PIGS IS PIGS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 73, 16 May 1944, Page 4

PIGS IS PIGS

THE MEAT PROBLEM "PIE" KORRI! It was noticed with general concern by the public a short time ago that a well known pastrycook of Whakatane, noted for his prowess at pic making was almost, too interested in a hutch of guinea pigs offering at a recent auction sale. When the time came for the sale of these interesting specimens,, useful in the main only for producing more guinea pigs, the prospective purchaser made sure of his interest by running his bid to a safe figure, then, "with pig ,in hand," as it were, marched oil to his bakehouse the proud possessor of three tailless porkers. The following extract is taken from the book "Pickwick Papers," and deals with the soliloquy of that inimitable character of Dickens, Sam Weller. Without committing ourselves in any manner whatsoever, or ostentatiously forcing ideas into the public mind, we reprint the following quote:— "Weal pie," isaid Mr Weller, soliloquising, as he arranged the eatables on the grass. "Wery good* thing is weal pie, when you know the lady who made it, and is quite sure it ain't kittens; and alter all though, where's the odds, when they're so like weal that the wery piemen themselves don't, know the difference?" "Dont they Sam?" said Mr Pickwick. "Not they, sir," replied Mr Weller, touching his hat. "1 lodged in the same house with a pieman once sir, and a wery nice man he {was —a reg'lar clever chap too —make pies out o' anything he could. 'What a number o' cats you keep, Mr Brooks,' says I, when I'd got intimate with him. 'Ah,' says he, T do —a good many,' says li*. 'You must be wery fond o' cats,' says I. 'Other people is,' says he, a-winkin' at. me; 'they ain't in season till the winter though,' says he. 'Not in season!' says I. 'No,' says he, 'fruits is in, cats is out.' 'Why, what do you mean?' says I.' Mean?' says he. 'That I'll never be a party to t/hic combination o' the butchers, to keaip up the price o' meat,' says he. 'Mr Weller, r says he, a-squeezing my hand wery hard, and vispering in my ear—'don't mention this here agin—but it's the 'seasonin' as does it. They're all made o' them noble animals,' says he a-pointing to a wery nice little tabby kitten, -'and I seasons 'em for beefsteak, weal or kidney, 'cording to the demand. And more than that,' says he, 'I can make a weal a beef-steak, or a beefsteak a kidney, or any one on 'em a mutton, at a minute's notice, just as the market changes, and appetites wary!'" And therein may lie the guinea pigs, "tale."