The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-02-01

For Wo'll nope ana SIrlVc 10 6Qber
The great treasure house of God;
Where the true and ransomed spirits
With the angels long have trod.
Mrs. W p. Miller, IN 50. Louis GLOBE Democrat
HOW MAKE HANDSOME LIVING RAIs-
ING PIGS.
I am the woman who dared and
did am the woman who kept pigs
and made money off them and saved
myself from poverty.
Of course everybody says, "Oh,"
with a questionable infection, and
looks at me in wonder and asks me
why l did such thing. Some men
tion the fact that / am a college grad
uate and ask me why / turned to
pigs instead of the treasures of my
brain for a livelihood in way that
shows me quite plainly that they con-
slider I have abused my privileges
and am disgrace to my alma mater.
But these people who treat me and
my pigs with such fine scorn do not
know that college education is not
worth the snap of your finger when
you are in actual want and need as
sistance in hurry.
I could stand in a shop for five dol
lars a week and get white and wan
and weak, and spend all earn in
paying doctors bills afterwards. /
could get no place in an Office, for /
should have to learn bookkeeping or
typewriting, and 1 have no time for
that.
I had been let down all at once
crash, aud no time for anything but
work and earn my bread.
Reared tenderly in the gentlest of
atmospheres, taught only to dance
and dine, talk small talk and dress
divinely-result /: keep pigs!
The chief reason was that / had to
be out of doors to keeps my health,
and then I heard a friend say that
she never had pork on her table any
more because it was not sweet and
fine and well-fed, but came from the
mysterious depths of the West and
was fed on offal from the city back
doors. Then I saw poor woman
taking care of the pigs, while the
farmer husband was away, and it
looked interesting at the time, and I
remembered it.
l thought it all out in the still
watches of the night, and said, cts
pigs or the poorhouse. " And pigs
it was.
And now / am prosperous and hap
py and healthy and like my pigs and
they like me. There it is in a nut
shell, and now for the details Of my
story.
HOW BEGAN PIG KEEPING.
To begin with, had enough money
to buy my pigs and to live on for
three months. I have been keeping
pigs now for three years, and am
not ashamed of my mistakes, but am
as proud as a peacock of my success
had my pigs sent to my country
home in New England town. A
SOW, boar and eight little pink pigs.
I felt very important when l ordered
them placed in the new pen back of
the stable that had once held five
horses and which was now to be let.
I had read up diligently on pigs in
all the books the great libraries had
on the subject, and l was pig-wise to
the last degree.
The man who brought the pigs had
heard of my intentions and he stood
back and looked me over scornfully.
'You amt goin' to feed no pigs in
that dress, be your" he asked, with
a dirty finger pointed at my pink
lawn frock. 1t was June, and l was
fresh and clean and cool-that was
all. The fact that my cheap pink
lawn was snartly fitted and held
myself straight made it look unfit to
him but that and two or three others
ofa different shade but of equal cheap
ness were my ''pig-gowns" for all
Summer.
And how l did watch and tend my
precious pigs
cooked and arranged their food
myself. carried it to them in small
buckets and poured it into their clean
troughs. / fed them on fresh grass
that cut myself. Imade them clean
beds in a corner, and there was never
any filth or piggy" odor about that
pen. / treated my pigs respectfully
and gave them opportunities to be
clean, and they became sweet and
orderly and self-respecting.
Pigs are dirty because man makes
them so. Mine were as clean and
dainty as any pussy cat by the fire.
| And as for their food, | could have
eaten every bit of it myself as far as
cleanliness was concerned, for it was
as neatly and nicely cooked as my
own breakfast.
I believed from the first that what
was worth doing at all was worth
doing we'll, and in spite of little set
backs and losses and buying all the
food at market prices 1 have by care
full management, forethought and at
tention, made pig keeping pay from
the first.
MODEL PIGGERY.
To begin with, l had my sty built
on high. dry place, for I had learned
in my wisdom that for the well-being
of my stock the piggery should stand
high. 1t is a natural rise, where the
water can run away before and be-
| hind and co mona can 1ndUe in the