New-York tribune., 1903-01-18
BIG HOG GUESSINGS.'
Il LONG ISLAND SPORT
Hoe the .Shre7cdeSt Calculations
Often Come to Ndueht.

and the islanders, who are good at guessing the
weight of hogs, or who think they are, which
amounts to about the same thing up 10 the
moment the porker is weighed, are in their
glory. The ''guessin's.'' ''killin's,'' as they
are indiscriminately called, chiefly given by
hotel keepers. who appreciate the incidental
additions to their profits and vie with each
other in inventing catchy names and in buying
for the occasions hogs which vary much as
possible from standard lard yielding models.
This winter has been record breaker for
puzzles and deceivers of the genus sus. Tom
O'Keefe, of the Audrey Castle. Oyster Bay,
started the trouble early in the year with a
big poster bearing the announcement: Here
We Are Again with Another Big One" The
hosts gathered and found O'Keefe's pig easy.
He was standard ''guessin hog" and so many
''notched" him 0hat is the Long Island term
for guessing the exact weight. or got in on
the overplus money (Which means that they
came within one of getting the hog), that every
body went away fancying himself expert.
Sherman Tweedy. Of the Sherman House, Baby
Ion. already had out posters bearing the an
nouncement in the biggest wood type In the Of
flee Of The Long Island News"I This Porker
is a Corker.F The hosts made q beeline from
Oyster Bay TO Babylon, and there found, to
their disuay, that Mr.. Tweedy meant every
word he said. The talent puzzled. They
multiplied them, expressed in inches. together
and divided by &. ~ and ~, according to their
Judgment. decided that his weight was some
where between 40 and $50. and proceeded to
guess and bet accordingly. The hog tipped the
beam at 49S pounds, and the who earned
reputation for being the "dumdest'' fool on
the island, by guessing ASS, got the hog. The
overplus of $50 went TO another fellow, who
had been pronounced a grinning idiot for guess
.ng 49,. The talent" left Babylon sadder than
st came and hied itself to ANDY" Felter's hotel
ct 1indenhust, TO guess on the Berkshire Won
der" and carry away hog. overplus and
"Andy's" last drop Of the hog guesser's favorite
beverage.
The next two events took the guessers back
30 Babylon. tom" Tferney offered for consid-
GRAFTON his Black Beauty, the posters for which
doubtless referring TO the Sherman House incl
dent, invited one and all 10 "Cqtne! Change your
luck" They came, measured and remeasured
and proceeded to guess all the way from 43O
TO 467 pounds II looked like q cinch" said
q reminiscent victim at the next guessin'. "A
tarTlal fool from New-York came at the height
Of the excitement and informed us. with as
much confidence as if he knew more than the
tape could tell. that Tierney's hog would crowd
490. We made so much fun Of him he
left without guessin. The hog, according to
the tape. and seven a divisor. couldn't go
over 45S Bay Shore butcher was caleld all
sorts of names for guessing 467. but he carted
off the hog. which weighed twenty-one pounds
more than the highest guess. If the New York
er had stayed and guessed. 1t would have been
his ha-ha and his hog, but the talent gave him
cold feet by the unanimity with which it guyed
him
Fred" Kent. Of the La Grange Hotel, at East
Babylon, furnished the next "guessin'." His
hog was advertised in the same type and with
the identical stock wood cut used in illustrating
and proclaiming Sherman Tweedy's Corker. IF
there was anything in the picture worthy Of
note il was the hint that the Old Deceiver
which would crowd 600," advertised by Boni-
face Kent, full brother Boniface
Tweedy's Corker, and twin at that The pig
said by Mr. Kent to be two years old, but
Dame Rumor had him down as anywhere from
three TO five years older.
Last Tuesday was fixed as the doomsday of
the Old Deceiver and. for week before that
date intending guessers measured him daily
and figured diligently TO notch" him There
was general agreement that his Dimensions
required ~ or ~ divisor. The early
-neasurers gave his Dimensions as IS by 60.
which, multiplied together, equal 1856. and
this divided by 71a, gave ATS pounds as the
Old Deceivers weight Dividing by 7a4 a
mathematical operation so complicated that few
X.
deduct twelve, fourteen fifteen or sixteen
pounds from the 756 basis. This would place
the weight at from 462 to 46S. On the morning
of the fatal day somebody declared that the
correct measurement was IS by 60. According
20 the computation from this measurement, the
hog should weigh. with ~ as a divisor, 464
pounds and with sixteen pounds off for the
7s4 division, 450 even. This was the basis on
which the contest opened. except among CO.
ierie Of eighteen Babylonians. each of whom
took two 30 cent chances in pool and guessed
thirty-six consecutive numbers. beginning with
417 and ending with 45S.
Bert" Tweedy the Babylon nverynan, meas
ured the hog finally in the interest of the pool
about noon of its last day on earth Bert"
has been "guessin' clerk" at most of these oc-
currences since he was twelve years old, and
the fact that the Old Deceiver little tick
lish about the root Of his tail did not escape
''Bert's" eagle eye. He noticed that when the
thumb was pressed the tape at that eX-
fremity the hog bowed up his back. drew down
his rump and ducked his head. Bert shrewd-
ly measured him without touching his fuIlly
bone, and the result was 3S by %. or, on the
7s4 basis, 434 pounds. The thirty-six guesses
were placed one this number, seventeen be
low it, and eighteen above it. This was all
settled before the hosts began TO gather.
about O'Clock in the afternoon, John Mott,
The Babylon butcher who TO oft1ciate at
the execution, arrived with kettle, d bag OF
lorg knives and steelyards with beam ca
pacity Of one thousand pounds To the remark
that J00-pound steelyards would have been SUI
ficient Mott sagely replied that IL cost no more
20 borrow the Loo pound apparatus than five
hundred and that he always believed in being
butcher what the hog would weigh. Mott eyed
him closely. sagely shook his head and walked
away His air said plainly words, L
know but Il would be unprOfessional to let the
secret leak out" John Kehoe, who brags about
his twelve childrent and never fails to be on
hand during the first five rounds of a guessln
and 10 do his part in each round, conndentlaIly