ALL ABOrx FENCES. 331 



magistrate and sentenced to pay frequently more than the 

 full market value of the marauder. 



"You ought to make your fence hog and cattle -proof, 

 and then you would not be annoyed." 



Exactly ! but it would take a genius to solve the prob- 

 lem of what is " hog and cattle proof." 



Looking at those marvelous creatures, yclept "razor- 

 backs," in sarcastic reference to the prominence of their 

 vertebrae, let us see what they are equal to in the way of 

 burglary. 



When we first "came over" to Florida, we had only 

 made acquaintance with pigs in the city markets, "drawn 

 and quartered." We liked them very well there; they 

 looked so fat, clean, and comfortable; no visions of the fu- 

 ture marred our then complacency as regarded hogs. En 

 route to our Florida home we passed on the road, or, more 

 correctly, wagon track, a group of queer black objects, 

 bodies long, lank, lean, with backs that looked like the 

 inverted keel of a vessel, legs slim and suggestive of stilts ; 

 snouts sharp and pointed, eyes like beads, and tails in many 

 instances destitute of the far-famed graceful curve of a 

 "pig's tail." 



"What are those things 1 " we exclaimed; "surely you 

 don't call them hogs ? " 



"Well," replied our driver, slowly — he was a genuine 

 "Cracker" — "I don't just rightly know. We calls 'em 

 razor-backs. N-o, I. don't reckon they is hogs." 



So, to this day, we too ' ' don't reckon they is hogs ; " we 

 would not dare to bestow the title on these odd creatures, 

 and then look their staid, respectable portly Xorthern con- 

 genei's in the face. 



- That is how they look, and their actions are fully in ac- 

 cord with their unique appearance. 



Between the house-lots of one of our neighbors and our- 



