SWINE IN AMEK1CA. 59 



about seeking for plunder ; swilling, grunting, rooting, pawing, al- 

 ways in mischief and always destroying. The more a man posses- 

 es of such stock the worse he is off; and he had far better sell his 

 produce at any price, than to put it into such totally worthless crea- 

 tures." A. B. Allen. 



Stuart says " Hogs are universal in this part of the world, and 

 are well and frequently fed. At first they are kept in the woods, 

 and nurtured on chestnuts and apples ; before being killed, they 

 have good rations of Indian corn or barley-meal, and in many cases 

 are likewise well supplied with steamed food. In South Carolina 

 the climate is so mild that they are allowed to wander about the 

 woods during the whole year, feeding on the nuts, acorns, &c., which 

 are there so abundant, and occasionally eating the fallen fruit they 

 meet with. They are very useful in destroying snakes." Stuart's 

 North America. 



In large towns, too, they are apparently as much at home and as 

 common as in the forests, pacing the streets, instead of the glades, 

 and feeding upon the offal and filth rejected by man, instead of the 

 fresh and wholesome fruits supplied by the hand of nature. One 

 of our countrymen gives an amusing graphic account of the swinish 

 multitude, in some of the large towns through which he passed. 



"We are going to cross here. Take care of the pigs. Two 

 portly sows are trotting up behind this carriage, and a select party 

 of half-a-dozen gentlemen hogs have just now turned the corner. 

 Here is a solitary swine, lounging homewards by himself; he has 

 only one ear, having parted with the other to vagrant dogs in the 

 course of his city rambles ; but he gets on very well without it, 

 and leads a roving, gentlemanly, vagabond kind of a life, somewhat 

 answering to that of our clubmen at home. He leaves his lodgings 

 every morning at a certain hour, throws himself upon the town, gets 

 through his day in some manner quite satisfactory to himself, and 

 regularly appears at the door of his own house again at night, like 

 the mysterious master of Gil Bias ; he is a free-and-easy, careless, 

 indifferent kind of pig, having a very large acquaintance among 

 other pigs of the same character, whom he rather knows by sight 

 than conversation, as he seldom troubles himself to stop and ex- 

 change civilities, but goes grunting down the kennel, turning up the 

 news and small-talk of the city, in the shape of cabbage-stalks and 

 offal, and bearing no tails but his own, which is a very short one, 

 for his old enemies the dogs have been at that too, and have left 

 him hardly enough to swear by ; he is in every respect a republi- 

 can pig, going wherever he pleases, and mingling with the best 

 society, on an equal, if not superior footing, for every one makes 

 way when he appears, and the haughtiest give him the wall if he 

 prefer it ; he is a great philosopher, and seldom moved unless by 

 the dogs before-mentioned ; sometimes, indeed, you may see hit 



