Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-12-20
PRAISE FOR THE ASS.
Virtues of the Humble Moke Have
Been Sadly Overlooked.


To be called am ass is a great com
pllment. Humility, patience, charity
and industry have been recognized as
great virtues ever since mankind has
been interpretive; but the world has
failed to notice that the ass, which is
the brunt of the jests of all nations,
possesses these qualities more fully
than any other animal or any human
being, except the proverbial one in a
million.
Often we call the man whom we like
"a rare old dog and he rather likes
1t. If we called him a rare old ass,
which is finer praise, he would get
mad, however. We write poems in
praise of the horse, though the horse
is in SO many respects the ass inferior.
The horse makes the brilliant cavalry
charge, but it is the. ass who brings
UP the army's ammunition.
The ass is to be found in every part
of the world, always melancholy and
slow, nobly doing his work, whether
in the Andes, the Himalayas, the
Rockies, OR in the place of his nativity,
the orient. Wherever he is, his dom
iLant characteristics are the same;
wherever he is, he is generally abused;
perhaps because he puts up with abuse
SO meekly.
Always he is the friend of the poor
In countries where horses cannot be
afforded he is the sole means of trans
port All day long he will go over a
hot plain or UP rocky mountainside,
loaded down with more than any horse
could bear, though his weight is only
half that of the average horse, while if
a horse were limited to the food he
subsists ON, the horse would fall down
in it's tracks and die, though it had no
load. With the load it would fall down
anyway.
The London moke is about a third
cousin of the oriental ass of myth, of
fable and biblican story. The moke,
who is about the size of a big New
foundland dog, draws the barrels of
the costermong ers who vend fruits and
GIL
parts of the city.
All day you may occasionally hear
him out of your window chivy-chivy-
ing with his rapid and mincing little
steps over the asphalt pavements. At
the same gait he will carry his barrel.
we'll loaded with produce, and two big
costermongers up the side OF a hill !.
This sometimes calls for sharp re-
marks about brutes who ought to be- IN
iail from old gentlemen with white
side whiskers and kindly expression OF
mouth. to which the costermonger usu-
ally replies: "G'arn, old plum-pud-
ding. 1t 'urts you more'n i'm.
Until Baroness Burdette-Coutts and
the society for the Prevention OF Cruel
ty to Animals organized in imitation
of the original American society-took
the matter in hand and made the pas
sage of the law a matter OF great SEN
timental moment in the house OF COM
mons, instead of feeding his little DON
key, the costermonger usually beat
him; and the moke, too patient and
too humble to attempt to petition the
commons itself, tried to thrive on the
whipping and succeeded wonderfully
There is no finer playfellow for chill
dren than a moke. When his fuzzy
fur lis washed it is soft, fluffy and pref
ty. A youngster may crawl. all over
him and under him and pound and
pull him in every part of his anatomy
and he will only smile the contented
smile of the moke who is living in the
moke heaven of curTycombs and good
rations.
That the ass is not stupid is proved
by his equal cleverness with the horse
in learning tricks, by his picking his
way where a horse cannot go, by his
calmness under conditions that make
q. horse uncontrollably fretful But ne
seems homely and out of proportion,
unless you look at him closely; and the
world too often goes by appearances.
Scrutinize sharply the patient face OF
the ass and you will find those quail
ties which make a face educational
and, perhaps, even beautiful.