The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-04-25
CELEBRATED HOG CASE
ILLINOIS MAN ASKS $4,000 FOR A
PORKER'S WOUNDED HONOR.
Accuses Another of Saying the AMI
NAL Was n RinSer-Litigation Has
Cost $4,000 So Far.

SPRINGFIELD, H., April 24.-George c..
Council has begun a suit in the Sangamon
county Circuit Court TO recover $4,000 from
Charles A. Vigal, because Vigal has said
the hog that Council sold TO a syndicate as
the famous porker known as Klever's
Model was not Klever's Model at all, but
just a plain, everyday ringer" Now the
term ringer" as applied to swine, does
not mean merely a pig adorned with a
ring in its nose to keep it from the unpleas-
ant habit of roofing up young onion beds.
The syndicate that bought the hog of Coun-
Gil calls ii a ringer" because, its members
say, ii is not the hog that Council claimed
it was at all.
The hog the memberS OF the syndicate
wanted to buy was a proud, aristocratic
Klever's Model, and they paid $500, said
TO be the highest price ever paid for a hog
in the United States, for one they thought
was Klever's Model. But after they had
the animal in their possession they claimed
to have discovered it was, instead, only a
low. common, base-born porker known as
Columbia Wilkes. which they say would
have been hard to dispose of at $40. They
refuse to pay a matter of some $1,000 on
notes they had given Council when the hog
was bought. Council sued on the notes.
They had Council indicted by the grand
jury.
There have been suits and cross-suits. The
litigation over the hog already has cost over
$4,000. The last time Council sued to re-
cover on the notes the jury declared him in
the right and gave him judgment. Now he
has started after the men who said Klever's
Model was a plebeian hog in disguise and
has begun by suing Vigal for $4,000.
The story Of Council, the syndicate and
the hog is a long one, but every child in
Sangamon county knows it by heart. 1t
began in 1897 at the state fair grounds in
Springfield. Council decided publicly to auc-
ton off a famous hog he owned. known as
klever's Model. The hog came OF an ancient
and highly respected race and his fame was
known the country through, so when he was
put up on the block on Sept. 5 TO be sold to
the highest bidder, stockmen from all over
the country were there anxious to secure the
prize. The bidding rose higher and higher,
and finally klever's Model was sold TO a
posed of James L. Snare, of Wyoming, and
George A. Heyl and A. NJ. Caldwell, of
Washington. 1ney escorted Klever's Model
All was serene until Councils hired man
whispered about the country a horrible Sc
cret. He was a Swede, named Arthur THE
ldlIoC Il III lis tlOoO4to mini
so that he felt he must speak. He declared
the big Poland china hog That went under
the name of Klever's Model was not Kle-
ver's Model at all. The real Klevers Model.
he said, had died nearly a year before the
auction sale of one of the pestilences pecu-
liar to the hog race. The hired man said he
had been with klever's Model when 1t lay
down and died. had been chief mourner at
the funeral, and had acted as undertaken
for the deceased porker. He related how at
the dead Of night, by the sickly glare of a
barn lantern, he had laid klever's Model in
its grave. The next day, he said, Council
built d straw stack over the grave and put
place formerly occupied by Kleyer's Model.
This degraded hog was introduced around as
klever's Model. so the hired man alleged,
and finally sold as the original animal.
When the members of the syndicate heard
the hired mans tale they were greatly ex-
ercised. They sent a mar TO exnume the
remains under the straw stack Oh the Coun-
Gil farm. The grave was opened. but instead
of finding the skeleton of one hog they found
all that remained Of two. Council had not
denied the existence of hog bones under the
straw stack, but said they were those of two
hogs that had died of cholera and he had
buried them to prevent the disease from
spreading. Neither of these hogs, he de-
clared, was klever's Model, which he in
sisted he had sold 10 the syndicate.
The syndicate men. however, were not sat
| isfed. They took the hired man over to see
| the hog they had bought, and the hired man
pointed his finger at ii and said. like the
hero in a melodrama. I know you now.
YOU are not TIE dIlSlOcTdllC hltNCI = ElOu6l,
but the base-born Columbia Wilkes"
So the syndicate men posted off 10 Spring
field and put the hired man in the grand
jury room, and the hired man told the grand
jury his story and Council was indicted.
The case came up for trial and the states
attorney was preparing 10 wage a vigorous
prosecution against Council and the false
klever's Model, when he received an AFT
davit from Thielander stating that he had
sworn falsely before the grand jury and that
the real Klever's Model was alive and not
mOldGrlng IN the lonesome grave under the
The states attorney thought this settled
the matter and dismissed the case, but IL
was not 10 end here. The syndicate MEM
| bers claimed T~hielander had been bribed. a
sustained by the versatile Mr.. Thielander
himself during the trial of a suit which
Council brought against the members of the
syndicate 10 recover on the note. In the
first trial the jury disagreed. In the second
both sides brought experts from every part
OF the country TO swear for the defendants
in disguise. and for the plaintiff that
Klever's Model was the only original.
Over eighty witnesses were examined. and
the jurors were as muddIed as they had been
at the first trial. when Council won his suit
by c~heckmating a move or the defense.
hog which they had bought as Klever's
Model. but which they said was Columbia
Wilkes. Council went out 10 his farm and
the satisfaction of the jury was the original
Columbia Wilkes. With Columbia accounted
for. the jury decided that Klever's Model
could be none other than himself.
So the case was decided for Council, and
now he has begun suing the men who have
insisted that Klever's Model was Columbia
Wilkes. with another ring in his nose and
his tail trimmed off. Meantime the hired
man is silent and mysterious, and is ex-
| pected 10 come forward soon with a brand
new sensation.
Hotel Fire accidental.
NEW YORK, April 24.-The jury In the
yg-l.@. IInsaf t3ra ;pot,aSf hror1ht L. a.