The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-12-08
TRAGEDY OF DINNY The Pig
ASTOR BATTERY'S THANKSGIVING
IN THE PHILIPPINES.

An Accomplished Transfer by the Army
60 tho Navy-PataI Friendship for a
Private VIVA net on observation-disclosures
cred for a R0llday. hut Not Eaten.
-This morning l saw a cleanly ~butchered.
rosy pink pig with a big apple pressed be-
tween his wide open jaws hanging head
downward from a hook in front OF "a meat
shop, and the sight of this pig carried mo
back 20 an incident in tho Philippines nine
years ago and made me think OF Dinny."
said n New Yorker, now an officer OF the
Regular army. who wns "A sergeant OF the
Aston Battery when it was in the Philippines
during the Spanish war. "Dinny wa a dis
~tinguished pig. and he became meat. too.
a mostly all pigs do and must in the course
OF nature. But IL was the mournful day
when he was served up as a roast.
-Dinny was Tough over gambled for
and given the best going during every
stage OF his existence. Yet somehow
none OF us has ever been quite able to get
over the feeling of sclf-reproach at tho
thought Of the way
But this isn't telling who and what
Dinny was. Dinuy WAS a plain, pinls-white
atty pig. with tho thoroughbred marking
OF a screw tail. A bunch of men Ror'ard
OF an American man-o'-war had picked him
up somewhere l think at Vallejo. the little
town across the creek from the Mare Island
Navy Yard.
Brains will come through. whether in
the head Of a man or n pig, ard Dinny dis
covered himself under the tuition Of the
ships company for'ard Of that United
States gunboat. He'd sit up and beg,
squeak for grub. play dead, turn somer-
saults, scratch his left or right ear With
the corresponding hind foot on request,
waltz to music on mis- back feet, and 60
through tho manual generally without any
whimper or buck.
-He was the candy pig all right. and 20 the
men for'ard couldn't scr the thing OF leaving
him behind on the mainland when the ship
was ordered to the Philippines. Dinny was
ordered ashore before the start. hut the
orders didn't stick. Dinny WAS hid in n
locker or bilgs compartment or in one of
the unused boilers or somewhere. and when
the ship was a couple Of days at sca Dinny
wRIked out on deck and nuz2led the trousers
leg of the officer of the deck. and hats all
there was to il.
THE man-o'-war after making Mani IA
was sent rolling around among no sands.
ANA III VIZ RAOhlNHb VI AlF ENEE&IlldliNlIlH
the men for'ard picked up all sorts Of weird
and impossible pets. So the slipper OF the
ship gave orders that the for'nrd rart of the
ship would have to he cleared cf It's squeak
ing and shrieking and wailing and whimper-
SnE and kissing gang Of pets, and Dinny,
although the best behaved and most dig
nified OF the lot, came under the terms of
that order.
aTh~.~ - n,.,up. 49,. 5000 -
pals brought him ashore AZ Manila, and
meeting up. with a bunch Of our Aston Bat
terry n n on leave, the deep water boys
passed Dinny along to tho arti'Icrymen.
Then, passing their horny mitts across heir
moist eyes, the sad souled man-o'-warsmen
went back to their ship, leaving Dinny 20
the tender care Of the battery.
He a tenderly cared for right enough;
we've got nothing TO reproach ourselves FOR
that score. His usual diet was bananas
and jumbles, and he'd fall for mangoes and
alligator pears and properly sugared hunks
Of pineapple IN occasion.
After four or five days around the camp
Dinny found the man he wanted for guide,
protector, friend and pal. Pretty shrcwd
too. The man was Jim Bolster.
Jim was an educated chap I'M had been
a lawyer; that much we knew about him, !
but little more. Reckless, brave, unsteady
in habits, tender hearted a. a woman that
was Bolster. He made 81 complete mash on
Dinny, and Dinny, for his part, soon had il
doped out that there wasn't anybody on
earth like Jim Bolster. So there hey were
sure enough aiinities.
"Jim's great defect was that he was an
inveterate gambler. One night he got
leave and vent of to a swell cooking main,
Dinny trotting along after him "a usual.
Jim got back in the morning in time to stand
~reveillr. Tie didn't have Diuny with him