Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1911 — Pig’s Testimony Wins Case in Court [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Pig’s Testimony Wins Case in Court

KANSAS CITY, KAN.—Quindaro, a suburb of this city, has a justice of the peace with nerve enough to reverse his own decisions without waiting for some other court to do it for him. It was a pig case in which Justice Pfaff performed this acrobatic judicial feat. The final session of the court was held in the feed lot of Henry Shaw, plaintiff, against whom the court first decided, but for him at the last trial after convincing testimony had been furnished by the pig Itself. Shaw bought a small pig, supposed to be nearly dead with "blind staggers," paying 25 cents for it. He cut a small hole in the fence for the pig to pass through into the adjoining cow yard and fed the little invalid warm milk twice a day and he got well. A pan was rattled in the cow yard to summons the pig when the milk was ready. The pig soon learned the signal and responded on a run. Last June the pig, grown large and strong, disappeared. A few weeks ago, on the farm of Mike Evans, five miles

away, Shaw saw a big hog with peculiar spots on his leg that he recognized as belonging to the sick pig' of last spring, and he claimed him. Evans refused to give up the pig and suit was brought The court decided in favor of Evans. Then Shaw asked a rehearing of the case and proposed to take the hog Into his feeding lot, where there was a large number of other hogs. He proposed to go into the adjoining cow yard and rattle a tin dish. The ownershlp of the hog was to be decided on whether it made a dash for the hole in fence, far too small now to admit of its passing through. All Quindaro gathered around Shaw’s hog lot to see the trial. Justice Pfaff took station where he could see the whole show. The pig was placed in the lot with the drove of hogs belonging to Shaw, who then went into the adjoining lot with a tin pan in his hand. At a signal from Justice Pfaff Shaw rattled the tin pan. The pig let out a couple of kinks in his tail and started for the hole in the fence on a run. It was barely big enough for the hog to insert his nose, but he struggled to get through and go to his old feeding place in the cow yard. There was a cheer from the crowd, even the Evans faction joining, and Justice Pfaff promptly reversed his previous ruling and awarded the pig to Shaw.