The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-05-06

horse, more knowing and more affectlOn-
ate. But know of no animal whose
moral education is so much neglected.
He is victim of his associates. When
thoroughly corrupted there is no wicked
ness to which he is not equal. His hy-
pocrisy then greatly helps him to sue
ceed. lhave seen him when he looked
the perfect picture of meekness and hu-
mility; when it seemed that even Moses
himself must defer to him in these
crowning virtues. Yet if Moses or any
other patriarch had ventured to ap-
proach him without q tribute of corn
the mule would have kicked him into the
remotest antiquity. l have seen him
deceive a wagon-master himself, pre-
tending that he could not 60 step far
ther, but the moment he was released
from harness bounding off as fresh and
lively as colt.
The depraved mule rejoices in his
heart if he can make some one miserable.
1t is a trait for which in the West they
have specific term. They call it "pure
cussedness When mule devotes his
whole life to illustrating this idea he
finds thousand opportunities and
achieves a remarkable success. 1t is
this instinct which prompts him to en-
courage the attentions of his driver for "a
year Or two, just for the sake of getting
a good chance to kick his brains out. 1t is
this which leads him to stand still when
other people would be better pleased if
he would go. 1t is this which often de,
cides him when he really does start to
send his rider on ahead of him. Per
haps, too, it is this spirit that gives the
mule his strange idea of justice, which
seems to be to visit upon others the
Affections which he suffers himself.
Thus it is said that if bad lot of mules
are in line and you kick one of them vio-
lently, instead of retaliating on the one
who kicked him he simply kicks the
mule behind him. The second mule
passes the kick to the third, he to the
fourth, and so on till the primary ven
geance has gone the whole length of the
line, leaving the last mule unjustifed.
Perhaps it is only an illustration of the
principle that misery loves company,
since by this device the mule first kicked
secures the sympathy of the whole line.
The mule has always been credited
with great deal of freedom of the will.
This it must be that makes him dislike
his rope and picket-pin. If he can break
the rope or pull up the pin he finds
new opportunity. Then, not until he
has defrauded some less fortunate mule
out of his grass, or broken a rivals jaw,
or pulled down two or three tents with
his picketpin, does he go to bed happy
The only personal objection l have to
a mule is his neglect of camp courtesies,
especially his passion for pulling down
tents. He has a strange instinct, when
self freed, to consider that direction most
convenient for him which is most incon-
venient for everybody else. On the ex-
pedition our headquarter tents were al
ways ranged in line, with space, when
camp was small, only large enough for
man to pass between them. Nearly
every mule that pulled up his picket-pln
in our vicinity, though he might have
hundred miles of free. uaobstructed
prairie on the other side, determined to
pass between these tents, dragging his
long lariat and pin after him. No mat
ter if the pin caught in one of our guy
ropes or in corner of the tent He
forgot the things that were behind and
pressed forward to those that were be-
fore, leaving us to repair damages.
Sometimes two mules tied to one rope
would explore together. When this
was the case both mules always tried to
see which could get through the tent row
| frst.-S. j. Barroacs, in atlantic Monthly.