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A man over in the Newport, Arkansas area lost a hog on the Iron Mountain Railroad track down below Newport a little ways about forty-odd years ago. He decided to send in a written claim before the time for making claims expired. He decided to write in verse:

To the Claim Agent for the Railroad

My razorback strolled down your track
Just a month ago today,
Your Twenty-nine came down the line
And snuffed his life away.

You can’t blame me – the hog, you see,
Slipped through the gate,
So kindly pen a check for ten,
The debt to liquidate.

The claim agent mulled over that letter when he received it. He thought, “Well, why not reply to him in kind?” So he got his pencil and paper and directly he had the reply in verse:

To the Man with the Razorback

Our Twenty-nine came down the line
And killed your hog, we know.
But razorbacks on railroad tracks
Quite often meet with woe.

Therefore my friend, we cannot pen
The check for which you pine.
Just bury the dead and place o’er his head
”Here Lies A Foolish Swine.”

(from Ozark Mountain Humor: Jokes On Hunting, Religion, Marriage & Ozark Ways, Edited by W.K. McNeil)