The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-10-27
SPEAKING OF MULES


NIX AaH H
4 THE pack mule Is quite as mncha n in
stitutioh a9 the team mule. ard is.!abso'
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS injthe n1ountains
Mule-packing is a fine arf, and with I
well-trained animal and a slillful pack
er 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 OF
back. kick or rear. or roll, but he canno'
rid himself Of his burden and he finally
gives it up In despair. After two OF
three experiences 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 along to
tighten 1t.
The most serious objection to the
mule, which you Sometimes find in
human beings also, is the delusion that
he can sing. One who has never heard
a mule solo cannot appreciate the extent
of his mistake; but like everything else
about a mule, his song is strictly orig
inal. 1t belongs to no other animal. No
one can describe and no one can initiate
it.
"Speakin' O. mules" said an old San
te Fe teamster, as he tipped back in his
chair, reminds me of a extraordinary
experience I had once with a cmritter. Me
and Mexican Mose-mebbe you know
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 Williams mountains one
winter when our mule ct up all our
dynamite cartridges. There we was 100
miles from nowhere, and no way of get
tim 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 Ticker give out. It's a distressin'
situation"
"We dassent try to ride the mule to
the nearest settlement" continued the
teamster, without noticin' the interrupt
ton, "fer neither of us want quite
ready fer kingdom come-neither me
nor Nose. But Nose he was the most
ingenius cuss that ever handled a pick.
He was alters inventin' some sort o.
labor-savin' contraption, but was ter
rible unlucky. Nose set a thinking fer
awhile over the sitooation, and then he
looked up at me kind O. pleased with
himself and observed as solemn as a
preacher:
"sJake, d'you happen TO know any
thing o. dynamics.'
"'No,' says ]; mot a durn thing
"sWal,' says he, it's the science of
explodin', and / low it'll work here.
That miserable critter has had the fun
O. eatin' them cartridges, and now he's
got to do the blastin'.' So he tied up a
passle O. stones in the oats and fed EN-
into the mule. His idee was that when
the digestin machinery got to workin'
it would fetch the stones into contact
with the fulminatin' end of the ca
tridges, and they'd be a hoistin' of dirt.
So we backed the mule down into the
shaft and crept behind a big rock to
wait for things to commence. Well, l
In about fftin' minutes there
was the biggest kind Of a Fourth OF
July celebration you ever heered tell on.
1t was about noon when the proceedin's
opened, and when the first cartridge
went off the air was full of dirt and
mule meat fer miles round, and me and
Nose had all we could tend to dodgin'
the big powders that came out ofsthe
shaft. In fifteen minutes the shaft was
200 feet deep, and the dirt vas scattered
all over the country. In ten minutes
more that burned mule had struck one
them mysterious underground
you find in the desert and the
hole was full of water, SO there warn't
any more mimi fer u.s."
THAT was tough" said the Cali
fornian, alphabetically. "You jest
natchelly overdone it, didn't yea" /
well. I reckon we did; but we come
out even after all. That is, me and
Nose didn't lose no money"
Flows that?" (fg
why, We sold the shaft to a tender
foot that happened to come along jest
hat mint. He thought is was a gey
ser, and Nose and me skinned out be-
fore the mule quit frin'." Chicago
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