Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1868-05-30
The Mule.

The following mulish essay we find in
a church annual "a Fairy Favor" but
from whose pen or were printed does not
appear:
Now, a mule is no common animal.
He has passions, affections, vices and vir-
tues, like any Christian animal and |
never heard Shylock's indignant asser-
tion of ! is common humanity, without
thinking Of the poor, neglected mule.
Grant is a great man. SO is Johnson.
But the part performed by the mule i'll
the suppression of the rebellion requires
10 cul"yy. lie is one of the real saw
iors of his country, and not a candidate
for the Presidency. Let us look at his
moral and intellectual attributes.
1t should be rccalIccted that he is not
to be Judged like other animals. His
cclibatcd life is enthused with none of
those family affections that glide the
monotonous hours of domestic beasts.
From the hour of his birth he is an Or
plan. His father and his mother were
not mules, and at his death, like Logan
not the GeneraD 'his blood runs in the
veins of no living creature" THUS left
lonely and dcsolate by his stepmother,
Nature, all that he manifes:s of docility
all that he freely gives of affection, all
that he bestows of usefulness in his shad-
owed life, is the outgushing of his own
nobility. If he loves his affection is un-
requitted, and except General X. B. Mar
cy, in his "Thirty years OF Army Life"
we know of none WHO have duly honor
ed his devotions.
To those who are kind to him, the
mule overfows with loving. He greets
the coming of his corn with loud and
cheerful laugh, and he is said to have
died from cachination on coming to an
UNEXPECTEDLY good bit of road. He has
a language nearly as complex as "Chin-
ook," and in many instances his appar
cht disobedicnce is only the Ignorance
of his driver, who imperfectly educated,
cannot "talk mule English" When
coused to Indignation by neglect, he
loudly demonstrates, and i'll the still
watches o" the night he can lie heard
talking words" about the forage-mas-
ter, who has left him with only a wagon
tongue sandwich in between two gulpS
of air as lunch.
In difficult mountain passes, on almost
impossible ledges of rock, where the
stupid horse Would hurl himself to des-
truction, the mule treads with fearless
yet cautious step, and carries his rider
through in safety. And when thumped
and abused, and taxed beyond the linn
its of mule mortality, he succumbs in
hopelcssness, he turns one pathetic
glance to the merciless lash behind him,
and, too dignified to quarrel, lays down
and dies. l have seen him die as an act of
volition, based upon a reasonable des-
pair of living any longer to the satlsfac-
tion of his taskmaster.
The ears of the mule, in their sigRifi-
can't prominence, have much to do with
his endurance. If, in swimming n river,
he gets his ears full of water, he drowns.-
In times of intense exertien, when hu
man life is at stake, every inch taken
off ia mules ear will enable him to go
another mile. A friend of mine, riding
tired mule, was chased by large white
wolves, bethought him of his expe-z
dent but having no knife, he resorted
to his teeth. Fast followed the raven
ing wolves, and faster flew the mule, as
Haney gEawed his ear: and when they
reached a place of safety, the ears had
been devoured to the stubs. The mule
is no more, but Haney lives to tell the
story-and he is not a man whose word
it is safe to question-unless yo u have
your revolver ready
Moreover the mule is Sympathetic.
once heard conversation between a
mule and a soldier. Both had been
turned out of the column as disabled,
and were painfully plodding their way
through rain and mud by the roadside.
The exhausted soldier said, "Well, mu-
ley!" and the mule lifted up his voice
and wept, whinnering forth long draw
passage of sobbing sympathy. 1t was
like the symphony of violins before the
death scene in 'L'Africaine." There
was community of sorrow and sickness
and the two recognized their fellowship.
Twas once a believer in the theory
advanced by Mr.. Samuel Weller, and
indorsed by the Pickwick Club, that
mules never die, and that no living man,
or any acquaintance of any living man,
had ever seen dead mule. 1t would be
pleasant to retain the deusion, and to
think that a life so sorrowfully strange