The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-01-21
How the Pia pied.

was coming. The old customers face
showed 1t as he shifted his position at the
bar and knocked the ashes out of his pipe.
One of the group had just finished a tale
about a melancholy mule committing sui
eide by jumping over an embankment
"Shuclss," said he, You seem to think
that's wonderful, but I've seen things that
beat jumping over an ~embankment in a
fit of dependency.
when 1 was a kid on a farm out in
northern Kansas we had a pig which the
hired mans wife raised from the time 1t
was big enough to squeal. She kept it in
the yard, which was fenced in, and never
allowed Jerry, as she called him, to get
muddy. She had an idea that it was mere
ly habit, not In Unborn trait. that made
pigs wallow in the mud.
But her dope was wrong. AS soon as
Jerry got big enough to have ideas of his
own he wanted mud. When 1t would rain
he would try as hard as he could to break
through the fence or jump over so as to
get in the muddy road. The yard was
well sodded, and at first he couldn't find
any muddy spots in his Enclosure.
Finally, though, he discovered that IL
he dug down in the ground he would find
dirt and one morning we found that he
had dug up the sod near the pump and had
a mudhole. We couldn't imagine how he
got the water, but watched him the next
night and found that with almost human
intelligence he pumped the water HIM
self into a bucket that was kept standing
near and then tipped over the bucket. The
pump was arranged SO If there was no
bucket under the spout the water would
run into a drain.
"How did he pump It? Pushed the handle
up with his nose and pulled it down with
his front feet. We stopped that by put
ting him i'll a clean pen with q floor in It.
But Jerry had had one mud bath and he
longed for more. He would moan most
piteously at night, and we wanted to let
him out with the other pigs, but the hired
mans wife threatened to quit if we did.
She thought as much of Jerry as she did
of her children and she couldn't Dear the
thought of having him dirty. enjoying
himself with other pigs.
Jerry began to grow thin. He for
merly had Il cheerful look in his eye, but
now there was no longer the healthful,
joyous glitter when 1 came around with
his food. lie actually began to get pale
and he wouldn't eat much.
''He deliberately planned suicide. Life
" ithout mud wasn't worth living. First
we caught him trying to cut his throat
with his front feet. We cut his ~toenails
and made them harmless. Then he tried
to drown himself by sticking his head in a
pail of water, but through force of habit
he drank up all the water before he was
drowned.
"Tha gave him an idea, and he tried to
drink himself to death. but we never gave
him enough water at one time. And still
the hired mans wife couldn't bear to let
him out with the common herd. Hoglike.
he never thought of starving himself to
death, although worry cut down his ap-
petite considerably.
Finally, he accomplished the desired
end. We found him lifeless in his spotless
pen one morning. We called the family
doctor-the hired mans wife wouldn't
for a veterinarian. He examined
Jerry and found that he had died from
lack OF respiration. Jerry had held his
breath until he suffocated."
And the old customer wiped a tear from
his left eye and sadly drank to the pig
which couldn't live without mud.
Work on New York city's new
Catskills reservoir and acqueduct ts
ennnlnvinR Az lll mon