Daily camera., 1897-10-11
DOPING ARMY MULES.
An Odd Imposition Practioed Upon
Uncle Sam
Old and Worn-Out Animals DoetorsS
Up for Sale to the Government
How 1t Was Found
- Out. :

A unique swindle of the government
has recently been exposed by DR.. Ed
I, Ferrell and further attempt in that di-
rection prevented. DR.. Ferrell isA we'll
known St. Louis veterinarian, having
taken up. the large, practice enjoyed by
his father, when the latter was APP
pointed inspector of horses and mules
for the government, with headquarters
at Chicago.
According to the young veterinari-
ans story large contract for army
mules was recently advertised, and, fol-
lowing the rules and regulations, was
let to the lowest bidder. This man said
he would furnish all the mules wanted
at ss5 apiece
''The first consignment was to arrive
in East st. Louis" said DR.. Ed Ferrell,
"and father appointed me to inspect
them. When looked at the papers and
saw that sS5 was the price per head at
once concluded something was amiss,
for l knew good mule cannot be pur-
chased for less than $3.50 But the an
imals I examined seemed all right;
they were sleek and lively, and appar-
emily came up to the requirements.
During the first half hour that Twas in
specting noticed that was never per-
mitted to examine mule very closely.
The animal itself objected and when
one or two had nearly kicked my head
off I began TO suspect that some person
was causing their dcviltry. Then. final
". I caught sight of a man poking a
mule with a sharp-pointed iron just as
| stopped to examine fetlock. This
happened two or three times, and tell
you my life was in danger.
"The next discovery 1 made was that
Of man pollng a 'hypo' into mule.
Then I called a halt, and ordered one of
the drivers to take an animal far to one
side, and not have anyone come near
For half an hour I examined that mule,
and when had finished was ready for
the contractor. We didn't exchange
many words, but the result of what was
said appeared the day following, when
the man relinquished his contract"
What was it you discoyered?" the re-
81 discovered" replied Dr. Ferrell,
that every one of those mules, and
there were, several hundred of them,
was old enough to keel over and die of
antiquity. But they had been under
going treatment. For a month or more
the beasts had been treated to hypo-
dermic injections of a fluid especially
prepared for the purpose, and which
contained some arsenic. It caused
them to be temporarily young again,
filed them out and gave their coats a
sleek appearance and made their eyes
glisten.
81 suspected the mules had been
Goped after l had examined that animal
ten minutes, but I was puzzled when 1
opened the mouth, for the teeth indi-
Gated a three-year-old. 1t was some
time before | caught on, and whenI did
I marveled at the neatness of the work.
Those teeth had not only been sawed to
the right length, but had been rounded
with a file. Then again | was puzzled.
There are little black spots around the
lower part of an old mules teeth that
are missing on more youthful animals.
I looked for these and could not find
them, but as l passed my finger over
where they should be felt slight in
dentatiOns, and at once realized that
nitric acid had been used to burn the
marks away. That settled the bust
ness."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch.