Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 138, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1915 — FOUGHT TO DEATH OVER PIG [ARTICLE]

FOUGHT TO DEATH OVER PIG

Possession of Porker the Cause of Sharp Skirmish Between Germane and French. Even pigs figure sometimes In the news from the front and, as might be expected, in somewhat of a comical light But, says a Paris dispatch, they have caused a tragedy also. One pig was the cause of a battle in which 30 Germans were killed and another was made to pose as a corpse to save him from the enemy. In Ban-do-Sapt, north of Saint Die, both French and Germans from their trenches spied out a fine fat porker in a pen, just between the two lines. Both formed parties to go out and capture the porcine delicacy, but the French reached there first. They fastened a rope about the animal’s hind legs and dragged him back to their trenches with the Germans close behind. So heated did the controversy over the pig become that It finally developed into a night battle in which the Germans were beaten, losing, besides the 80 dead, a number of wounded. The other pig had just been killed by a farmer In Flanders when it was reported that the Germans, always eager for such titbits as fresh pork, were near at hand. Determined to save his property, the quick-witted Belgian took the carcass to his room, tucked it in his bed, placed candles over the sheeted form, and was praying fervently when a German soldier entered the room. The soldier tiptoed out when he discovered that he had come upon a chamber of death.