The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-02-24

from this town a few days ago Nearly
three hundred men participated They came
from all directions. Some OF them lived ten
cient vehicles. Most Of the contestants
"aoofed it," as they expressed H. The
horses were tied in big shed in the rear OF
guessed at. They seemed altogether too
fieshy for their frai legs 10 hold.
The difficult feature Of guessing contest
Is TO get the hogs TO stand erect ard as
sumo a military attitude These overfed
creatures could not stand erect long enough
for roll-call, and IL was hard 10 judge them
at all. When one of the farmers prodded
them with a cane they set up unearniy
yelis, and their huge bodies tremDlea ana
young man drifted in and soon had them
all on their feet by blowing clouds or OBJ
noxious cigarette smoke In their faces.
No sooner had the hogs fallen under the
influence OF the cigarette smoke than d0z-
en- experts IN hog products leaped through
the bars and began winding tape measures
about them. They have a way OF multiply
ing the loin measurement by that Of the
neck. ana dividing 1t bv. the length from
the hogs weight. Before anyone was al
lowed TO make any scientific researches
ne was properly registered on the long list
tied with cigar ribbon. and that the sacred
monosyllable paid was recorded opposite
his name. The patriarch VINO guessed near
est 10 the weight was 10 have the hog.
After the four hogs had been speculated
form nn ss sla were rolled to tae side Of the in
closure. and a box on wheels. open at one
end, was placed inside. -Four stalwert men
then began TO try 10 urge hog No 10 en-
ter the box but he could no more be in.
duced TO do so than any kind or a hog could
be induced 10 cross bridge FAR means
having become exhausted. each man tried 20
persuade him to stand erect and walk grace
fully by the urgent prodding OF sharp sticks.
Failing in this. two pieces OF stout plankine
but when the men began TO lift the plank
ing bent, cracked and broke. and the hog
gave a few grunts OF approval When no
one could think Of an ingenious scheme by
which the illustrious mammoth porker could
be inveigled into the box the boy IN posses
! sion - the cigarette came along and said he
could perform the job. He tried to the ex-
tent of burning half a cigarette. and sue
ceeded in moving the hog to the opposite
Without wasting any more time. the land
| lord. who seemed panied al the delay,
block and tackle and nails. In short time
| a derrick was rugged. ana when moose was
placed around the hogs body eight men took
was making more noise than an average
| sized pig under a gate.
The box was rolled upon the scales. the
weights were adjusted and the beam was
| balanced. After deducting the weight OF the
| box. the hogs weight was found 10 be 4os
| coming nearest to IL thought 3ss pounds and
won the hog. The penalty for the gooc luck
was that he had to blow orr the crowd:
pound, was worth SPAS. and he really saved
| something over S. sby entering the contest
| instead of buying outright.
| The other hogs weighed 3s3. as and 349iz.
respectively, and went through the same
process OF weighing. except 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 his wavering opinion got
| 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 his receipts from
| dinners and applejack sold TO the sports
men and witnesses amounted TO nearly 800.
| He said there had been ten guessing con-
| tests 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 GER
tainly have passed the SEVENTEEN milestone
| of his career, said he had been guessing on
| hogs" for nearly twenty years. He had
| guessed on about five hundred. he thought
and had won more than half OF them. CA
the above occasion he didn't win a single
| sample Of pork