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read in th' ir days (and nights) of classical study in Virgil and 

 Ovid and Horace, and the purest poets of the Old Testament, and 

 the "writers of the New Testament, and what they have heard their 

 fathers say, the}' have come to the conclusion tliat the hog in these 

 days is not held in that degree of esteem to which he is justly 

 entitled. 



Among the ancient Greeks and Romans the flesh of the pig was 

 held in great estimation. The rearing, breeding or fattening these 

 animals was made a complete study ; and the dishes prepared from 

 the meat were dressed with epicurean refinement and in many 

 modes. The dish consisted of a 3'oung pig whole, stuffed with 

 beccaflcoes and other small birds, together with oysters, and served 

 with wine and rich gravy. This dish was termed Porcus Trojanus, 

 in allusion to the wooden horse filled with men, which the Trojans 

 introduced into their city. An unpleasant allusion, one would 

 think, seeing that the Romans boasted of their Trojan descent. 

 And although we find from the perusal of the writings of Homer 

 and Herrodotus and Theocritus and other Greek writers, familiar 

 to your committee, and from the writings of Biblical writers, not 

 so familiar to j'our committee perhaps, that the hog was not held 

 in high estimation, your committee do find that, as a general rule, 

 a chine of pork, or a rasher of bacon, or a boiled ham, or a leg of 

 pork, or a hog's liead stuffed, or a pig's foot soused, or a pickled 

 shoulder was always a welcome dish, whether to Jew or Gentile, 

 to Greek or Barbarian. 



It is gratifying to find that, among the early and pious Catholic 

 Saints, the hog was not without its patron. This life is full of 

 surprises. Every good deed of the present day, as well as every 

 bad deed, has had its parallel in the past ages. There was inhu- 

 manity to man, and cruelty to beast in the older days, and so 

 there was hunianit}', and tender, kindly care and S3'mpath3' with 

 suffering. Which of you seeing an ass fallen into a pit will not 

 take him out. Sabbath day or no day, was the sentin:»ent — all 

 kindl}' and sympathetic — which animated the minds of the holy 

 Christian fathers. 



St. Anthony, was the protector of hogs, which were usually in- 

 troduced into his picture. St. Bridget kept i)igs, and a wild boar 

 came from the forest to subject itself to her rule. 



In the tropical regions of the hot India Islands, on the islands 

 of Cuba, every negro has his pig. In Florida, and Southern 

 Georgia, before the war, every negro family had its colony of l)igs. 



And if you ask 

 What more wa.s thi-re, I'd speak of luscious chine, 

 Aud loin of p(jrk, and liead of boar, all hot! 



Pork ! Your Committee are old enough to look backward to the 

 days of country militia musters, and to the times when these mus- 

 ters were held, now in one town, and now in another, and when the 



