Press And Daily Dakotaian

Daily Press and Dakotan
MONDAY. MARCH 21, 1881

FORTY DAYS FAST.
A Canine and a Swine Emulate Dr. Tanner's
Great Feat

A case of unusual animal fasting was
brought to our notice this week which,
on account of the scarcity of local news,
may be worth repeating. Henry Fleming
has at the rear of his premises a small
barn, underneath the floor of which is
room sufficient to afford a sleeping place
for small animals, there being only one
place of entrance. This opening became
closed up by a huge snow drift in the
early part of February and so remained
closed until a few days ago, when Mr.
Fleming desiring to utilize these comfort-
able quarters as a place of accouchment
for a female porker, shoveled out the
portal leading thereto and was at once
surprised to find himself confronted by
one of the most gentle, low-voiced and
lardless-looking shoats that ever longed
for corn. Fleming's kind heart was
moved, and knowing it to be utterly im-
practicable at this season of the year to
think of starting the critter out anew in
this eating world on anything like a
scientific watermelon diet, he cast it a
nubbin of corn which it seized and ap-
propriated without very much formality.

A further examination of this snow-
bound compartment
prove that his
swineship had not gone alone through
this Tanner-like experience, but had the
constant companionship of a "yaller"
dog, which in point of extraordinary
thinness was even in a worse plight than
his bristly competitor. A look of all-
goneness overspread his dogged counten-
ance, and although able to navigate, his
legs would persist in tangling up in the
most embarrassing manner. We mention
the color of the dog just merely to prove
the truth of the old saying, "senseless as
a yaller dog," for if this one had pos-
sessed good dog sense he need not have
denied himself at least a pork diet. These
animals were without food about forty
days.