The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-24
SPEAKING OF MULES
Recalls How One Charged With Dyna-
mite Turned Mine Into Geyser.

The pack mule is quite as much an in
stitution as the team mule, and is abso-
lutely indispensable in the mountains.
Mule packing is a fine art, and, with a
well-trained animal and a skilful packer,
you can safely transport anything from a
piano to a bag of oats. When the packer
has finished hts fob 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 or three expert
ences 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 well-broken pack mule is
always proud of his load, and II by any
means it gets loose he will step quietly
out of the line and wait until the pack
master comes along to tighten 1t.
The most serious objection to the mule,
which you sometimes find in human be-
ings also, is the deluslon that he can
sing. One who has never heard mule
solo cannot appreciate the extent of his
mistake; but, ike everything else aoo4t
a mule, his song is strictly original. 1t
belongs to no other animal. No one can
describe and no one can initiate it.
"Speakin' O. mules said an old Santa
chair, reminds me of a extraordinary
experience l had once with critter. Me
and Mexican Mose-mebbe you knew him
They called him so because he was min
Mexican Nose was prospectin' up In the
Bill Williams mountains one winter
when our mule ct up all our dynamite
ca tridges There we was, 100 miles from
nowhere, and no way Of gettin more"
Il reckon | know how ye felt, said ar
old Californian who sat in the corner
smoking. 1--WE been fixed that way
when the ticker gave out. It's a distress
I'VE dassent try to ride the mule to the
nearest settlement continued the team
ster, without noticing the interruption
FER neither of us want quite ready fol
kingdom come-neither me nor Nose. But
Nose, he was the most ingenious cuss
that ever handled a pick, He was aller;
| inVentin' some sort O. labor-saVin' con.
traption, but was terrible unlucky. Moss
set a thinking fer awhile over the situa
ton. and then he looted UP at me kind o
pleased with himself n observed as sol
Jake, d'you happen to know anything
o. dynamics?
A" No, says Il not durn thing
Wal says he ne is is the science Of re sx
miserable crtter has had the fun O. eat
ing them ca tridges, and now he's got tt
do the blastin'. So he tied up passlt
O. stones in the oats and fed EN- into the
mule. His idea was that when the di
gestin' machinery got to workin it would
| fetch the stones into contact with the
fulminatin' end of the cartridges, anC
they'd be hoistin' of dirt. So We
backed the mule down into the shaft an(
crept benin big rock to wait for things
to begin to commence. Well, / swari II
about fiftin' minutes there was the big
gest kind Of a Fourth of July celebra-
ton you ever heerd tell on. 1t was bout
noon when the proceedin's opened ant
when. the first cartridge went off the all
was full of dirt and mule meat fer miles
round, and me and Nose had all we coule
tend to dodgin' the big powders that
come out of the shaft. In fifteen min.
utes the shaft was 200 feet deep, and the
dirt shattered all over the country In
ten 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 mimi fer US"
That was tough, = said the Californian
overdone It, didn't yer"
well I reckon we did; but we come
out even after all. That is, me and Nose
didn't lose no money.
'How's that?"
"Why we sold the shaft to a tender
foot that happened to come along Jest
that minnit. He thought it was a gey-
SER and Nose and me skinned out before
the mule quit firm "-Chicago Record