Arizona republican., 1898-05-02

periority of the United States is man ifest. As the United States has more
 men and more guns, so it has more
 mules. Spain has, during the past
 three years contest with the insurg- ents, been forced to draw her mule
 supply from the United States, ,prin- cipally from Kansas City. With war
 this supply will be cut off, f,and the
 American mule. no longer being sub
 ject to draft in a cause he must de- 1 spiSe, will be used in the service of his own country.
 The mule became prominent in history at the time of cur civil war. The long-eared champion seemed to spring from the earth. Many vclun- teers from certain sections of the country who had never before seen a pair of mules harnessed lived to see thousands Of them hauling army wag- ons. Teamsters also seemed to be created for the occasion. While the art of driving mules is a separate and distinct science, thousands of flu ly qualified drivers appeared, ready to climb into the saddles, armed with the resonant "blacksnake" and a full, free rich and rolling vocabulary.
 The mule, it is needless to say. has developed in war the highest military qualities - endurance, patience and
 courage. The war horse, eulogized by Job and many writers since, has never displayed the practical traits of the army mule, which have never yet been preserved in blank verse or flow ing rhyme. The mule is ever active, alert and watchful, and his clarion voice ''rouses the soldier e'er the morning star.' Usually the mule does not go where glory waits him, (though Gen. Fighting Phil Kearney habitually rode a mule), but it is condemned to the heavy labor of the quartermas- ter's and commissary's departments But in whatsoever lct-feed lot or any other-in which he is placed, he does his duty. He has been accused of a quick and even vindictive temper, but in trying times it was never allowed to interfere with the performance of his public duties. And it was in the darkest days and nights of the war, as his soldier associates will now re- member, that the brightest qualities of the mule appeared. In the dark ness and storm, with mud ito the hubs, he leaned to the collar and "snaked' the heavy wagon, calm and impertur- bable, although his director wrapped himself with curses as with garment and rode along enveloped in a light
 blue halo of profanity. And when the muddy march was over, the mule,
 who fer days together had dined and supped on end gates, released from
 harness, and his long-vacant interior decorated with a few quarts of corn, ran and raced, and kicked and played with his fellows as if he saw already spanning the horizon the rainbow of peace.
 In warm and Southern regions the services of the mule are indispensable. While he can live anywhere, he seems a sort of tropical beast. It is believed that his ample ears first unfolded in the sun of the equator, and that palm leaves and similar vegetation stirred to his first high and vibrant note. In Cuba he has found in peace and will find in war a wide field of exartion.
 A great general has said that "an army moves on it's belly" The army with the best sustained "cracker line" must eventually wear out it's Oppon- ent, and it is the mule that sustains the "cracker line.'' To slightly change the saying of Gen. N. B. For rest, it is the party that gets there the fastest with the mostest mules" on whose banners will be twined the laurels of victory.-Kansas City Star.
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