Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-12-30
MULE ATE

The pack mule is quite as much an in
stitution as the team mule. and is alb
solutely Indispensable in the mountains.
Mule packing is a fine art, and with a
well-trained ANNA and a skillful packer
YOU can safely transport anything from
a piano to a bag of oats. When the
packer has finished his job in an artistic
manner the animal may buck or back,
kick or rear or roll. but he cannot rid
himself of his burden. and he finally gives
it up in despair. After two OF three ex-
peliences he will submit to his destiny
and fall into line with the rest of the
train every morning to receive his load
from the packer. A We'll broken pack
mule is always proud of his load. and if
by any means it gets loose he will step
Quietly out of line and wait until the
packmaster comes along to tighten it.
The most serious objection to the mule.
which you sometimes find in human be-
lngs also, is the delusion that he can
sing. One who has never heard a mule
solo cannot appreciate the extent of his
mistakes: but. like everything else about
a mule. his song is strictly original. 1t
belongs to no other animal. No one can
describe and no one can initiate it.
Spin o mules" said an old Santa Fee
teamster. as he tipped back in his chair,
az Via SlIot utIldiS tN per
l had once with a @critter. Me and Mex
lean Mose-nebbe o knew him? They
called him so because he was minin' in
Mexico for quite a spell-me and Mexican
Nose was prospectin' up in the Bill Will
lalnS mountains one winter when our
mule ct up all Il dynamite ca'triees.
There we was 100 miles from anywhere,
and no way Of gettin' more"
II reckon l know how We felt" said an
old Californian. who sat in the corner
smoking. I've been fixed that way when
the Ticker gave out. It's q distressin' sit
uation.'
w dassent try to ride the mule to the
nearest settlement" continued the team
ste., without noticing the Interruption.
fer neither of us want quite ready for
kingdom commentator me nor Nose.
But Nose he was the most ingenious cuss
that ever handled a pick. He was alters
inventin' some sort O labor-savin' on
traption. but was terrible unlucky. Nose
set a-thinking fer a while over the Sit
uation. and then he looked up at me
kind o pleased with himself an OBJ
served as solemn as a preachers:
Jake, do you happen to know any
thing o. dynamics?'
mo-, says l; not a durn thing
WAL says he, its the science Of ex-
plodin', and | low it'll work here. hat
miserable c%ritter has had the fun Of
eatin' them ca~'triges. and now he's got to
do the blastin'.' SO he tied up a passle
O stones in the oats and fed 'em into
the mule. His idee was that when the di-
Gestin machinery got to wOriAin' it would
fetch the stones into contact with the
fulminatin' end of the c%a'triges, and
they'd be a hoistin' of dirt. So we back
ed the mule down into the shaft and creDt
benin a big rock to wait for things to
begin to commence. Well, l SWar. In
about 10 minutes there was the biggest
kind of IL Fourth of July celebration
YOU even heerd tell of. 1t was Bout noon
when the proceedin's opefed, and when
the first ca-trige Went off the air was
full OF dirt and mule meat fer miles
round, and me and Nose had all we could
tend to dodSin' the big powders that
come out q the shaft. In Is minute the
shaft was eco feet deep. and the dirt
scattered all over The country. In 10
minutes more that burned mule had
struck one o them mysterious under
ground streams you find in the desert and
the hole was full of water, SO there
warn't any more minin' fer u.s."
That was tough said the Californian
syInpatheticaliy. you Jest natchelly
oyerdone it, didn't yep
Well reckon We did; but we come out
even after all. That is, me and Nose
didn't lose any money
flows that?"
WHY. We sold the shaft to a tender
foot that happened to come along JEST
that minute. He thought it was "a geysar,
mule quit FIRM