Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1916-03-09

inspiration and genius with me. Spe-
clally this one. | wouldn't take two
hundred and fifty for that animal
"'Now listen says l, wiping off my
forehead It's not SO much matter
Of business with me as it is art, and
not SO much art as it is philanthropy.
Being d connoisseur and dissemination
Of pigs, | wouldn't feel like I'd done
my duty to the world unless I added
that Berkshire to my collection. Not
intrinsically. but according to the eth
les of pigs as friends and coadjutors Of
mankind. l offer you $500 for the ami
mall
Jeff says this pork esthete, it
amt money; it's sentiment with me-
"'Seven hundred says I.
"'Make it eight hundred says Rufe,
and I'll crush the sentiment out of
my heart
money belt and counted him out forty
twenty dollar gold certificates.
"'I'll just take him into my own
ROOM says |, and lock him up till aft
er breakfast
Il took the pig by the hind leg. He
Hope at the circus.
"'Let me tote him in for you,' says
Rufe. and he picks up the beast under
one arm, holding his snout with the
other hand, and packs him into my
room like a sleeping baby.
after breakfast Rufe. who had a
chronic case of haberdashery ever
since I got his trousseau, says he be-
lieves he will amble down to Misfitz-
ky's and look over some royal purple
socks. And then l got as busy as a
one armed man with the nettle rash
FASTING on wallpaper. I found an old
negro man with an express wagon to
hire, and we tied the pig in a sack and
drove down to the circus grounds.
II found George B. Tapley in a little
tent with a window flap open. He was
a fattish man, with an Immediate eye,
in black skullcap, with four ounce
diamond screwed into the bosom of his
red sweater
care you George B. Tapley? asks.
81 swear it, says he.
"'Well, I've got it, says 1.
"'Designate,' says he. Are you the
guinea pigs for the Asiatic python or
the alfalfa for the sacred buffalo?'
"'Neither,' says l. 'I've got Beppo,
the educated hog, in a sack in that
wagon. l found him roofing up the
flowers in my front yard this morning
I'll take the $4,000 in large bills if it's
handy.
George B. hustles out Of his tent
and asks me to follow. We cot into
one Of the side shows. In there was
a jet black pig, with a pink ribbon
around his neck. lying on some hay
and eating carrots that a man was
feeding to him.
"'Hey, Mac calls G. B. Nothing
wrong with the worldwide this morn
ing, is there?
"'Him? No. says the man. He's
got an appetite like a chorus girl at i
q. M
"'How'd did you get this pipe" says
Tapley to me. Eating too many pork
chops last night?
II pulls out the paper and shows him
the adj
"'Fake.' says he. Don't know any
thing about it. You've beheld with
your own eyes the marvellous, world
wide porcine wonder Of our four foot
ed kingdom eating with preternatural
sagacity his matutinal meal, unstrayed
and unstole. Good morning
II was beginning to see. l got in the
wagon and told Uncle Ned to drive to
the most adjacent orifce of the nearest
alley. There | took out my pig, got
the range carefully for the other open
ing, set his sights and gave him such a
kick that he went out the other end of
the alley twenty feet ahead of his
squeal
"Then l paid Uncle Ned his SO cents
and walked down to the newspaper Of
flee. I wanted to hear it in cold syl-
tables. l got the advertising man to
his window
"'To decide a bet says I, wasn't
the man who had this ad. put in last
night short and fat with long whisk-
ers and club foot?
"'He was not says the man. He
would measure about six feet by four
and a half inches. with cornsilk hair
and dressed like the pansies of the con-
servatory.
"At dinner time went back to .lrs.
Peevy's.
"'Shall 1 keep some soup hot for
Mr. Tatum till he comes back" she
asks.
"'If you do, ma'am,' says l, you'll
more than exhaust for firewood all
the coal in the bosom of the earth and
all the forests on the outside Of it.
$50 there, you see" said Jefferson
Peters in conclusion, chow hard it is
ever to find fair minded and honest
business partner"
But" I began, with the freedom Of
long acquaintance, ''the rule should
work both ways. If you had offered
to divide the reward you would not