The record-union., 1894-03-10
AN ABUSED SERVANT.
The Most Faithful of the Beasts
of Burden.
Asses in the Orient-Their Only Equal
the Woman Cody of Thibet-The
White Syrian ASS is a Thorough
Arfstocrat, Richly Saddled and
BrIdled.
BrIdIed.

Fancy riding dog Have you ever
tried-since you grew up? You would
say that any dog, even prize-winning
st. Bernard, would be too small to ride
far too weak to carry you. l have never
ridden one myself. but / have made
many days journey Oh a creature quite
as small-a little ass, in the Orient. O,
all mammals, it is claimed that man is
the strongest, says Theodore a. Dodgef
in the Chicago Inter Ocean. An infantry
soldier marches all day with seventy
pounds of arms, ammunition and bag
gage, half his own weight, while cav
| airy horse is well loaded with $50 pounds
| one-quarter his own weight. Even the
wonderful camel will howl and refuse TO
rise under a burden more than one-third
his own weight, but the little ass may be
actually loaded with three-quarters OF his
weight, and will then travel Off at four
and half miles an hour, and keep it up.
| Imagine, If you can, friend, how far you
would go with l25 pounds on your back !
The Syrian ass is often quite big, al
most as tall as polo pony and good
| sized, we'll and ine-gaited white ass
brings more than an Arabian. AS a
traveller, day in day out, he is superior
in ease to the horse; will go over roads
| on which horse cannot find footing and
will do as good days journey. Asses
everywhere are also quite small at times.
L used, in the Orient, to take my cane
when | saw very little one at work and
measure it by hanging the crooked handle
on it's neck, just IN front of the withers,
and | have often found full-grown ones
| but thirty-two inches high. On such a
| little beast, which weighs not over 250
No nf16c lnod Wi "a mn G mas 0l.
| will ride atop OF the load, and under it
the little hero will go at a rapid
| running walk and travel all day. L fancy
man must yield the palm of strength TO
the ass, by whose name he SO keeDly re-
sents being called. So far as l have OBJ
served in the course of my travels, no an
imal can equal the ass in ability to carry
loads, except, perhaps, the woman cody
OF Thibet. She is a little bit of a thing,
rarely weighing more than 1l0 pounds,
and yet she will work twelve hours day
under load of from eighty TO 100 pounds,
and l have heard it said she will carry l25
pounds.
AN UNFORTUNATE VICTIM.
1t is odd how we have got to associate
obstinacy and numbeTless ugly qualities
with the ass. This is all wrong. The one
word which we are wont to use to cover
all these assumed vices is mulishness
But mule is hybrid, and one OF the
peculiarities of hybrids is their general
lack of the stanch virtues. Ii [ were TO
hunt for creature whose conduct from
birth TO old age came nearest 60 eXempIl-
tying the four cardinal virtues, l would
unhesitatingly choose The ass. l cannot
recite the four cardinal virtues, nor, |
fancy, can you; but | stand by my asser-
ton that the ass has every one of these,
so far as his intelligence goes and l am
free TO claim that majority OF US human
beings, weighing the talents given us
against those OF the ass. are dismal fail
ures in competition with this little saint.
The seven deadly sins are far more akin
to our aptitudes. have used the ass
good deal, at home and III the Orient, and
/ firmly believe that he possesses the
virtues by nature, and merely acquires
the vices from his conceited master.