The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-12-26
THE MULE ON SHiPBOARc.
Narrowing Incidents from the Experienci
of a Guano skipper.


Narrowing Incidents from the Experiences
of a Guano skipper.
Didn't ever see mule o. ship
board?' exclaimed old Captain Ellir,i.
of the barkentine Blazing Hot. rs g.
cooked his weather eye to windward AMI
smiled the smile of conscious superioril.
Then all l can say, shipmatc. is tina;
your nautical dedication has been nee.
lected."
The weather-beaten skipper stuffed
half pound of long cut into his left
cheek, hauled his shoulder braces taul,
and launched into the subject with rel
ish.
"a mule" said the Captain, ''is the
sailors greatest joke. To the men be-
fore the mast he is the embodiment OF
humor, and yarn about the animal is
sure to set the foe tie in a roar
why is this thus." inquired the re.
porter.
"Why?"
For moment the Captain looked as
if he had lost his bearings. Then his
eye lighted up with saline satisfaction
and he smiled grimly as who should say:
81 can answer such a question as that
by dead reckoning"
'WhyP Well, faint no such awful
mystery, young man. 'Twixt you an
me an the galley l guess it's because
the mule is such dreadful funny beast.
1t don't need no Imagination to make
him seem so. The hest fun ever saw
with a mule was down to the Chincha
Islands, below Callao, where they take
on cargos of guano. When vessel goes
there the Captain buys q mule outright
and then sells him again cheap when
he's done loadin' up. There isn't any
grass on the island-nothin' but guano
and the mules will eat most anything
they can get. They're the darndest
thieves you ever see, and good bye to
the sailors biscuit if they get an eye
upon them. l remember once IL"
Here the Captain doubled up as if a
bad attack of cramps had seized upon
him and went off into conpiption fit
which lasted for ten minutes.
81 remember once" he resumed,
when the gale had passed over, ga sly
old mule we had at Chincha that 1 paid
thirteen dollars for. You never saw
such an old devil in all your born days
He made himself thoroughly at home
on board ship, and consumed everything
he could lay tooth to, from the plum
duff to the sailors shirts hung up tc
dry. One day -
Here the Captain snorted again and
swallowed his quid, but did not seem to
mind it any more than the mule did the
shirts.
zone day the mule found his way
into the galley, drank up the boiling
CUP. swallowed gill OF cayenne pep
per, which made him smile and yawp
like a chicken with the pip, overturned a
bucket of corn meal, and then looked
about for more. His eye fell upon big
chunk of cold corned beef He shifted
at it and seemed to like the flavor, and
then, picking it up with his teeth, he
carried it out on deck and coolly pro-
ceeded to eat it. We caught him just as
he was rounding off with the fat. The
sailors kicked him about the head and
stomach few hundred times, but the
joke was too good for them to get real
mad.
Ouc udJ tldb
The captain wrestled with an internal
cyclone for spell and then continues:
Zone Gay that mule caught sight
of cabbage near an open hatch
way. The hatch was resting cornerwise
over the hole, and he climbed upon it
anG reached for the vegetable. The
hatch tipped up and down the mule
went, heels over head, into the guano.
When we rushed to the rescue there
wasn't anything in sight but his four
feet, kicking like all possessed. We
had to rig tackle to get HIM out, and
he was near suffocated when we got his
nose into the air. wish you could see
that mule when we got him on deck! We
had to dig the muck out of his eyes
with shovel"
and coughed up the swallowed tobacco.
"That mule was the stubbornest animal
you ever see. He would haul on the
block and tackle to certain line, and
then when the tackle was changed and
you wanted him to walk to another line
little further along the only way you
could persuade him to do SO was to take
club and knock him down. After a
| few arguments of this kind he would
take up with the new line. We had O
great time getting that mule landed. We
lowered him with block and tackle into
the lifeboat and rowed rs near the shore
as possible. Then we asked him to walk
the rest of the way, but he shook his
head and said he wouldn't go. A line was
fastened around his neck and hauled
taut, but he wouldn't bulge. Finally we
manned his starboard legs and gave him
sudden list to port. Down he went,
heels up, in the water till his back struck
the pebbly bottom. When he came UP
he seemed chock full of water. He
snorted like porpoise and climbed fol-
the shore. When he struck dry land he
just whisked his tail and went over the
hill like asshot. After that we couldn't
get within mile of him. If ever die
, a-laughin' the mule on shipboard will
be the cause. IN. Y. Herald.