Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1884-06-13
A PLEA FOR THE MULE.
Where the Mule Is Seen at His Best
"A Noble Animal.


1t Is only among some of the Latin
races. as i'll 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,
a prejudice as deeply rooted as it is
ill-founded, re.ents that familiar, af-
fectionate association with the ass and
the mule which does so much to develop
the fines instincts, and humanize, as it
were, the horse and the dog. With us
horses are bred for pleasure as well as
profit There is some sentiment in the
thing, AMI one rarely parts with fine
colt. at whatever price, without more
or less le9ret.
There was time, however, few
centnri since, when even in England
the mule was the peer of his aristo cratic
half brother the horse; when clad in
magnificent housings he proudly bore
upon his back the abbots, the bishops
and the princes of the all-powerful
Roman church, nor would this have
been the case had he not been deemed
by the luxurious and elf-indulgent
prelates of that day as far superior to
the horse for the purposes of the sad
die.
Even as late as 1890 the mule was
held to be an indispensable part of the
appendage Of the Bourbon dynasty of
Trance, and whenever the court of
Charles y moved from the palace of
the Tuilerics to Compiegne or + ontaine-
bleau it was in coaches drawn at q
gallop of ten miles an hour by superb
teams of Spanish mules, and such
mules. Near sixteen hands high,
matched to hair, glossy black in color,
"mealy mouthed," with legs and eyes
like antelopes, 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 SO to the sunny shores of the
Mediterranean-to Spain and Portugal.
The Arabian domination of 800 years
on that great peninsula filed it with
horses OF Arabian and Barb blood, and
this blood, to which we attribute the
best qualities of the modern race horse,
and, paradoxical as it NAV seem, the
sweet temper, the broad forehead, the
expressive eve and beautiful ear of the
massive Percheron. flows, and freely,
too, i'll 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 hi5hly-
bred mules harnessed to the travel ng
equipages of the Spanish king dash.ng
tn olgh the fuerto-del-Sol ut a ten
mile gait, or has encountered the in
terminable professions of gaily capari-
soned mules bearing the names of all
the saints in the calendar, threading
with unerring feet the dangerous de-
hles of the Pyrenees and the Sierra
Morena, to the sound of innumerable
tinkling of bells, will cease ut once
and forever to Obje t to the mule on the
score OF his appearance; and whoever
has seen the large, dark-eyed, b. own,
dirty, ragged, but beautiful children of
Andalusia gamboling as fearlessly and
with as much impunity 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 treatment the mule. too,
will develop traits as near akin to hu-
manitt rs the dog and the horse.
We are inclined to believe that we'll
bred mules possess undeveloped quail
ties for both quick draught and the
saddle, for which the general public is
not inclined to give them credit, and
we are convinced from actual observa-
tion that for light, quick draught over
long distances, and continuous from
day to day. and for saddle-gaits. mules
carefully bred are equal and per-
haps superior to our average light
draught and saddle-horses.
We remember pair of mules, bred
by one of the Shelby's, in Kentucky.
that drew q carriage containing five
heavy men forty miles over an ordinary
road in five hours, without turning O
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, La,
500 paid for saddle mule that could
pace at the rate of ten miles an hour
for hours together.
We have a frierd in Rappahannock.
w., Tom Hughes, regular son of
Anak in size, six feet five in his stock
ings, big in proportion and tipping the
beam at over 200 pounds, who for sew
eral seasons rode in the first fight to
hounds hunting country that was
nearly all mountain ON q mule that
never made q misstep or refused leap