The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-12-18

fire roasted dozens and dozens OF
huge clean stones. Then two or three
huge vats sunk in the ground, three
feet deep by seven or eight or nine
long. These vats arc filled with water.
Then long, rude gallows, upon which
the carcasscs are to hang. Then the
hogs in q pen hard by grunting and
squealing and twisting with deadly
premonition Of their fate. Then n
very Hercules Of o coal-black negro
man with a great axe. He is to be
the executioner. He is an extremely
honored and revered person; and he
carries himself proudly as his proto-
type on Olympus. Then four or five
lesser sons of Anak with long, horr1-
bic sharp knives. They are the throat
stickers. They know about the jugu-
lar vein. Then dozens Of negro wo-
men with their homespun skirts tied
high up around their hips, and with
tubs and pals and knives. Then more
dozens of negro children waiting to
revcl in the bloody sacrifice and blow
up the greasy bladders-not dreaming
that the time was not far off when
old Abe Lincoln and Mrs. Harriet
Bcccher Stowe would invest them
with "thc inalicnablc right of every
American citizen" Dog gone old Abe
Lincoln and Mrs. Harriet Bccchcr
Stowe for their stupid and evil deeds !
Then the white children Of the family
equally anxious for The bladder
period.
Now the huge rcd-hot stones are
taken out Of the fierce red fire with
hoes and rakes and grapplcrs, and
hurled, Sizing and sccthing and scin-
tillating, into the vats of water. This
is to heat the watcrs-to loosen Tie
hair on the hog. Then the black
Hercules with the axe leaps into The
pen and rapidly and with gigantic
strokes administers the fatal blow up
on the forehead, between the eyes, 10
each frcnzicd hog Then the negro
women, with bare and lusty legs,
dance and shrek with dclight-and
also the negro children and the white
children. Then the sons Of Anai
stick the dying beasts deep in the
throat and out rushes the warm, pur-
pie blood. Then the carcasses, still
pulsing with life, are dragged rapidly
to the seething vats and hurled jn
Then, while still half in and half out
of the vat the carcass is quickly di-
vested of all hair by the negro men
and women. Then, in trice, the hot
carcasses are dragged to the gibbets
and suspended thereon to cool and
bleed and drip. Then they are quickly
acknowledgements upon for
appendicitis, and now the negro wo-
men receive the miscellaneous visceru
into tubs and pals, and forthwith be-
gin the washing and scraping Of liga-
ments in which sausage is to be stuff
ed. And then, too, begins the bladder
blowing pandemonium. And ther,
the carcasses are taken into the yards
OF the houses or negro quarters and
hung up in some cold place to- grow
hard and icc-cold. And on the NOR
row follows the cutting up, the salt
ing, the rubbing and the trying out
Of the lard. And on the second day
begins the millennium of backbone
and spareribs, sausage, sauce, liver
pudding, pigs feet jelly. And for days
the fat and the filth Of the land are
known in every negro cabin; and the
little negroes gormandize liver and
lites and "chitlins" and cracklins"
until they almost develop four legs
and tail and a snout. Such was the
annual hog-killing in the old South.
And is there anything now that We
can contrast with it7 Nothing. Eve,
since the close of the war, until with
in very few years past, we Southern
people have not raised hog, nor
had hog. We have wearily and
drearily and stupidity and doggedly
bought our bacon from the West
hams, shoulders and sides. And our
children have. known nothing of the
glory Of the bladder nor of the luxury
Of the liver-pudding. Now, however,
driven to it by poverty and keenest
and bitterest experience, we arc be-
ginning to make our own meat and
save our own bacon. We save our ba-
con, however, without any of the sub
lime saturnalia Of hog-killing. Our
few hogs are killed NOWADAYS in GREAT