The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-15

hand to be guessed at. They seemed al
together too heshy for their frail legs to
hold.
The difficult feature of a guessing con-
test is to get the hogs to stand erect and
assume a military attitude These over
led creatures could not stand erect long
Judge them at all. When one of the
farmers prodded them with a cane they
set up unearthly yells, and their huge
bodies trembled and shook like a delicate
mold of wine jelly. A young man drifted
in and soon had them all on their feet
by blowing clouds of obnoxious cigarette
smoke in their faces
NO sooner had the four hogs fallen I'M
der the influence of the cigarette smoke
than a dozen experts in hog products
leaped the bars and began winding tape
measures about them. They have a way
of multiplying the loin measurements by
that OF the neck and dividing ii by the
length from ears to tail. The result, they
say, furnishes the hogs weight Before
any one was allowed to make any scien-
unc researches within the bars the hotel
man saw to it that he was properly reg
istered on the long list tied with a cigar
ribbon, and that the sacred monosyllable
paid was recorded opposite his name
The patriarch who guessed nearest to the
weight was to have the hog.
After the four hogs had been speculat-
ed on the real fun began. large pair of
platform scales We're rolled to the side of
the Enclosure, and a box on wheels opened
at one end was placed inside. Four stall
wart men then began to try and urge hog
No. l to enter the box. but he could no
more be induced to do so than any kind of
a hog could be induced to cross a bridge
Fair means having become exhausted
each man tried to persuade it to stand
erect and walk gracefully by the urgent
prodding of sharp sticks. Failing in this,
two pieces of stout planking were procured
and placed beneath the hog, but when
cracked and broke, and the hog gave few
grunts of approval.
When no one could think of an ingen-
ious scheme by which the illustrious NAM
moth parker could be inveigled into the
box, the boy in possession of the cigar
cite habit came along and said he could
perform the job. He tried to the extent of
burning half cigarette, and succeeded in
moving the hog to the opposite side of the
Enclosure.
Without wasting any more time. the
landlord, who seemed panied at the delay
brought forth some four-inch tmbers, a
block and tackle and nails. In a short time
derrick was rugged, and when moose
men took hold and hoisted him into the
box, while he was making more noise than
an average-sized pig under a gate.
The box was rolled upon the scales the
weights adjusted and the beam balanced
After deducting the weight of the box.
the hog weight was found to be 40S
pounds. No one guessed right but the
man coming nearest to it thought 1893
pounds, and won the hog.
The penalty for his good luck was that
he had to elbow off, the crowd. which
cost him over sis. His hog, a Six cents
a pound, was worth SPAS, and he really
saved something over Sc by entering the
contest, instead of buying outright.
The other hogs weighed 1868. AIS and
349A pounds respectively, and went
through the same process of weighing ex-
cept that they were inveigled into the box
without the derrick or the boy with the
cigarette. No one guessed the exact
weights, but several came near them. One
of the experts, who used tape measures to
assist their wavering opinions got a hog,
and each man that did get one had to
treat the crowd.
The luckiest man in the whole crowd was
the landlord. He admitted that his re-
ceipts from dinners and applejack sold
the sportsmen and witnesses amounted
to nearly 500. He said there had been
ten guessing contests at his hotel this
winter so far, and he expected several
more. He is getting rich from the sport
Some Of the guessers have records they
are proud of. One old farmer, who must
certainly have passed the 10Th milestone
of his career said he had been guessing
on hogs for nearly twenty years. He had
guessed on about SEQ he thought and had
won more than half of them. on the
above occasion he didn't win a single
ca rnn1e of DOrk