The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-07


Die. Like Philosophers.
From the New York sun.
There are razOr-back hogs, and razor
hack hogs said New Yorker, who
owns up to having spent a winter in
Florida. but the only true. genuine. hol-
Iow-g round, superine-edged razor-bacls
hog is the one that roams and roots The
dim-lit aisles of the Florida woods. max
ing their shadow-mottled vistas look like
the streets of New York wnen there's
new paving job on hand. The Florida
razor back is a dream. such dream az
might follow the trail of Welsh rarebit.
mince pie and lobster, taken Just before
going TO bed. I saw a hog down there
once that measured seven feet from the
tip of its snout to the butt OF its tail
1t stood nearly four feet high. OF that
seven feet two were snout and two head
The rest was body. l don't want to say
how long that hogs legs were, for I'm
afraid you'd suspect me, but from the
bristles on its back to its belly it meas
ured exactly one foot and two inches.
Neither will I venture TO say how much
through this remarkable pig was, but
at the place where I was staying they
had built a sort of hay shed. This was
double clapboarded. as you might saw
boards being nailed both on the outside
and inside of the joists. l don't know
Why that was DONE but it was. The
inner boarding was carried up only to
the hight of the NOW or platform, where
they stored their hay, as they called
the coarse marsh grass. This left an
open space between the outer and the in,
ner boards the width of the joists.
This particular razor-back was an in
Neterate hunter after hens eggs. The
minute he'd hear a hen cactle he'd make
make for the hay shed, and If he wasn't
followed pretty close he'd mount the lad
der leading UP into the NOV and scramble
that new-laid egg in short order. One dav.
nobody happened to be around Just for the
moment, this hog responded to the cackle
or hen and raided her nest i'm the NOV.
as II is supposed. At any rate. attention
was finally called to the razor-back bv a
particularly shrill and unusual squealing
which the pig did not seem inclined to let
up on In the slightest. BY and by some
body went out to the hay shed to see
what allied the pig. 1t could be heard but
not seen, and at last il was located as he
tween the outer and inner boarding of the
Up sufficiently high to release the pig
which was standing square on its feet
on the side beam. The joists on the inner
and outer ends of which the boards were
nailed. were four inches wide. 9The razor
back had fallen into that space somehow
from the NOV, and IN tumblng to the
bottom he hadn't rumpled a hair on either
side. The space was four inches wide, l
told You. ! don't dare tell you how thick
through the pig must have been And
this razorback was recl1oned to be in the
very pink of condition, too.
TO be literally correct. though. I should
say that it was in the very blue of condi-
ditlon Prime Florida razor-back pork is
as blue as an indigo bag. The first time |
sat down to meal at the far-away place
where l was stopping | saw a dish piled
full of thin strips of something that was
so blue it make me homesick to look at it.
Have some poke sah?' said my host.
Pork" l said. Heavens! Is that
pork"
Fine poke, sab" said the host Fin
est poke in the county, sab! Fast cullah,
sah!/ That poke never fade, sahr
Il found that it wasn't so much fat as
color that ruled in the quality of pork
down there. Inferior hog meat might
be a nice blue when killed, but in a day
or so it would fade out and become a
rusty yellow. The best pork was no
only blue when killed, but 1t RENAME
blue and got bluer the longer it W; IS
kept
"'What makes pork blue down heI {? -
l asked my host one day.
Wild awnges, sab, to give 'em the
Hawai-, sab, and they eat mawsh Grass
roots to give EN- the fat, sah!"
Il can't tell you why oranges should
turn razor-back hog meat blue, but ii
seems to. Those fearfully and 1Eonder-
fully mAde hogs feast on wild oranges.
The wild orange is the most beautiful
thlng to look at you ever saw. No cul-
uNated arrange, l don't care ~ ow fine it
may be, can compare with the wild
orange in beauty or fragrance, but lord
one bite into a wild orange will pucker
your mouth up so that it worE come un-
wrinkled for hours. Bitter? why there
IS more bitterness in one Dir op of wild
orange juice than in half a barrel of
qmnine! But it can't phaze The Florida
razor-back. He dotes on Wild oranges.
Mix some of the choicest brands of cult
waited oranges with falling of the wild
ones, and set a razor-back on tho lot
IL by any chance he should bite one of
the cultivated oranges you win see a mad
hog. He viii spit il out and stamp on it.
ana otherwise show his disgust. But he
won't often be fooled. His long snout
VIII soon detect the sweet oranges and
loss them to one side. One day I was
gong through the woods, and saw a razor
udck sampling some wild oranges that
mad fallen from tree. He tasted several
and then bristled up and rails ed Old Ned
around the tree. never saw such a mad
hog. 1 got scared and went home 1 told
my host about it, and asked him what it
meant
Cad sab" said he. The awnges, wa MT
plttah 'nough, sab! The Flahdy hog
palate is keyed monst' Gus high, sahr
What the razor back does with all the
Wlld oranges he eats is one of the mys-
terles of nature. If there is but one orange
on the ground he will eat that If there
are twenty, he viii eat them. If there is
d peck, he will eat that. If there is bushel
ne VIII eat the bushel. If there are enough
10 Ill a barrel, he will eat them If a
wagon load should be lying under tree
ne VIII eat the wagon load He will eat
via oranges twenty-four hours at a
stretch, and yet you would swear that he
Haqn had a thing to eat for month,
ana you'd feel sorry for him.
Inc wild oranges, they tell you, give
me razor back pork its favor and color.
ana the marsh grass roots give it its fat.
at! Why, if there ever was an unknown
quantity it is razor back hog fat! You
can put fat on one of those hogs anv
H1r.-