Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1883-12-17
SOLDIER AND THE MULE.

frontier post, 1t was found that one
mule, called "Mexique," has been in
the service forty years, and for many
years past has 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 peti-
ton the Government to countermand
the order for the sale of the mule,
and keep the animal as long as it
should live. The petition was sent
through the different headquarters,
and at each place it received the in
dorsement of the officer in charge,
"Don't sell the mule" Finally the
| petition arrived at General Sherman's
headquarters, and the old man rem
embered the mule, and indorsed the
petition, "Don't sell the mule" and
sent it to the Secretary of War, Rob-
ert Lincoln. Robert sat down and
had a good cry over the recital of
the services of the mule during forty
years of fighting and hauling bacon,
and he wrote to his subordnates 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 infrm mule is a 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 bed 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 a
hand organ, who cannot get a pen
sion because there is no one left of
his regiment to testify as to whether
the leg was shot off by cannon, or
cut off by a surgeon, it will be natu-
raj to think of the unfortunate mule,
that is to be cared for all the days of
his life.
When one looks over the pension
list and sees the name of q soldier
who returned from the war half dead,
and has remained so ever since, and
see this muniicent Government al
lows the soldier two dollars month,
thus paying for the lost health in in
stalments, 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 soldiers all over the
land, with souls that everyone knows
of, who cannot procure pensions
owing to the loss of some important
papers, OF 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 toiling wife of MANNED soldier,
who helps out the four dollars a
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 reading of the order to "Let the
mule be cared for as long as he lives"
must seem a 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 an
, occasional pinch of snuff, as she
looks at the tin-type of the boy who
never came back, and turns her spec
tacles to the sublime words of the
descendant of Abraham Lincoln, to
scare for the MULE" must feel a
thrill of horror, and feel if she had
her boy back again she would send
mule to war next time.
There are soldiers all over this land
, who are debarred from receiving any
aid from the Government, who
/ would feel almost rich if they could
r have the oats that mule gets away
; with. If it is right to support the
white mule in idleness, it is right to
support all mules that have served
their country, and the precedent es-
tablished will cause any mule to kick
against being sold at auction here
t after, and claim the right to be cared
: for as long as he lives. 1t is far
from the wish of the Sun to question
5 the motives of the Secretary of War
in this matter, as the mule cannot
5 vote, but when Mr.. Lincoln unsexes
the mule in general order, by say
| ing 'tas long as he lives" he shows
t that he is not the man for Secretary
r of War. The mule is not a he, never
5 was and never will be. The mule
| has always been she animal, and
e however powerful the Secretary of
e War, no general order emanating
: from his office can change mules
r from the feminine to the masculine.
He may cause them to draw pensions
a of oats and baled hay, but they must
remain the same kind of mules. Mr..
] Lincoln ought to be ashamed of him
/ self.-Peck's Sun.
"Ma," he asked at dinner, "who
| was Charlotte Russe?" "Oh," said