Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-02-24
ABOUT MULES.
Some Interesting Facts Respecting
these Remarkable Animals.


these Remarkable Animals.
1t is only among some ofthe Latin races,
says correspondent of the Spirit Of the
Times, as IN Spain and Portugal and in
the East, that the mule and his sire, the
ass, is appreciated at his true value.
With the nations OF Germanic descent,
and more particularly the AnglO-SaXOn, a
pre- judice as deeply rooted as it is i'll
founded, prevents that familiar, Affection
ate association with the ass and the mule
which does so much TO develop the finest
Instincts. and humaniZe. as il were, the
horse and 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 a fine colt, at what
ever price, without more or less regret.
Not so with the mule. His existence is
due to mercenary motives exclusively; he
is looked upon merely as a vulgar drudge
destined to the rudest labor of the pillow,
the wagon and the cart under the guidance
of hirelings more or less ignorant, and
therefore more or less brutal; he is treated
as an lshmaelite and every mans hand,
armed with whip or club, is against
him, and when be resents such treatment,
that resentment is attributed to Unborn
cussedness, and not, as it should be, to
that harsh education which is addressed
to his worst, insle cad of his best instincts,
to a violation of that cardinal rule which
inculcates gentle kindness in the treat
ment of all our dOmesticated ANIMALS and
to rule them through their affections and
not their fears.
There was time, however, a few Gen.
turtles since, when even in England the
mule was the peer of his aristOcratic hall
brother, the horse; when, clad in magnl-
ticent housings, he proudly bore upon his
back the abbOts, the bishops and the
princes OF the all-pOwertul Roman church,
nor would this nave been the case had he
not been deemed by the luxurious and
selt-indulgent prelates of that day as far
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 append
age of the Bourbon dynasty of France,
and wherever the court of Charles Y,
moved from the palace Of the Tuileries to
COmpiegne or FOntainebleau, it was in
coaches drawn at a gallOp 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 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 go to the sunny shores Of the Med
iterranean-tO Spain and Portugal. The
Arabian domination of 800 years on that
great peninsula Allied it with horses of
Arabian and Barb blood, and this blood.
to which we attribute the best qualities Of
the modern "acehOrse, 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, III the veins of the
Spanish mule, and imparts to him an APP
pearance as superior to American mules
bred for toe drudgery of our Southern
plantations, as is that of the kings of the
turf to the cGarsest COnestOg8.
w Oever has Lad the gOOG fortune to
have seen the high-strung and highly-brGd
mules harnessad to the trayeiin equip
ages Of the Spanish King dashing through
the Puerta-del-SGl at a tcn-mile gait, or
has encountered the interminable process
siOns of gayly cap2FisOned mules, bear
ing the names of al the saints ia the
calendar, threading with unerring feet
the dangerous defles of the Pyrenees and
the Sierra Morena, to the sound of IN
Vulnerable tinKling bells, will cease as
once and forever to object 10 the mule on
the score of bis appearance; and who
ever has seen the large, dark-eyed, brown,
dirty, ragged, but beautiful children of
Andalusia gambGling 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, viii! be
compelled to admit that with the same
kind treatment the mule, too, viii de-
velOp traits as near akin to humanity as
the dog and the horse.
We are inclined to believe that we'll
bred mules possess undeveloped qualities
for both quick draft and the saddle for
which the general public is not inciii",eed
to give them credit, and we are convinced
from actual observation that for light,
quick draft over long distances and con-
tinuous from day TO day, and for saddle
gaits, mules out of thoroughbred mares,
by the best Maltese jacks, are fully equal
and perhaps superior to our average light
draft and saddle horses.
We remember a par of mules, bred by
one of the Shelbys, in Kentucky, that drew
carriage. containing five heavy men,
forty miles over an ordinary road IN 1--WE
hours. without turning a 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 friend in RappahannOck,
Va, Tom Hughes, regular son of Anack
in size, six feet FIVE in his stockings, big
in proportion and tipping the beam at
over 200 pounds, who for several seasons
rode in the first flight to hounds. hunting
a country that was nearly all mountain
on mule that never made a misstep or
refused n leap over fence OF wall.