The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-12-18
ANNUAL HOG
KILLING.
The Saturnalia of the Southern Negro
Before he Began to Study Greek
and Latin and cSulpture.

want dc llgmant cleaned fore dinner
time. Dat mean she want dc CUTS
scraped for dc sossagc: Come right
long, chillun, kasc Miss nj rcss twell
she see dem sossagc stuff.'
The mornings now are clear and
cold and frosty, and the ground is
little "spewcd up" This makes us
think of-and long for--the annual
hogkilling of old times before the war.
And in our minds eye we see the dear
pictures Of "Aunt" Nancy, our
"randmothcr's cook, summoning her
children to hurry to the cleaning OF
the ligamcnts-' scrapin' de quits D.
in which the sausage is to be stuffed.
This was before Tildy and Tom and
Pink and Ephrm knew The suffrage,
or had begun to study Greek and Lat
in and sculpture. And this was be-
fore the negro cook at moment s
warming would leave you in the deep
est lurch, and donning classic sandals
and Roman drapcry, go to the near
est city to take the parts Of vestal viz
gins in Pain 5 "Destruction Of Pom
ncii.'
But let us--in memory blowing up
Il bladdcr-take you into the hog-kill-
ing arena. The annual ho@-killing in
oldtime village or plantation life was
a very distinctive and important fea-
turc Of said life. The annual hog
killing brought out all the boumdless
grace, vigor, enthusiasm and vivacity
of the Southern negro. Th" bull-figh,
Of Spain is to the Spaniaro nothing
compared to what the hog-killing u.s.
ed to be to the Southern negro. Day
by day, from November 1st to March
LIST, the necessary cold spell was anX-
iously looked for, prayed for.
And the hogs! Perhaps you imagine
that we raised them. Not at all. We
were cottontots' then as we are
now-only more intelligent and decent
ones. We did not raise hog. They
were driven in huge and numerous
drovcs across the mountains, from
Kentucky, Tennessee and Western
North Carolina.
The Kentucky and Tennessee hog
drovers in fact made up one of the
peculiar institutions of the old South.
They were rough, rude and dirty men,
but honest and we'll meaning, if We
remember Alright. They began to drive
their immense droves of hogs into
South Carolina about the 1st of No
vembcr; and you might look for them
until the 1st of March. Two or three
stalwart men and four or five of their
male young generally accompanied
each drove. The hogs were driven not
more than ten miles day. They were
stopped at night at some country inn,
the innkeepers feeding not only the
drovcrs but the hogs. And while they
were at this inn or that inn or at this
prominent point or that, the farmers
and planters for miles around came
and bought. And great was the car
nival. The saturnalia of ancient Rome
was poor show compared to it. The
farmers or planters who came to buy
hogs brought with them large num-
bers of negro men, women and chill
dren to drive the hogs home. At these
periods the whole face of the earth
would be alive with hogs, hog-drovcrs
farmers, planters and negroes, great
and small. The hog was sold at SO
much pound on the hoof. "On the
hoof' was the phrase. And then fol-
lowed the great slaughter carnival Oh
each plantation. The negroes were
wild. The negro women and children
became absolutely frantic. They saw
themselves rioting, abounding and cH-
nlting in livers, litos, tails, jowls,
"chitlins," kidneys, cracklins" and
bladders. And so they did riot and
exult. They did not eat the bladders,
but to own bladder and blow it up
through reed was tho height Of all
earthly glory to the pickaninny, and,
we must confess, to the white child
also. Oh, those halcyon hog-killing,
bladder-blowing daysl They were dir
ty days, when tho breezes was tainted,
and when everything was everybody
relked with filth and worked among
miscellaneous viscera, but still they
were delightful days. The memory
of them is unspeakably dear to our
soull y
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