The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-04-14
THE MULE IN THE COAL MINE.
An Underground Life Does Not Injure His
Constitution, but Developes a Feroeious
Temper in the Beast


An battle-ground Life Does Not Iniure His
Constitution, but Developes a Feroeious
Temper in the Beast
Shenandoah Letter in Philadelphia Times.
If the gentlest and sweetest dispositioned
mule in the world were lowered into col
liery the driver-boys would by constant teas
ing transform him into four-legged demon
in less than a week. The positive ferocity
that is developed in these brutes is appalling
even to persons familiar with their malig-
nant peculiarities, and the official mining re-
ports con tain scores upon scores of cases in
which miners, laborers and driver-boys have
received fatal and serious injuries from them.
They never die in the mines and it is only
on rare occasions that one is killed by an ex-
plosion of gas or a fall of coal. Two or three
weeks ago dreadful explosion of gas took
place in Packer Colliery No. 2. Six men were
fatally injured. A mule, standing in the
gangway, was sent hurting through the air by
the explosion and his coat of hair was singed
entirely of. He ate as usual that evening,
and when put to work on the following day,
his spirits revived to such an extent that he
bit piece out of the shoulder of a driver
boy named Ryan, who lives in Lost Creek.
Captain Dorgan one of the oldest mining
bosses in the region, declares that he has
seen colliery mule waste hours of time
kicking into black space, in the hope that
some unsuspecting miner would come with
in range of his hoofs.
Every mule that is taken into O colliery is
kicked and bitten by his long-eared stable
mates until he becomes vicious enough to
retaliate. Then, after sharpening his teeth
on his iron-bound manger and kicking at
space until he has acquired perfect control
over his heels, he becomes thoughtful and
centers his mind on the necessity of maim-
ing men in general and driver-boys and visit
ors in particular. In every drove OF colliery
mules there is one or more that is hated on
account of his thorough depravity.
big Joe, fifteen-year-old mule in the
Kohi-Noor Colliery, has a kicking record
that is known from one end of Schuylkill
county to the other, and scores OF miners
bear his heel-marks on their bodies The
miners in Packer Colliery venerate a mule
called Mack His age is unknown, but it's
belived to be something like twenty years.
He has worked in this mine ten years with
out seeing daylight, and, strange to say, he
is not known to have kicked any one. The
miners carry cabbage-leaves, apples green
corn and other delicacies down to this
mulish veteran, who is fat, happy and play
full. There are three mules in the Dunbar
Colliery, near Shamokin, that have not been
above ground for thirteen years. In Wades-
vile Shaft there is a mule which for five or
six years never approaches the foot OF the
shaft with car without looking at the little
hole of light 600 feet above him. This beast
is called "PeepiDg Tom" No matter how
long he remains standing at the foot" he
will not take his eyes off the mouth of the
shaft. He reaches the foot" as often as
thirty times day, and yet he never neglects
to look up. A year or two ago mule broke
his traces in the Pottsville shaft and crowded
himself into the cage. When found he was
looking up, as if expecting the cage to be
hoisted. When driven out of the cage he
watched it intently as it assembled. John P.
Nicholson, an old and well-known miner,
who was at the foot of the shaft, declares
hot mfr tha nod
feet the mule deliberately plunged into the
''sumph" and drowned himself.
Turkey Run Colliery has a phanto III mule,
which miners believe in implicitly. Dozens
declare they have seen the specter and de-
scribe it as double the size of all ordinary
mule. The vision haunts the old breasts,
and no one is ever said to have seen it in the
main gangway where heshly mules work.
When miner declares that he has seen the
spectral beast superstitious people working
about him believe that a catastrophe is at
hand. Three men, two of whom, John De-
vine and David Thomas Williams, now live
in this place, vow that they saw the appari-
| ton an hour before the big explosion in
August, 1881, when four men were killed and
| several others were injured. An ordinary
mule cannot be induced to enter parts of the
mine where damp exists i'll dangerous quanti-
ties. There are instances on record, however,
in which mules have been overpowered by
damp. When the mules and rats in a mine
start for the foot of the shaft or mouth of
the drift the miners rarely fail to follow,
as it is considered a sure indication of dan
ger.
The confinement of mules in coal mines
has no evil effect on their constitutions.
They are always well fed and cared for, and
the coal dust gives their coats gloss rarely
seen on the hair Of mules living in the open
air. While a mine is worked the mules
never come out. Some months ago water in
the lower workings of the largest colliery at
ST. Clair caused suspension of the work
and all the mules were brought up. More
than a dozen of the animals had been in
the collery eleven years. When turned
out to pasture near the village they did
not pay the slightest attention to
the scant heritage about them, but de-
voted their whole time to gazing at the sky,
the mountains and the horizon. They were
evidently lost in open-eyed establishment
and failed to realize where they were. They
stood for hours in silent contemplation of
the scenery and appeared so stupefed that
not one of the lot offered to make war on
his mates. The strangeness of the scene had
driven all the combativeness out of them for
time. On the first day they did not even
make a circuit of the ten-acre field they
were in, and the food offered to them was re-
fused. That night however. they ,devoured
the food, and at daylight again huddled and
remained SO until nightfall. Their astonish-
ment did not wear off until week went by
and hundreds of people visited the place to
see them. Just as they were becoming ac-
customed to the place and were beginning to
indulge in kicking matches they were low
cred into the colliery again and renewed
work in the dark
Inspired by Mary Anderson.
New Orleans Pieayuns.
The following words occur In what is called