The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-12

TWO MALIGNED ANIMALS.
Man Makes the Pig Dirty, as He
Made the Bear Cross.
From Our Animal Friends.

From Our Animal Friends.
Because the pig by nature roots for
his food with his snout, gobbles in eat
ing, grunts to express his feelings. and
likes a cool mud bath in hot weather,
does not mean that the unfortunately
misunderstood animal prefers filth to
cleanliness. In fact. the saving "as
dirty as a pig ought really to be
changed to "as dirty as the person who
keeps dirty pig"
Than the wild hog no animal is
cleaner. A nasty vile smelling pig sty
is a disgrace to the man who forces
his pigs to live in it. A clean well
fed pig is both happier and healthier
than filthy pig. On some farms kept
by clearly human beings you may
have noticed the shining, pink skinned,
white haired bodies of the common litz
tie white pigs. In good condition, they
are allowed a run in the grass, and
they live in styes in actual comfort.
If the pig will eat corn husks, pota
to parings and other table refuse, do
you suppose for a moment that the
poor creature likes filth mixed with
that food? There is nothing nasty in
! the refuse from our tables In eating
up the remains of the food which our
stomach are not intended to receive
the pig is very useful But the corn
cob is as clean as the corn. Surely, it
ought to be! The best proof, however,
that the pig is prefarbly a clean ami
NAL is the way he manages to keep
| clean in a wild state.
ITO eat like a pig" means, of course,
to gobble ones food in a noisy, often
sive manner as an animal has a nat
ural right to do: but to be "as dirty
as a pig is an embarrassing criticism
on the carelessness of our own kind
and is an insult to the helpless, domes-
ticated pig. Keep the farm pig as he
would keep himself, if he were free,
and you will learn from him a lesson
in cleanliness.
The habit of comparing our own at
tacks of fretful ill-temper with the
temper of the bear has given us an
other unjust adage. There is an his
torical excuse for it that may be of
interest to our young people. In the
old days of "Merrie England" the
dancing bcar, led around by a ring in
his nose, was d common sight on the
streets. Those bears sometimes broke
loose, and there was then a great hub
bub among the frightened people; for,
you may we'll imagine, the tired tor
mented bear was as cross as ne had
every excuse to be. He didn't care
to harm anybody. He wanted only to
get rid of his human tormentors; but
they hooted at him and ran after him,
| and always caught and punished him,
so that the life of a supposed tame
bear was as hard and unlovely a life
as you could find
The big, laundering. clumsy bear In
his natural surroundings, is as harm
less as any of the big wild animals.
| He prefers running away to running
after a man. He won't even fight. if
he can get off without it. A bear, too,
| can be made happy very simply. Any
| one who has seen the bears of the
| Yellowstone Park can tell you that.
! You may have read in print as many
! times as we have seen it, that it is
the custom to put the hotel refuse in
| the Yellowstone Park where the bears,
! and other protected wild creatures of
| that region, can come at night to feed
| One of the most entertaining spectacIes
! recommended to the guests of the hotel
| is to watch the bears at their dinner
| hour. Punctual in attendance. kindly
| toward one another, these great ami
| mails very rarely show themselves "as
cross as bears"