scarce one of our celebrated
actors left to tell the tale and carry on the show.

THE WAR PIG AT HAWORTH--A LAUGHABLE STORY

The marionettes having come to their end, and your humble servant being
now practically out of a situation, he began to bestir his imagination
for some other line which he might enter into in the show business. It
was one morning while I was walking along Back-lane, at the top end of
the town, that I "fell in luck." Old John Malloy kept a grocer's shop
there--the Ship Inn now marks the spot--and I heard from him that he had
a small litter of pigs. I saw them, and found among them a black pig--a
puny, rickety, and most dejected-looking creature. I asked John what he
would take for the best and the worst, and although he did not wish to
part with the best pig, he was not very particular in that respect with
regard to the worst--"the leetle blackie." For this he said he would take
a shilling, and after bargaining with John I got the pig for ten-pence. I
took the pig away with me in an empty herring-box, and consulted my
friend, John Spencer. I said, "John; we'll take this pig to Haworth, and
show it as the War Pig from South America." John laughed at the idea, but
heartily agreed with it. In the next place I got "on tick" a piece of
calico several yards long, and with some lampblack I painted in bold type
on the calico the words, "Come and see the War Pig from South America,
2d. each." Then Spencer and I engaged the large garret at the Fleece Inn,
Haworth. It was a large room, holding, I should think, a couple of
hundreds of people, and was entered by a staircase in the back-yard,
separate from the public house proper. Mrs Stangcliffe was the landlady,
and she readily allowed us to have the room, I having taken it of her
once before. Well, to get to business.

THE EXHIBITION

We displayed the calico signpost at the front of the inn, and at the
appointed hour in the evening we had a crowded audience in the room. I
must give my comrade Spencer more credit than myself for the "show;" for
he would have two strings to his bow. While he and I were entering the
place, he picked up a black cat belonging to some poor neighbour, and
quickly stowed it away in one of his capacious pockets. The cat will
appear later. As John put pussy away, he said, "If t'War Pig doesn't
satisfy 'em, I'll show 'em something else." We commenced the performance.
I brought the pig out of the box, and exhibited the ani