Morning journal and courier., 1886-06-14
CUBAN MULES AND OXEN.


mals in Havana.
 1 Edward L. Wakeman iii the Chicago Newsl 1 But if the treatment of the poor by these 1 people is exceptionally tender, their abuse ! of all dumb animals is infamous. There is l no exception to this. A horse, mule ol an OK is beast of burden to be driven and loaded to the last limit and then 1 pounded and goaded necessarily. Centu- ries of this sort of thing have positively given these animals hereditary traits of de- | mure patience and characteristic humility that pathetic. A caballero will spur and l lash his pony to it's utmost speed, dismount at his destination with parting kick at the animal, which is no bigger than it's rider, and the panting pony's head will instantly drop between his knees, while it will actual l ly go to sleep there with look upon it's face which says as plainly as words can, ''I am sure to be awakened from this needed rest by a blow" And the mute prophecy comes true. The Cuban mule has been pounded into su bmissiveness that has actually re- moved from his character all of those mark ed eccentricities which have made the mule the helpful friend of the paragrapher everywhere else in the world. Here the latitude and longitude of his ears, the quiver of his un- der lip, the restlessness of his tail, or the
 
 He is shorn of dynamite powers. He is not worth illustrating. The OK and the heifer are worked and goaded to desperation, 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 great city, but could you have walked the streets of old Granada, Madrid or Barcelona five hundred years ago: you would have viewed precisely the same street scenes you will here to-day. You cannot find in Cuba dray or four-wheeled wagon. The two-wheeled cart is used for all hauling purposes It is really a great affair. The wheels are ire quently ten feet in diameter, the felloes six | inches broad and as thick, the spokes as big as your leg, and the hub like bushel l basket. The bodies of the carts are enor- l nous. Many covered like those ''emi- | grant wagons our ancestors ''came west in, | and are also provided with great rush pouch es which dangle and sway underneath, while | the shafts are together larger than the little | mules whole body. An iron pin is showed l through the end of the axle to hold the wheel 1 in place, and when ''greasing" has been over | looked the shrieking and grooming of bevy of these carts are equal to the wailings of the old Red river trains that once trailed out ot St. Paul to the far-away Hudson's bay country. Ponies are rarely used in these carts. The mule, heifer, OK and sometimes bull are the motive power and when it is remembered that everything brought into Havana in the nature of fruits and produce by the guajiros or country people, save that portion transported in huge packs and pouch as lashed to a mules or pony's back, all carriage between wholesale and retail estab- lishments, all the moving of household fur niture 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 picturesqueness of the every day working of such 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 pos sessed the liveliest interest. Here may be a mule-cart loaded with fodder from the couR- try, 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 helper on the other, both yelling like demons and prodding savagely beneath the overhanging cornstalks where the muff1ed bells and aui- nation are. Here is great open cart piled ten feet high with bales of tassajo or South American jerked beef and drawn by an OK. The animal is inside of immense shafts, the ends of which rest in iron loops depending from a yoke set, not on his neck, but upon his head. His legs seem spread with the load. Every step is taken if doubtfully plunging into space. The vibrations of the shaft keep his neck and head trembling with palsy. His eyes bulge from their sock cts and his mouth is half open. A ring is in his nose and cords of plaited grass, as lines, run from this ring to the right and left be- tween his horns through rings set in the huge yoke, and thence to the carreteros left hand while his right holds long pole tipped with sharp iron brad like picador's pike in the bull ring. The face of that OK as he u 1embles and glares under his burden is sad sight to man with heart under his vest, but when this bold carretero awak ems to the fact that his standing among men involves his asserting himself, it is then that the thunders of his voice are heard, and the helpless brute Is piked and prodded until the blood spurts from his Hanks and he squats fiat in his tracks believing piteously in pain. I never prayed God so fervently for sound body and my old two hundred pounds weight as in the presence of scenes like this, and if my prayer had been answered I would havs made tassajo out of some of these noble car reteros if it had involved the two govern ments.
 cSO tached tandem to huge cartload of freight, when three or four carreteros muleteros are required to produce, with scores of un- | musical bells, the hubbub necessary to prog ress The incessant bowling and larruping by those muleteros usually prompt unimped- ed headway; but once let the affair come to standstill and all Christendom cannot fur nish another such din. A score of neigh boring drivers will suddenly descend upon the scene and the whacking, bell dangling and bowling become simply indescribable. It is an exceptional thing to see bulls har- messed to the cart, but they sometimes are; and then it is a curious study to note the na- tional trait of critical observation of the an- imal by all, the most distinguished ladies in- cluded. They will contemplate a bull with as quick and unerring 8 discernment and summary Of value-and bulls value in Cuba can only be estimated on the basis of his possible fighting qualities-as an Ameri- can turfman will judge of the speed and bot tom of horse.
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