Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1886-03-18

4 AllcI u tuOlutlI vi t"J bllcy Ctubiouo'y
returned to the attack, and between
jerky, splsmodic kicks, got rope IL
round three of the mules legs, ran the
ropo over the neck string, and made II
fast to the crowbar in front. Then
one man got the nose twister and put
it ON the mule, and another man took
the little fellow by the tail. y third
man took the mules united leg and be-
gan the first part Of the shoeing act.
! He had not got very far before the
mule interposed vigorous objection !;
it came in the shape Of Il wild, tremul-
Gus and thrilling all around kick that
tore the rope from its fastenings and
left the mule standing there free and
unfettered. The man who had hold OF
the animals leg grabbed up his tool
box hurridly and FASTENED to join the
other fugitives. He was somewhat
slow, and the mule saw him. He not
only saw him, he followed him and took
aftel him as hard as he could, biIing at
the flying end of his apron and giving
an questionable nibble at his hip pock-
ct. Everybody in the shop cheered eX-
cept the man who was running. Near
the front door the mule thought he was
close enough for operations, so he
wheeled quickly and let both feet fly
into the Small of the blacksmith's back.
The smith yelled and went on, but the
mule stopped, wheeled around again,
and let his lips break into wide smile,
while his ears stood up in triumph aud
the other occupants of the shop roared.
1t took more than an hour to shoe that
mule. In the meantime work was be-
gun on other mules, and when three or
four were in the hands of the furriers
at time the fun was tremendous.
Ropes seemed powerless to hold
them. Every five minutes one was
loose chasing somebody around the
shop and always overtaking them in
the manner in which the first mule o.
vertook his man, and dealing double
kick at the basement of the party's
pantaloons. The mule never made
mistake in selecting his man he al
ways chooses out the person who was
doing the shoeing. and often reached
around and took a mouthful of the
smiths shirt or turf of his hair.
A crowd gathered at the blacksmith
shop door early In the morning, end
there was an audience there all day
long that would hardly ct in the Stand
ard Theatre. 1t was late at night
when the show was over, and then the
men were all broken up. Each one of
the so mules had dealt the eleven men
about fifty kicks apiece, and, though
their kick was not hard, it was disa-
greeable. Before noon the men learn
ed that the mules could not do much
harm with their tiny heels and short
legs, and so to satisfy the recAlcitrant
little Erutes after they broke the ropes
would stop after running short dis
tance and turn tho backs of their
trousers for the mule to kick at. A few
kicks made the brute happy and tract
atle for awhile, an6 he was led back to
the post and. got a new installment OF
shoeing. One mAn named Vaughn,
who Is an athlete and ex circus man,
let a mule chase him a bit and then
waited for the little fellow to kick !;
when he did so, Vaughn caught him
by the heels aud turned him over on
his back as easily as if he had been a
poodle dog. AT night, when the work
was at an end, Ed. Butler, Jr., had Is
kicks to his credit, and the other men
were equally well up in their records.
Nobody was badly hurt, but the men
were so worn out with exercise and
their lungs were so sore from laughter
that they couldn't do any work for
several days, and Ed. Butler says that
from this out his price for shoeing a
Texas mule is S..