The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-15
MALvERN's ERUDITE sHoAT.
Perhaps the Most Cultured Creature
in the whole State of Arkansas.
From the Chicago Times-Herald


From the Chicago Times Herald
Speaking of pork" said BisselI Wilson,
district passenger agent of the Missouri
Pacific railway. inserting a conversational
Jimmy into a discussion between two board
of trade men. Speaking of pork did you
ever meet that educated pig at Malvern?
No? Well. there's one joy and delight com
ing to YOU. That pig is beyond all caviI
and argument the most accomplished ami
NAL in the state Of Arkansas. You may tell
your stories of intelligent dogs and wise
mules, but this brown shoat of Malvern
has the general information of a uniVers-
ity postgraduate. | met him in casual
eled all the way from Memphis to see him
What is his specially? Telling time
Malvern, you know. is where the Hot
Springs Short Line meets the Iron noun
tain road. l stood on the platform one
morning waiting for the Springs train l
saw this hard-looking pig projecting
around the right of way in a desultory
manner, and while l was idly watching
him he surprised me by sitting down
lifting his nose toward heaven and howl
ing i'm the most frightful manner / never
heard such a horrible piercing song. and
he wouldn't let up. He kept it going as
if he were doing piece work.
Why don't you unload your Winches-
ter into the critter?' l asked of a hunter
native-who was standing on the plat
form.
ter he replied. The citizens would surely
lynch any one who tried to bushwhack
that hog. / remember one stranger. eight
or ten years ago. started in to chunk him
with pieces of coal The townfolk run the
tourist clear yonder to that bend in the
track. He may be on the run yet. He had
hit a good gait when last seem
Why do the natives set such a store by
nuisance? l pursued.
He amt regarded in that light.
stranger. So far from being regarded as
Objectionable that swine is the object
around which civic pride swings and rat
ties. We set out watches by that hog, and
town clocks in Malvern are a useless
earth. You see, it's like this. Twelve
years ago Rodney, then a common, or
dinary-looking pig, with no indication of
his brain power. walked down the right
of way Just as the train stopped The
porter in the buffet car dumped his refuse
food out beyond the water tank, just as
he had for months before. Rodney hap
pened down there and got a square meal.
Next day he came again. AT first he got
but one feed per day. Then he began to
consider, and TO lay for all the trains. 1t
took him two months to differentiate be-
tween the local and through trains, but
at last he got 'em all fixed, and you
couldn't drive him there now before the
regular train time. Three times a day
in the morning, at about o'clock in
the afternoon and again at 6-he's Johnny
on the spot as these travelling men say
Once a porter fooled him-he threw the
stuff out on the wrong side of the train,
and Rodney run him up telegraph pole.
1t took the whole train crew TO keep the
pig at bay until the porter could get into
the train. Since then they haven't tried
any tricks on him.
But why does he make such an Internal
noise about it?' l asked.
That's where his value as a time-tell-
ing institution comes in. If the train is
on time he amt saying a word, but if it's
a minute overdue he raises his voice and
he keeps 1t up till he hears the engine
So Malvern people know the time whether
the trains are on schedule time or not
OF course it's monotonous sometimes.
when they are three or four hours off
their time. but the town has to stand it
until the delayed train comes or another
one is due from the other way
But l objected, when the time is
changed in the spring and fall, it must
throw the pig off his reckoning
Don't believe it, stranger. The critter
can do anything but talk, and he gets
his tip on the changes hearing the sta
ton men discussing the new time card
Rodney is never wrong"