Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1907-08-24
THE PIG.


/
The following unique address was
delivered before a jury in Texas by
an attorney for the Rock Island road,
and is well worth time to peruse.
The case was one wherein dam
ages were asked by a Texas farmer
who had a pig killed by a railroad
train. His claim for $40 was made
on the promise that the pig was a
pet pig.
The following is the address:
Speaking to you, gentlemen of the
jury, | would say that you have here
perhaps a more dignified and import
ant duty to perform than you have
been led to realize. There are little
cases like this that on account of the
small amount involved appear half
ludicrous in their trivialty, but on
closer scrutiny reveal a vault filled
with CHASTITY horror. We walk into
them as light of heart as the san
guine warriors of the great Pharsalia,
or the untamed steer bounds among
the cor designed especially reared
to fit him for the butchers block.
We have it here, my learned pro-
fessor, torn from your work of pre-
pairing the future generations for a
higher citizenship; we have it here,
my skilled and impatient doctor, my
busy merchant, my prosperous far
mer. You need not chafe at the APP
parently unimportant position in the
great scheme of government which
you temporarily fill with so mucn
honor to the place. Instead of hav-
ing called six of the foremost men of
this fruitful country, whose names
are known and honored throughout
the sun-kissed vastness of this glor-
ious and imp~erishable sovereign state,
to sit in patient judgment in a trifi-
, ing case involving ten dirty dollars,
tainted by the touch of avarice, souls
of coming times.
Am l extravagant in this feeble
presentation of an humble cause?
Was Dante extravagant when he
painted the hideous things of the
world of darkness? Was Solomon
| extravagant when he described the
cankering wage of sin? Was the
e great Byran %extravagant when he de-
n gRpfhnd IN fnrnH fl1at aarrsnI fvaf.
s ocean to ocean when he denounced
i the corrupt dominion of Unsuitable
greed? Then, | am not, but speak in
Y the candid impulse of a sympathetic
heart to you who are here to ponder
the poignant details of an unstoried
but revolving tragedy, such as
a Shakespeare might have mourned in
t immortal verse or a great painter
have lain upon the unwilling canvas
to thrill the sympathetic bring tc
/ your discriminating view, in humble
y and unadorned language the horrors
OF an unpublished crime.
; So much by way Of introduction
Why is this man here? He wants
$40 for the death Of a pig. 4 pc.
pig. A pig that loved him. A pis
that fed from his hand and knew M
greater thing than he, its guardian
n and friend, created in the master
own image-a Deity-for to it tn,
simple orthodoxy of the animal worlt
had revealed no greater, better, wise
or godlier thing than this hat min
= istered to his daily wants-a pig tina
squealed with JOY at the first sigma
of his approach, and grunted it
. baby-like woe at his departure-tha
was happy in the sunlight Of hi
, smile. that froliced about him upol
that last morning, happy in the swee
= recollection of a rude caress, feelin
that so long as he was nigh no harT
could come. Thus happy and secur
~ in the protection of its master
frolicked upon the railway track
Far DER the plain a demon shrie
90 and a rumbling sound gave warning
A stream OF black smoke disclose
the angel of death, riding upon tn
engine of destruction. The little il
nocent thing, confiding in the mas
'e ter's care, was happy still. The grea
black mass of the engine arose wit
= ever increasing size above the plail
q" and with clank and hiss and screal
swept down. Knowing naught {
death or harm the little thing wa
happy still. On came the mighty Ell
CINE, h%urrying like a shadow of fat
across the blanching face of SUM
: nature, bearing death to the unwi
ting victim, but it was happy still
And this man, what of him? Il
knew that it would harken to h
% slightest word-comc IL he called; G
u If he commanded; but he would M
say come" and he did not say "go
u He might have saved the innocen
.a' trusting creature with a word, b.
he didn't say the word; he stood wit
al voiceless mouth and idle hands mea
uring in dirty dollars the life of b
little friend, and he wouldn't S;