Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-07-20
CUBAN MULES AND OXEN.
THE INFAMOUS ABUSE OF DUMB
ANIMALS IN HAVANA.

"A Cart with Wheels Ten Feet in
misunderstanding an Ok.
But if the treatment Of the poor by these
people is exceptionally tender, their aouse
OF all dumb animals is infamous There il
no exception TO this. A horse, a mule, or
an OK is a beast of burden to be drived and
loaded to the last limit, and then pounded
and goaded iacessantly. Centuries OF this
sort of thing have positively given these
animals hereditary traits OF denure patience
and characteristic humility that are pa
thetic. A caballero will spur and ASH has
pony to its utmost speed, dis.'ocnt at his
destination with parting kick at the AMI
NAL which is no bigger than its rider, and
the painting pony's head will instantly drop
between his knees, while it VIII actually
60 to s.eep there with q look upon ats lace
which says as plainly as words can, Il am
sure to be awakened from this needed rest
by blow" And the mute prophecy comes
true The Cuban mule has been pounded
into a submissiveness that has actually re-
moved from his character all Of those
marked eccentricities which have made the
mule the helpful friend of the Photographer
everywhere else in the world Here the
latitude and longitude of his ears, the culver
of his under lip, the restlessness Of his tail,
or the sudden curvature of his spine mean
nothing. He is shorn Of dynamite powers
He is not worth illustrating. The OK and
the heifer are worked and goaded to despera-
ton, while the bull is reserved for life that
his life may be taken from him by demoniac
torture
You will find here the most primitive
methods in the application OF the use OF do
nestle animals to the needs Of agriculture
and commerce. HAVANA is q great city,
but could you have walked the streets OF
old Granada, Madrid, or Barcelona 800
| years ago, you would have viewed pre-
cisely the sane street scenes as you will see
| here to day You can not find in Cuba q
dray or .our-wheeled wagon The two
wheele,. cart IS used for all hauling pur-
poses. Il is really a great affair. The
wheels & { frequently ten feet in diameter,
the felloes six inches broad and as thick,
the spoAes are big as your leg, and the hub
like a haIf-bushel basket The bodies of the
carts are enormous Many are covered
like those "emigrant wagons" our ancestors
"came west in, and are also provided with
great rusn pouches which dsngle and sway
underneath, while the shafts are together
larger than the little mules whole body.
An iron pin is showed through the end OF
the axle to hold the wheel in place, and
when "greasing" has been overlooked the
shrieking and groaning of bevy of these
carts are equal to the wailings of the old
Red river trains that once trailed out of St
Paul to the PARKWAY Hudson's bay coun-
try. Ponies are rarely used in these carts
The mule, heifer, OK, and sometimes bull,
are the motive power, and when it Is re-
membered that verything brought into
HAVANA in the nature Of fruits and pro-
duce by the guajros or country people,
save that portion transported in huge packs
and pouches dashed to q mules or q pony's
back, all carriage between wholesale and re-
tail establishments, all the moving of house
hold furniture, and all the vast movement
of freight to and from the docks of this, the
eighth ranking commercial capital Of the
world, are accomplished exclusively by the
use of such methods of conveyance some
idea of the primitiveness and picturesque
mess of the every day working Of such q
system may be formed.
/ have stood at ferry entrances hours to
study all sorts of Cuban people; but the
carts, the way they are equipped and
driven, their contents, and, above all, these
carreteros, who are here at their greatest
because of the crowding and clustering,
have always possessed the iveliest interest
Here may be a mule-cart loaded with
fodder from the country, the little mule
absolutely obscured with cart, harness
which weighs as much as the mule, and
corn stalks, the motive power a mystery
were it not disclosed by the bells hung to
the hidden animal, with the driver running
along on one side and q helper on the other,
both yelling like demons and prodding saw
In haraafh ho nvorha lka
where the mutfied bells and animation ara
Here is great open cart piled ten feet
high with bales of tassajo or South Ameri-
can jerked beef, and drawn by an OK The
animal is inside of immense shafts, the ends
of which rest in iron loops depending from
yoke set, not on his neck, but upon his
head His legs seem spread with the load
Every step is taken as if doubtfully plunged
into space The vibrations of the shaft
keep his neck and head trembling as with
palsy. His eyes bulge from their sockets
and his mouth is half open A ring is in
his nose, and cords of plated grass, as
lines, run from this ring to the right and
left between his horns through rings set IN
the huge yoke and thence to the carreteros
left hand, while his right holds . long pole,
tipped with a sharp iron brad, like q plea
doris pike in the bull ring. The face Of
that OK as he trembles and glares under his
burden is a sad sight to . man with q heart
under his vest, but when this bold carre-
tero awakens to the fact that his standing
among men involves his asserting himself, it
Il then that the thunders Of bis voice are
heard, and the helpless brute il
piked and prodded until the blood spurts
from his TANKS and he squats fiat in his
tracks believing piteously in pain never
prayed God so ferventay for sound body
and my old 200 pounds weight as in the
presence Of scenes like this, and if my prayer
had been answered would have made tassajo
out of some of these noble carreterors, II it
had involved the two governments
You will frequently see several mules at
tached tandem to Q huge cartload Of freight,
when three or four carreteros or muleteros
are required to produce, with scores Of un-
musical bells, the hubbub necessary to pro-
gresa The incessant bowling and iarrup.
ing by those niuleteros usually prompt un-
impeded Roadway; but once let the affair
come to a standstill and all Christendom
can not furnish another such . din. A scors
Of neighboriug drivers will suddenly de-
scend upon the scene, end tho whacking,
bell jangling, and bowling become simply
indescribahle 1t is an exceptional thing
to see bulls harnesssd to tho cart, but they
sometimes are: and then it ID curious study
to note the national trait Of critical obser-
walton of the animal by all, the most dis
tinguisbed ladies included They win con-
template bull with a. quick and unerring
. discernment and summary Of value-and
. bulls value in Cuba can only be estimated
on the basis Of his possible fighting quail
ties-as an American turfman viii judge Of
the speed and bottom Of . horsa-Edward
L Wakeman in Chicago News
Living Among California; Chinese.
Living among the humble classes Of Chi
in Il