The Wilmington morning star., 1943-11-02
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER

NEW YORK.-It says here in the paper
where John Jacob Astor and his chauffeur
drove in from his farm with a puny little pig
and dropped it at the Ellin Prince Speyer hos
ptal for animals to be treated for ricketts,, and
what l say is that it won't do bit of good.
That pig isn't going to make it.
We had one that was like that runt that
was always being nosed off the valves by the
others until one afternoon, when all the others
got up and ran away at the sound of approa CHI
ing voices, this one lay still 1t just lay there,
stiff as a boiled shirt and cold to the touch
and Dan Merritt said it was going to die
and there was no doing anything about it.
He is very good pig man but there was still
life IN the pig so We wrapped it in an old
shirt IN basket and gave it dropper of rye
and pretty soon it was lurching all over the
cellar and singing who's afraid of the big bad
wolf. Next morning we gave it some milk and
the next day little cruel and. in the slightly
leering manner of layman who thinks he has
outsmarted an expert, I remarked: Dan, that
pig is getting along fine
But it is going to die he said. They al
ways do" And sure enough the next morning
it was cold in death.
1t was the same with little duck The duck
man said they sometimes got pneumonia and
there was no hope and you might Just as we'll
leave II lay unless you wanted to snap its neck
and end its misery. But we bound it in flan-
mel and stuck it in the oven with a very low
flame to heat it up and touched it up with
few drops of Whiskey, which we keep in the
medlc1ne locker for emergencies, and in just
few minutes it came to life. staggered off
the open door of the oven and with a beautiful
one-and-one-half gamer reminiscent of some of
our historic Olympic girls, landed on the kitch-
en- floor squaWking "wack-wa ck-wa -a-ck I'm
Harold Ickes' 1t lived for three days roaring
drunk and carrying about columnists and
al
ana more lncoherent all the time until final
ly it dozed off and just didn't wake up I can
understand Mr.. Astor's feeling that while there
is life there is hope, but 1 am afraid it is
just a delusion although, of course, you like to
feel that you have not left undone anything
that you could do
Down in Washington, Mrs. Lyle Wilson, the
mother OF noted child prodigy Miss Sally Will
son, author Of the super-Saroyan play Grand
mother Has Gone to the Bar. even tried it with
humming bird. Mrs. Wilson and Miss Sally
had taken winter cruise to Havana where
MISS Sally absorbed the atmosphere for her
play and peddler sold them a pair OF num-
ming birds alive. One got seasick on the way
to Miami by boat and was D.O.A.. as they say
IN the police reports, but the other, though
very peaked, was still fluttering when they
got on the train.
So Mrs Wilson and her daughter obtained
p scription from himmng bird doctor and
put drop or two of fine Is year old IN the
syrup in tiny glass cone which hung IN the
cage, and sure enough the hummlng olro came
to life and started looming and rolling vastly IN
the confines of a very small world. IL lasted
all the way home to Washington ana 1or qulte
while after that, and people came IN from u
all around to see the little humfnlng olIo Ivy
upside down. Some of them would TAKE I'll ANS
of the same prescription to see II II Woulo
make them fly upside down, and some maze 4t'
pretty fair attempts but none coulo equal uie
humming bird. Mrs. Wilson would De Out visi IT,
ing and suddenly whip on her coat ana say L
have got to hurry home and pour o a., ior
my humming bird" and everyone VIII agree
that she did her best and has nothlng 70 re-
preach herself with. But then one e. ~, ~
silent wings, death flew in and clal11'eo Liie ~! ~
tie humming bird. That just seems W 1919
way things have to be. Once they start solig
they 90, and anyway even though W.T. astor ~; is
very rich man there would pc no $50 tas;h -
curing the pig because even with lts servi,
meat shortage and with restaurants cr,,,,
all kinds of spaghetti cakes ana VI ~
croquettes you can't sell them ~ ~, s +ha+ ,,ir
pay for feed you put in them l s Soy is eoirg
isn't going to make it and Mr. AS'oi 40 e0-'s
| to get stop-loss.