Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-04-20
ISOUTH'S MULE SEASON.
ATLANTA THE MARKET WHERE
TENS OF THOUSANDS ARE SOLD.


tive Power OF the Cotton Plantations
-Peculiarities of the Mule.
"Crack! Popl Powl Ho-ee, ho-eeW
The clatter of hoofs on the slippery
Belgian blocks sounds like a squad
ron of cavalry on the charge, and
down the broad street comes a rough
Iy-clad rider mounted on a gray horse
and at his heels a troop of sorrel. bay,
brown, black, dun and mouse-colored
mules, followed by two other wild
riders in a gallop, cracking their long
whips and uttering the peculiar cry OF
the mule drover.
1t is with the above paragraph that
the Atlanta correspondent OF the New
York Sun announces the opening of
the mule season. At all hours of the
day the same spectacle is repeated,
he says, for Atlanta is the great point
of distribution of mules for several
States. The mules, from three to
four years old, are shipped South by
tens of thousands from the rich grain
fields and grazing lands of Indiana,
Kentucky and Western Tennessee by
the stock dealers and are put on the
market. Planters, lumbermen, tur-
pentine operators and contractors In
railroad building congregate at At
lanta from all points, and the opening
months of the year are the busy times
in the mule trade. To observe the
many droves, one naturally wonders
where they all go, but they are dis
posed of in some way, and many a
wild, unbroken mule colt, fresh from
its home in the West, will soon be
wearing the shuck collar and names
of the Georgia or Alabama cotton
plantation, followed by a lusty colored
man, and guided by the "Gee, whoa,
hawl" of the plowman, while the
mocking bird chirrups his drowsy
too doodle and tee-deedle on the old
worm fence at the end Of the row; or
perhaps it will be straining and tug
ging at the great, high-wheeled lum-
Der cart among the pine barrens of
Southern George, dashed by the driv
er, while the huge log is drawn over
the rough ground from the forest to
the mill. But before the mule is thus
taught to earn its living it must go
through various preliminaries of prep
aration, bargain and sale, and must
take weary journey in the crowded
stock cars.
The mule is a peculiar beast. Nat
urally skittish and yet doeile, tits cas-
lily trained, but no amount OF educa-
tion can overcome the pei7ersiJy OF it's
nature. You may ride one twenty
five years in perfect safety, and when
You least suspect IL the tickle brute
will make you throw somersault and
kick you to kingdom come before you
strike the ground. It's nature is only
consistent in its inconsistencies.
In the first place the stock dealers
visit the mule growing regions of the
West during the late fall and early
winter and select such lots as suits
them, and these are shipped by the
trainload to the point Of distribution.
Naturally uncouth and rather ungain-
ly, the mule must be trimmed and
pruned into the most presentable
shape. Unlike its near relative, the
horse, long tail and flowing name
tend but to make the mule ridiculous
in the eyes of the connoisseur. There
fore, one Of the first things to be done
is to remove all the superfuous
bristles from its neck and stubby tail,
and this is no easy task on account Of
the lurking contrary spirit of the ami
NAL. 1t must first be driven into
narrow stall and battered, and then,
while one man holds the halter, an
other, generally an expert negro, as
the negro understands mule nature
better than the white man, proceeds
to clip off the name with pair of big
shears. The long hairs are removed
from the ears so as to give the mule
pert and likely look, and then the
worst trouble begins. The danger
end of the mule must now be APP
preached, and, for fear of some sud
den uprising of the heels, the animal
is backed up against board partition
which is higher than the mule can
kick in its cramped position. The
operator SEXES the tail, draws it over
the partition, and with the shears pro-
ceeds to divest it of hair, leaving only
little tuft at the tip, and when it is
released it resembles nothing so much
as short section of rubber pipe.
Sometimes the halters are left on
the mules for convenience, but as a
rule they are taken off, and with sky
aspiring swing of it's heels the freed
animal bounds out into the corral to
air its improved appearance among its
long cared comrades. There is an
other popularity about the mule that
is hard to comprehend. 1t will follow
a gray horse to the Jumping off place
and then plunge over the precipice
after its leader. For this reason the
rider who leads the drove is always
mounted on gray steed. Occasion
ally member of the drove will dash
down side street or across vacant
lot, but the two horsemen in the rear
are after it in twinkling, cracking
their long whips, and after few gyra-
tions the frightened mule catches a
sight of the gray horse of the leader
and hears the familiar "ho-ee, ho-eei"
OF the rider, and away it bounds to re-
ioin its comrades