The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-07-27
TWO WAR PICTURES.
Mule Drivers From Far Montana
The Old Officers Reiuvenation

Mule Drivers From Far Montana
The Old Officers Reiuvenation
Two wartime pictures: The first Is
of a pleasant Tampa street.-the car
riage way a mass of sand. Of course;
like all Tampa streets. except the few
that have been paved: the houses low
and open, the sidewalks lined with
small but luxuriantly growing young
live oaks; on the porch of a house a
little child, not more than years old,
dressed in a white dress. with very
short stockings, beneath pink slippers.
The child stood with hands pointed
down the street in wonder, her eyes
seemed sticking from her head; she
was so full of establishment that she
by; she pointed down the street, and
just glancing at eacb person who
passed, she said:
See derei 90. see dere.''
See there, Something to see, beyond
doubt. This quiet Florida street had
been invaded by the wagon train of the
Second United States infantry, lately
from Fort Keogh. Mont. A long line of
immense constructions, framed over
with pole and canvas. resting on heavy
wheels, and each wagon drawn by six
mules. was halted in the street. The
canvas on the wagons was dirty and
the blue paint was scratched and bat
tered, but the sides and wheels were
heavy and strong. Drivers-incredibly
red and rough men, in blue shirts, blue
trousers, dirty gray SLOUGH hats and big
boots, sat on high saddles on the left
hand wheel mules and cracked long
blacksnake whips over the other mules
backs, guiding the lead mule with
long strap; that is to say, this was
what the men had done when the train
was in motion, though now, since it had
stopped, they sat still in the saddles or
else got off and rested in the shade of
the little trees. The hot sun blazed
down; it heated the sand in the street
TO an awful temperature; even the pa
tient mules fretted and swayed, trying
TO get on somewhere; no one was in
different to the heat except the mock
ing birds, which sank necessarily and
flew from tree to tree or from house
top to housetOp. and sang as they flew
no one but the hooking birds and
the amazed little child, who still called
to every passer, See dere."
The soldier teamsters had a certain
air of conscious grandeur about them.
as if it were really a great thing TO
drive mule team. In this part of the
country every man who drives a mule
has the appearance of being at least
little ashamed of himself Mules are
generally reserved for colored people
and poor whites. But these soldier
teamsters are grander fellows in their
air than any swell who drives the
coach-and-six in Central park. They
seem to think that mules make the
only team that is fit for a gentleman
to drive. For the most part, these nyen
70 aaI,o
that go away out upon their cheeks.
Sometimes they have rough boards all
over their faces They stick their chins
well up in the air, and seem to be puff
fing out their cheeks. They have big
black leather belts around their waists
They crack their long whips a great
deal, but 1 have not seen them lash
the animals. They seem to be merciful
men. Indeed, under their guidance the
mule seems to become new and spir-
tied creature.
Just as the little girl called See
derel" again. some of these teamsters
came down the street, mounted on the
big yellow mules, pursuing two or three
other mules which had got away from
the pack train, and were running at
large through the street. That mules
which had heavy men on their backs
could oVertake in deep sand other
own weight to carry, appeared unlikely.
In straight run the mounted
mules hardly kept pace with the 9TH
erS. But these teamSterS are Strate-
gists; they beguile the mules into
swaying to one side of the street. and
then themselves sway to the other;
somehow the free mule imagines he is
no longer pursued, and slackens his
pace: then one of the mulesters slips
past him. and the other slips up behind
him. and he is caught in a trap. You
never see one of those mulesters pur-
suing an escaped mule; they always
hunt in pairs.
By and by. in this Tampa street.
there was a great shouting, and the
rude train started again. The mules
at their traces, pulling the
heavy wagons. The whips cracked; the
little girl ceased to cry See dere!''-
she was too much astonished.. But the
knocking birds sang or. because they
never stop singing in Tampa.
l., g 81 IL