The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-11-22
SOLDIER AND THE MULE.
Western Humorist Discourses as. to Government
Gratitude.
from Peck's Sun.l


from Peck's Sunl
The country has been treated the past week,
to piece of sentiment. on the part of an army
officer, that was not expected. In selling of
old and condemned army property at a frontier
post, it was found that one mule called Mex
ique," bad been in the service for forty years,
and for many years past had been kept at the
post, unable TO do any work, but given all that
it needed. When the sale was about to take
place the officers of the post, who had been
brought up, as it were, with the mule, decided
to petition the Government to countermand
the order for the sale of the mule and keep
the animal as long as it should live. The petit
tion was sent through the different headquar
ters, and at each place it received the indorse-
ment of the officer in charge, Don't sell the
mule" Finally the petition arrived at Gen
eral Sherman's headquarters, and the old man
remembered the mule. and indorsed the petit
tion, Don't sell the mule" and sent it to the
Secretary of War, Robert Lincoln. Robert sat
down and had good cry over the recital of
the services of the mule during forty years of
fighting and hauling bacon, and he wrote an
order to his subordinates as follows: Let this
mule be kept and cared for as long as he lives"
And as the order has gone forth. the aged and
infirm mule is distinguished guest of the
greatest Government the world ever knew
and the latter years of its life will be full of
peace and army oats, and its dying he'd will be
of roses and cactus, while its burial will make
holiday for the boys in blue When we see
an old soldier, with one leg, turning the crank
on hand organ, who cannot get a pension be-
cause there is no one left of his regiment to
testify as to whether the leg was shot off by a
cannon, or cut off by a surgeon, it will be nat
urai to think Of the unfortunate mule, that is
to he cared for all the days of its life.
When one looks over the pension list and
sees the name of a soldier who returned from
the war half dead, and has remained so ever
since, and see this mumiffcent Government
allows the soldier two dollars month, thus
paying for the lost health in instruments, one
will feel that the mule is a favored animal in
comparison with the sick soldier. 1t makes
one sick to see all this gushing over a mule
which has no soul that anyone knows of, by
men high in authority, when there are SOL
diers all over the land, with souls that every
one knows OF. who cannot procure pensions
owing to the loss of some important papers, or
the death or disappearance of some officer, and
who are earning half living doing some dirty
work. What welcome order it would be to
such soldier to have Mr. Lincoln write /" Let
this soldier be kept and cared for as long as he
lives" To the toiIing wife of MANNED sol
dier, who helps out the four dollars month
received from the Government as pension, by
doing washing or taking in stairs to scrub, as
she looks at the wreck of the man of her
choice, who stepped so proudly into the ranks
In 1862, and came home on crutches the read
ing of the order to I" Let the mule be cared for
as long as he lives must seem farce. The
mother of the brave boy who was killed at
Gettysburg, who receives about enough from
the Government to furnish her with calico
dress and All occasional pinch of stuff, as she
looks at the tin-typs of the boy who never
came back, and turns her spectacIes TO the
sublime words of the descendant of Abraham
Lincoln, to " care for the mule" must feel q
/ thrill of horror and feel that if she had her
| boy back again she would send mule TO war
next time
There are soldiers all over this land who are
deharred from receiving any aid from the
| Government, who would feel almost rich il
| they could have the oats that mule gets away
with. If it is right to support the white mule
IN ideness it is right 10 support all mules that
| have served their country, aud the precedent
established Will eause any mule to kick against
| being sold at auction hereafter, and claim the
| right to be cared for long as he lives. Ii is
| far from the wish of the San TO question the
motives of the Secretary of War in this matter
| as the mule cannot vote, but when Mr. Lincoln
unsexes the mule in a general order by saving
as long as he lives" he shows that he is moi
| the man for Secretary of War. The mule il
! not he, never was and never will be. The
/ mule has always been she animal, and how.
ever powerful the Secretary of War. no general
| order emanating from his Office can change
| mules from the feminine to the masculine He
| may cause them TO draw pensions of oats and
| baIed hay, but they must remain the same
! kind of mules BIZ. Lincoln ought to be
| ashamed of himself