The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-02-06
have served a shipwrecked crew as
larder for a week
RUNAWAY PIG AT Ell CANEY.
An Episode Not Down in the Official
Reports of the Battle.

On July l, 1898, when the battle at
Caney was hottest, curious commotion
among the Spanish soldiers was visible
in one of the trenches which defended
the town. These trenches were all on the
outskirts of the town and frequently were
Immediately in front of buildings. The
place was inhabited at the time of the
attack, and bullets and shells went flying
through the flimsy houses. There were
several horses in the town. some of which
were seen rushing about the streets dur
ing the bombardment. There were few
cattle, including a superb bull kept for the
performances in the bull ring at Santiago,
near by. This fine animal was uninjured
during the fight, but he was looted" by
the Cubans after the town was taken and
ANONYMOUSLY led by the nose to the main
Cuban camp, to be slaughtered for food
for the insurgent soldiers.
There were also animals of another
sort, as the incident to which allusion has
been made proved. Toward the middle
of the day the watching American soldiers
come running out of low matched
building inside the Spanish trenches, and
rounding corner of the ditch take to
flight outside the trenches in the direc-
ton of the American position.
Evidently he had been lodged under
the thatch-roofed house just before the
trench in the free and easy domestic man
ner in which Cuban pigs are generally
taken care of. A bullet or shell had in
vaded his retreat, shattered his Enclosure,
set him free and scared him almost to
death at the same time.
The Spanish soldiers ceased their firing
as the pig escaped, and there was commo-
ton among them. Presently this COM
motion resolved itself into a rush of sew
eral soldiers out of the trench and in the
direction of the pig. Soon there were fif-
teen of them out in the open, in the full
sweep of the American fire.
Some of them ran to head off the pig
and others rushed up behind to catch
him. The pig wheeled and lodged and
the soldiers wheeled and lodged after
Their ChOr1IS Of
Spanish shouts Up and down went the
pig; when soldiers hands were on him
he would make a twist and wriggle him.
self away.
Once he made a long, run straight
toward the American lines; 1t did not
help him, for the soldiers were after him
entirely disregarding the battle. Some of
them headed him off again, and in an
other moment an athletic young soldier
had seized first his tail and then his legs
Still another moment and the pig firmly
held, was on his way back to the trenches,
riding on the shoulder of this young man,
his forelegs gripped by one hand and his
hind legs by the other.
The soldiers resumed their places in the
trench; the one who had the pig put him
back into the thatch-roofed building. and
presently returned to his own place and
1t is safe to say that during the chase
of the pig no American soldier who saw
the affair discharged his gun at the group.
The Americans who saw it were too full
of admiration and establishment to add to
the dangers which the audacious Span
iards were under; but thousands of Amer
leans who could not see the incident were
blazing away in that direction, and the
Spaniards who were chasing the pig must
have heard great many bullets whistling
about their ears during their perform
ance
The Americans who were within view
of the occurrence were confirmed by 1t In
the opinion which they had begun to form
already that the people at home who had
told them that the Spaniards were cow
ards did not know what they were talk
ing about.-Youths Companion.