The age-herald., 1898-10-20
THE HARDSHIPS
 OF ARMY MULES

From the Buffalo Express.
 Major Ira c. Brown, whose success in the medical department of the army has at tracted wide attention, says the nasst in- teresting things in the army are the negro teamsters and the army mule. 1 ou know there is no part of army more neees- sary than it's wagon train," said Ma1or Brown, yesterday. And the wagon tram of an army in this country is just about the queerest thing i'm the world. While l was down at Tampa I made a study of the wagon train department, because It was all new, and therefore interesting to me
 The wagons that the army uses are made to through ditches, over rocks and logs and everything else that isn't higher than the wheels. You couldn't smash one of them with anything short of a six-lnch shell, I believe. Each wagon is hauled py six mules and those mules are the greatest institutions on earth. Talk about horses! Why one army mule is worth more than a whole drove of horses I've seen a team of six army mules at Tampa haul load over tree trunks and ditches that you world think nothing short of a 10-whee freight locomotive could budge
 'The army mule never perspires. He hasn't any nerves. He never worries He'll haul away for hours to get a wagon a mile through sand up to the hubs. Heh take a wagon around corners that would puzzle a cyclist and up hills that Alpine climb CT would walk around. He knows as much as good many men in the army and he isn't afraid of man the devil
 Why, you couldn't have war without a mulei
 "A mule, army mule, knows enough not to work unless he has to do so. wouldn't attempt to put harness on an army mule for maj ajor-general's commits sion. Every time a teamster down at Tampa attempted to harness a mule he be- came hero It was a toss-up every time whether he would get the harness on or go to the hospital Nobody but an old a ho army mule. He's a pretty slow kind of a beast when it comes to covering ground but he can swing his rear end around into the firing line quicker than anything lever saw, and when he lands with both feet he hits the solar plexus nine times out of ten. The army mule knows where the weak spot is. After you get the harness on the army mule realizes that it's all off and he settles down to business.
 I'll bet that there were as many men injured by army mules as were killed and injured by bullets all during the war. I've seen as many as twenty-four reamsters in the hospital at one time; kicked there by army mules. And they didn't always eeH well, either I know of one case that hap pened during the short time was at Tam pa, where negro teamster was killed in- stahtly by an army mule. And it furnished a good illustration of the wonderful menr- ory that a mule has too
 Ihat negro teamster used to pound that mule unmercifully. Instead of using stra+ egy and coaxing his mule into submission. he used to beat it hard enough to kill a horse. Well, for two months that teamster didn't drive that mule. But the mule never forgot him. He never made any attempt to injure his new driver, who knew enough to treat him decently. But one day the old teamster came back. The mule remem- oered him. He waited with as much do. cility and patience as an OK until he was harnessed, and then, when the old team ster was off h's guard, he let fly with both heels, caught that negro in the pit of the stomach and stretched him out as dead as hammer. The other teamster was stand ing right there by him, but that mule didn't make any attempt to kick him. He had just been laying for the fellow who walloped him two months before, and when he had finished him he was satisfied.
 "The teamsters down at Tampa were the toughest lot of men I ever met When say tough, I mean that they could stand more hardships and do more fighting than anybody else in camp. Most of the team sters are negroes. A negro loves a mule. He thinks much of his mules as he does of his wife and family and I don't know but he thinks more of the mule. Those negroes are great, strapping fellows, and they stick together through th'ck and thin. If you hit one negro teamster you have hit every of them in camp. When gang of them gets fighting it's a good idea to run and keep running until your wind is gone. They'll fight at the drop of the hat and don't fear anything.
 "The day before we came away from Tampa the teamsters got tog ether and held a meeting Then they disappeared That night they swooped down on the Spanish settlement there and wiped it off the map. They destroyed everything valuable or worthless, thrashed most of the men and stole all they could carry. The next day, of course we started away from Tampa. and before an investigation could be held or anybody arrested, we were out of tho state Of course. the teamsters counted on that heard of it after we had started. and I tried to find out who were in the affair and what was done. But not a team ster would open hs mouth until we had reached Montauk Point. Then a negro teamster named George, who acted as my servant told me all about it. He said they had been planning for weeks and had made up their minds to do it on the night before we broke camp.
 "'Did you destroy everything?' I asked George.
 "'Not quite, sah, not quite, but mostly George sad
 'The army teamsters drive team of six mules with one rein, called a jerl-line. It is fastened to one of the leaders and the teamster sets on one mule with the ierk-line in one hand and the brake-rope in the other. When he wants the team to turn to the right he jerks three or four times on the line. When he wants the mules to turn to the<left he pulls steady on the jerk line. A teamster can make mules do all kinds of stunts with that jerlx-line, and the mules never make a mistake either"
 AN OVERSIGHT