60 THE HOG. 



small eye twinkling on a slaughtered friend, whose carcass gar 

 nishes a butcher's door-post, but he grunts out " Such is life ; all 

 flesh is pork !" buries his nose in the mire again, and waddles 

 down the gutter, comforting himself with the reflection that there 

 is one snout the less to anticipate stray cabbage-stalks, at any rate. 



" They are the city scavengers, these pigs, ugly brutes they are ; 

 having for the most part scanty brown backs, like the lids of old 

 horse-hair trunks, spotted with unwholesome black blotches ; they 

 have long, gaunt legs too, and such peaked snouts that if one of them 

 could be persuaded, to sit for his profile, nobody would recognize it 

 for a pig's likeness ; they are never attended upon, or fed, or driven, 

 or caught, but are thrown upon their own resources in early life, 

 and become preternatural ly knowing in consequence; every pig 

 knows where he lives much better than any body could tell him. 

 At this hour, just as evening is closing in, you will see them roam- 

 ing towards bed by scores, eating their way to the last. Occasion- 

 ally some youth among them who has overeaten himself, or has 

 been worried by dogs, trots shrinkingly homeward, like a prodigal 

 son ; but this is a rare case ; perfect self-possession and self-reliance, 

 and immovable composure, being their foremost attributes. (Dick- 

 ens' American Notes.) 



And Mrs. Trollope piteously exclaims " I am sure I should have 

 liked Cincinnati much better if the people had not dealt so very 

 largely in hogs ! The immense quantity of business done in this 

 line would hardly be believed by those who had not witnessed it. 

 I never saw a newspaper without remarking such advertisements as 

 the following : " Wanted immediately, 4000 fat hogs ;" " For sale, 

 2000 barrels of prime pork." But the annoyance came nearer 

 than this. If I determined upon a walk up Main Street, the chances 

 were five hundred to one against my reaching the shady side with- 

 out brushing by a snout or two, fresh dripping from the kennel. 

 When we had screwed up our courage to the enterprise of mount- 

 ing a certain noble-looking sugar-loaf hill, that promised pure air 

 and a fine view, we found the brook we had to cross at its foot, red 

 with the blood from a pig slaughter-house ; while our noses, instead 

 of meeting " the thyme that loves the green hill's breast," were 

 greeted by odors that I will not describe, and which I heartily hope 

 my readers cannot imagine; our feet, that on leaving the city had 

 expected to press the flowery sod, literally got entangled in pigs' 

 tails and jaw-bones ; and thus the prettiest walk in the neighborhood 

 was interdicted for ever." 



The common breed may for the most part be described as large, 

 rough, long-nosed, big-boned, thin-backed, slab-sided, long-legged, 

 ravenous, ugly animals. But latterly great improvements have been 

 made in it by judicious crossing with the Chinese and Berkshire pigs, 

 by crossing these two breeds with each other, and by careful breed 

 ing from these two stocks without intermixture. 



