The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-08-04
The First Thing He Knew He Stumbled
over the Widows Hog.

| Deacon Shadwell was encouraged and
discouraged in equal proportions, and
he finally felt it his solemn duty to
bring a suit for damages. aIt WASH
that he had any feeling against =the
Widow Lee, as he explained, { or that
he wanted the money to pay his doc
tor BILL but he wanted TO settle the
question of whether a big,s black hog,
suddenly aroused from sleep on the
dust-covered street, was a dangerous
animal or not.
The widow had known the ShadweIIs
for fifteen years and had neighbored
with them, and while she wasn't mad
she would defend the suit on the
grounds that no horse, whether belong
ing to deacon or layman, had any right
to have collie at midnight. If he had,
then mis- owner should have had a
collie cure at hand. Failing in this, no
man should go rushing along a dark
street at night without a lantern. If
Deacon ShadweH stumbled over her
hog. the nthe deacon alone was to
blame for it.
When the suit came on it attracted
almost as much attention as a presiden-
tiaI election. A big New York lawyer.
who saw that the liberty of all the
porkers in the United States was in
peril, and that all former decisions of
the supreme court might be overturned,
offered to take the case of the widow
for nothing. Opposed to him was a
Boston attorney OF note, VINO had long
wanted a legal decision as to whether
a man or hog had the most rights in
America, and about half the residents
of the country were witnesses.
The general character, habits, Gus
toms, oddities and eccentricities of the
American hog were oXerhauled and
sworn to. White hogs, black hogs,
spotted hogs and hogs of old gold color
Old men who had never been in a court
of law before now came forward and
swore their hardest, and innocent youth
was put on the stand to declare that
hogs were without ferocity.
Deacon Shadwell told a story which
was listened to with breathless interest
1t began with his being aroused from
sleep by his horse kicking around the
stables. He hurried out to find old
Dobbin in the clutches of horse-colic.
He had a lantern, but did not wait to
light it. Life was at stake.
He told now he went laundering
down the street in the darkness-what
feelings came over him as he passed
the gTist-mill-how he put on steam as
he drew near the cooper Shop-how
both his feet finally struck something
to land on mis- head. There was no
doubt in his mind that the hog sought
to kill him later on. He had once been
run through a threshing machine, and
the two cases were exactly alike.
All the Widow Lee could swear to
was that she was sound asleep that
night and dreaming of her sister out
in Iowa. She had owned the hog for
two years. and he had always seemed
to be of a gentle and loving DISPOSE
ton. He might, thinking himself at
tackled by some wild animal, have
fought back, but she could hardly
have believed 1t Of him.
When the suit had dragged along
for ten days the jury disagreed, and
the hog, the widow and the deacon
were left just where they were before.
1t was for the deacon to push the case
further If he wanted to. but he decided
to let it rest. The widow didn't want
any more law, and things would have
quieted down if certain people could
have kept still. They happened to be
church members, and they didn't hap
pen to like the widow for reasons
outside of the hog case. She was not
a good hand to lend tea and sugar
and whenever the church held an ice |
cream festival she wanted to boss. /
1t thus came about that things were |
said, and that the widow took UNI
bragg and made reply, and by and |
by the minister was having his hands |
full to keep the peace. 1t didn't help |
the case that the widow decided to |
withdraw from the church. There |
were two or three sisters who wanted |
to prefer charges and drive her out |
and perhaps things would have gone |
that way but for the hog.
One Sunday forenoon, just as SER