Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1892 — Fresh Pork Every -Day. [ARTICLE]

Fresh Pork Every -Day.

At a Southern convict camp, as described in “The American Siberia,” the prisoners seldom had any meat except salt pork. A good many pigs were about the premises, however, and the natural desire of the men for fresh meat frequently asserted itself. A certain cell-house was so loosely built that the smaller pigs could slip in through the cracks; a happy circumstance, of which the keen-witted and hungry negroes took full advantate, till the drove dwindled so rabidly as to attract the attention of the authorities. Captain Powell supposes that more than a hundred pigs were disposed of in this way. At another camp there was a huge negro named George Smith, who had an inordinate appetite for pork, which he gratified in a peculiar manner. He was employed in the coopershop, and was always more or less under the eye of a guard. The question was, how to catch and kill a pig without attracting attention. He would take an empty barrel, place it on its side, and throw some corn-meal near the bottom. When a pig went in after t,he meal Smith quickly set the%arrel on end, making a prisoner of the animal. Then he ignited rags and thrust them under the edge. In a short time the pig would he asphyxiated. While this was in progress Smith would be bustling about, as if hard at work, and in order to drown the squeals of his victim he would vigorously hammer down hoops, making an outrageous noise When the pig gave up the ghost he reversed the barrel, plunged half his body inside, as if putting in a “head,” and proceeded to skin and clean it.

In these close quarters, and without exciting the suspicion of the guards, who were constantly moving all about the place, he turned out as neat a piece es work as any butcher. When the pig had been converted into pork he rolled the barrel containing it to one corner of the yard, and cooking was the next thing in order. It was managed in an improvised oven over an open fire, and the result would not have discredited a professional cook. When the thing finally leaked out, Smith owned up that he had eaten fresh pork every day for three months.