followed it on a dead run, but
did not succeed in overhauling the pig
until the chase had led them to the door
of the First National bank. There the
perspiring and painting owner of the
pig got close enough to grab it, and the
pig instantly resumed it's piercing and
f~ar-reaching squeal. Citizen Hulshizer
held fast to the pig, and was about head
ing it for home when three men came
tumbling helter-skelter out of the ban.,
and tore wildly away, soon disappearing
in the darkness.
'Strange as it may seem, Hulshizer
was SO taken up with the capture of
his pig and concerned about getting it
back home that the incident of the men
tumbling out of the bank did not strike
him as of particular significance. He
got his pig home and safely housed,
and went to bed again. Then, as his
nerves became quiet, he got to think
ing about the men who had left the
bank so hurriedlv.
"fWhy, say he thought by and by,
that pig scared them fellers so that
they didn't take time to lock the bank
door,
''Then Citizen Hulshizer got up again
and went back to the bank. The door
was wide open. So he aroused a citizen
living near the bank. That citizen in
attempting to come out of his door
found his way blocked by strong wires
that were strung from jamb to jamb.
BY this time others living in the imme-
date vicinity of the bank were aroused,
and every door leading out of their
houses was found INSTRUCTED by wires.
1t was broad daylight before any ex-
animation was made of the bank. The
outer door had been opened by means
of holes that had been drilled through
it near the lock, so that the bolts were
readily moved. The vault door had
been opened by drilling, and the safe
in the vault was bored through and,
as the bankers declared when they
came, would have opened to the efforts
of the burglars in five minutes more.
There was sixty thousand dollars in
bank notes and coin in the safe. If it
hadn't been for the opportune squeal of
Citizen Hulshizer's pig that sixty thou
sand dollars would have changed hands
five minutes later. So the pigs squeal
was worth sixty thousand dollars-to
the bank.'-N. Y. Sun.