The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-07

| lOCB ucT IL u uTy cotilp, quicker II cnalu
Gghtnin', an fer all roun' cussedness
can best any rattlesnake tween Win.
gate an hell. She can kick higher
the stars, an bite lake wolf. an you
can see she looks milder'n Mcki
squaw. kinder TUX shine to her at
fust an sorter put confertlence in her,
| an now I'm limpin' round with a busted
| knee: consarn her Greascr hide"
Later on Baby and her sore-packed
companions were sent to Sante Fe,
under the charge of Corporal Jack
| Doyle and four men; but somehow
| Baby got lost on the road, and though
stout affidavit took her off the quar-
termaster's accounts all right, public
| opinion in the cavalry quarters at Win
gate limited that Corporal Jack had
traded her to Greaser in Las Lunas
for whisky and other commodities.
When the troops at Wingate were
ordered into the field in Texas to CO.
operate with Miles in the Panhandle,
we camped en- route at water hole on
the trail not far from the Tucumcari
mountain beyond Fort Bascom. where
some Mexican carretas were corralled.
The Mexican stock was herded not far
from ours, and as was on herd guard
that day, kept moving between the
two cavalcades. When at SHUTDOWN the
orderly trumpeter blew the recall for the
herd. l saw mule dash away from the
Mexicans and come squealing and charg-
ing into our camp. 1t was Baby, and
doubts as to her identity were quickly
dissipated by the way she appropriated
the lions share of the feed grain of the
pack train to herself, and the vigorous
manner in which she beat a tattoo on
the ribs of big shave-tail Missouri
mule that was foolish enough to dis
pute her rights She was formally
identified and gravely ella lined by Jack
Las Lunas, and, as her Mexican owner
left camp hastily that night, it was
only right to suppose that he had stolen
Baby from the person who had bought
her from Jack.
Baby resumed her irritating and
vicious career just where she left it off
when she left the army at Las Lunas,
and before we were we'll off the staked !
plains and into the grassy valleys of |!
the panhandle she had earned the |
hatred of every packer in the train.
When her pack had been carefully adj /
justed to her aparejo, she had knack
Of rolling on the prairie and wrec1ing
the whole fabric, driving her packer
INTO paroSysms of profanity; she had
social way of visiting round camp at
night, when she ought to have been
litched to her picket line. keeping her
packer awake from his rest and soaring
,he wits out CT sentries with her heels,
when they attempted to secure her
She was always in trouble: everybody
dubbed her as freely as she kicked all
men and mules; her grain was stinted,
'ut she grew fat; her pack was over
oaded. but she simply rolled it into
vreckage, driving her masters insane;
nd she lived and thrived, feared by
Ter kindred, detested by man. She
vas transferred experimentally from
he pack train tc Tim Daily's six-mule
cam, as matter of discipline, for Tim
vas known as mule tanner, and as the
|
on four legs into obedience.
}ut the Baby was unconquerable; and
fter she had chcwed his harness into
ulp had eaten the hair off the names
nd tails of her companions in the
cam, and had broken one of Tins
lbs, Mr. Daily returned her to the
ack train in disgust. Then SI1n jim
Filings took her in hand and tried her
nder the saddle: but with her the un- ,
was always happening, and,
5 Jim had only one neck, he sent back
1e uncertain Baby to her aparejo and {
ack. ,
became closely associated with Baby
l camp we made in lovely spot in I
he grassy bottom of the Palo Duro,
fter hard, hot ride over the plains I
was my ill-luck to be detailed for
uard, duty which kept me many {
ours in the saddle, guarding our graz /
lg herd. The animals were tired and <
ungry, and content to crop the rich
reen grass over a small area. But not a
} Baby. She hungered for the brown. S
ithered, juiceless grasses of the hills
AN IN ~ SNS iiS oAI IOllOWcu DIV | \
i the fool mules in the herd, who re- v
arded Baby as a miracle of wisdom !
I'd wickedness 1t was annoying and il
for was kept on the move r
living her back, and my own horse ]
as tired and hungry. l made up my L
ind to give her lesson and sur
Use, and l approached her cautiously.
vinging my lariat with an iron picket a
n on the end of it. l intended to Z
'eak her ribs with that continuance, v
Id she apparently did not observe nv f
'proach. That's where made mis- Il
Ike. mule can see in seventy differ
1t directions at once, and / am con- v
need that Argus was mule Baby
new was coming and was laying for s.
e, SO to speak. When I was within e
riking distance Baby appeared to
and on the tips Of her ears, her hind
ys famed the air for a brief moment
I'd then shot out straight, striking nv q
'oted leg like a combined thunderbot
q meat AK. giving me a shock that n
ade me faint and sick at the stomach.
len she squealed gently and moved
to the thick of the herd =
rocked in the saddle nursing my leg,
ling the valley with language, and
en- IN an agony Of pain rolled from
e back of my horse to the grass, So
lille Tom Mulhall roared till the tears
lied down his face watching me.
ought my leg was smashed, for the Ie
arp hoof had cut through bootleg. III
'users, socks, and Undertaking into IN
2 bone | was lame for a month. and III
2 MANY clubbinCs | gave her seer,ed / OF