Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-09-25
THE MULE.
Something Concerning This Interesting
Animal

Animal.
1t is only among some of the Latin
races, as IN Spain and Portugal and in
the East, that the mule and his sire. the
ass, are appreciated at their true value.
With the nations of Germanic descent,
and more particularly the Anglo Saxon,
q prejudice, as deeply rooted as it is i'll
founded, prevents that familiar affec-
tionate association with the ass and the
mule which does so much to develop
the finest instincts. and humanize, as it
were, the horse aid the dog With us
horses are bred for pleasure as well as
profit There IS some sentiment in the
thing, and one rarely parts with fine
colt, at whatever price, without more
or less regret.
There was a time, however, few
centuries since, when even in England
the mule was the peer Of his aristocratic
haif-brother the horse; when, clad in
magnificent hous ngs, he proudly bore
upon his back the abbots, the bishops.
aud the princes of the all-powerful
Roman Church, nor would this have been
the case had he j OF been deemed by the
luxurious an ) lf-.n,lulgent prelates of
that day as lar superior TO the horse for
the purposes of the saddle.
Even as late as 1880 the mule was
held to be an indispensable part of the
appendage of the Bourbon dynasty of
France, and whenever the courts of
Charles y. moved from the palace of
the Tuileries to Compiegne or Fontaine-
bleau, 1t was III coaches drawn at a GAL
lop of ten miles an hour by superb
teams of Spanish mules, and such mules
Near sixteen hands high, matched to a
hair, glossy black in color, "mealy
mouthed, with legs and eyes like an
telopes, and showing in spirit, action,
and endurance the generous Barb blood
of their maternal ancestry.
But to see the mule at his best we
should go the sunny shores of the Med
iterranean-to Spain and Portugal.
The Arabian domination of 800 wears
on that great peninsula filled it with
horses of Arabian and Barb blood, and
this blood, to which we attribute the
best qualities of the modern racehorse,
and-paradoXical as it may seem-the
sweet temper, the broad forehead, the
expressive eye and beautiful ear of the
massive Percheron, flows, and freely.
too, in the veins of the Spanish mule,
and imparts to him an appearance as
superior to American mules bred for
the drudgery of our Southern planta-
tions as is that of the kings of the turf
to the coarsest Conestoga.
Whoever has had the good fortune to
have seen the high-strung and highly
|, 4 a.,
equipages of the Spanish King dashing
through the Puerta-del-Sol at ten
mile gait, or has encountered the inter-
minable professions of gayly capari-
soned mules, bearing the names of all
the saints in the calendar, threading
with unerring feet the dangerous de-
files of the Pyrenees and the Sierra
Moreno, to the sound of innumerable
tinkling bells, will cease at once and
forever to object to the mule on the
score of his appearance; and whoever
has seen the large. dark-eyed, brown,
dirty, ragged, but beautiful children
of Andalusia gamboling under the heels
of the mules with which they were
brought up, as do the children in the
tents of the Arab among the mares,
will be compelled to admit that with
the same kind treatme the mule, too,
will develop traits as near akin to hui
MAJ ty as the dog and the ho}se
We are Inclined to believe / lat we'll
bred mules % seo5 undry iopeI quail
ties for both Qt.ck lrdught AMI the sad
die for which tha general pub il is not
inclinet to give them credit and we are
convinced from actual observation that
for Light, qui, k doanght over long dis
tanccs and conlin4eu from day to day,
mules oat of thoroughbred mares 10y
the best Maltese jackS are fully equal,
and perhaps superlo to onr average
light draught and saddle horses
We remember pair OF mules, bred
by one of the She bys, in Kentucky,
that drew carriage containing five
heavy men forty miles over an ordinary
road i'll five hours, without turning
hair or crack of the whip, and returned
the next day with equal ease and IN the
same time.
In 1886 we saw, on Red River, Loui-
siana, 500 paid for a saddle mule that
could pace at the rate of ten miles an
hour for hours together. Cor. Ttrt,
Field anil Farm.