Sharp County record. (Evening Shade, Ark.) 1877-1976, 1899-11-03
SPEAKING OF MULES
Recalls How One 0f Them. Charged
with Dynamite, Turned n
Mine Into a Geyuer,

The pack mule is quite as much an in
stimtion as the team mule, and is abso-
lutely indispensable in the mountains,
Mule-paeking is fine art, and with a
weil-trained animal and a skillful pack
er you can safely transport anything
from piano to 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 or
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 comes along to
tighten it.
The most serious objection 10 the
mule, which you sometimes find in
human beings also, is the delusion that
he can sing. One who has never heard
amule solo cannot appreciate the extent
Of his mistake; but like everything else
about d mule, his song is strictly orig
inal, It belongs to no other animal, No
one can describe and no one can initiate
it.
'Speakin' o. mules" said an old Sam
te Fe teamster, as he tipped back in his
chair, reminds me of extraordinary
experience had once with critter, Me
and Mexican Mose-mebbe you know
him2 They called him so because he
was mimi 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
tin more"
~ reckon 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 distressin'
situation"
I'VE 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 pick.
lie 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 az solemn "a a
preacher:
Jake, d'you happen to know any
thing O. dynamics.'
No says L; not durn thing
Wal, 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 blsstin'.' So he tied up a
passle O. stones in the oats and fed 'em
, 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 hoistin Of dirt.
80 we backed the mule down into the
shaft and crept behind big rock to
wait for things to commence. Well, I
swar! in about fftin' minutes there
was the biggest kind OF Fourth of
July celebration you ever heered tell on.
TWAS 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 dodpin'
the big powders that came out of the
shaft. In fifteen minutes the shaft was
200 feet deep, and the dirt was scattered
all over the country. In ten minutes
more that burned mule had struck one
o them mysterious underground
streams you find in the desert and the
hole was full Of water, 80 there warn't
any more mimi fer u.s."
That was tough" said the Cali
fornian, sympathetically. "You Jest
natchelly overdone IT, didn't YEP"
We'll, / 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 10 tender
foot that happened to come along lest
that mint. He thought is was gey-
ser and Nose and me skinned out be-
fore the mule quit firm" - Chicago
Record.