The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-08-13

by OId-Tiners.
From che Chicago Record.
have often promised myself the pleas
ure of paying an appropriate tribute to
mat much maligned and ridiculed but in
dfspensab BILE animal the frontier mule His
usefulness to civilization has been exceed
cd only by the pioneer representative of
the human race, whose endurance he has
shared and whose patience and enterprise
he has surpassed Zoologicaly the mule
is a simple proposition. lie is a compro-
mise between the horse and the donkey,
and We are informed by scientists that
he is of modern origin. He had no place
IN Eden and was excluded from the ark,
hut his character is complex and compre-
bensive, and he who aspires to analyze
the psychology of the mule and search the
motives that actuate him undertakes a
problem that no man has yet solved. I
have often head his character and pecu-
Tarilies discussed by army teamsters and
Others who are accustomed to handling
him, but il requires a special vocabulary
The superiority of d mule over a horse
on the frontier lies in the fact that he has
greater strength and greater endurance,
and viii do more work with less food, less
water and less care under conditions
where horses would absolutely fail. The
amount of fatigue, exposure and absti-
nence that a mule will endure is marvel
Gus Making long marches across dusty
and shadeless plains, going for days with
little water and less food, pulling heavy
loads over rocky hills and through heavy
sloughs subject to cruel treatment and
neglect, the life of mule is miserable,
and it is no wonder that his soul is soured
bv his treatment. He is worked until he
is worn out, and then he is thanklessly
turned in with a herd of broken-dov'n an
imals that furnish as melancholy a sight
as one can ever see among animate things.
II is a moving boneyard. Gaunt and lean,
with dropping ears, disconsolate tail and
q woebegone visage that would brighten an
inexperienced ghost, the abandoned mule
is an ideal of desolation, and l have seen
irreverent transfers hang their hats on
his hipbones.
There is a popular tradition that no mule
ever died a natural death, and he is Ger
tain!y hard animal TO kill. On the noun
tainsdes, burdene.d with a heavy pack or
bearing a trustful rider, his foothold is az
firm and as sure as the earth on which
il rests; but when the earth gives way a.
# sometimes does, and the mule goes roll
ing over and over down the precipice, he
has lives enough left to secure HIM a ripe
1
mud and become buried under a heavily
loaded wagon, yet when the wreck was Ie-
moved he got up, shook himself and began
to nibbe the grass as unconcernedly as If
nothing had happened. He seemed to be
the only person that was not amazed at
his escape. have heard Of at least one
mule however, that died violent death.
He fell into a quartz mill out West and
was stamped into a jelly. He was then
passed into a furnace and roasted with
the ore, which made him persplre freely,
and when the asSayer undertook to pound
up a portion of that roast" with a pestle
the bray of the mule was distinctly heard
in the mortar.
The ordinary army team which is imi-
tated by all the transportion outfits in
the West, is usually composed OF six mules
driven in a SINGLE line and a long snake
whip, especially the whip. The line is at
tached to the left bit of the nigh leader"
which may be considered the rudder of the
team. The driver, or helmsman, sits
astrde of the nigh wheeler" and If he
wants to gee he jerks the line savage
1y. It is a moral certainty that the nigh
leader will turn his head away from it
and take the rest of the team with him.
If the helmsman wants to "haw'' he pulls
gently on the line, drawing the nigh
leaders, head around, and he goes "haw."
There is nothing easier or more natural
in all the philosophy of the sages.
The position of mule skinners" in an
army train or a caravan of ''teamers' is
conspicuous His chief requirements are
TO crack a black-snake whip and swear,
and such swearing is never heard under
other circumst ances. On an ordinary TRAN
the mule team joys along quietly and Sc
date.y while the driver snoozcs in his sad
Ole, but somehow or other he awakens in
voluntarily whenever anything goes
wrong, or when a bad piece of road is
reached Then he "haws'' and gees" and
yeHs, and cracks his whip, and jerks the
line, and digs his spurs into the poor
animal he is riding, until he gets his team
anlo position; then with few jumps and
few tugs, under a frightful torrent of
oaths and a cracking of the whip like the
rattle of musketry, the other side is
reached and with sigh of relief the team
resume their patient pulling, just as meek
people do when they have passed through
great trials and come out purified
90 not know of any Fiving creature
whose destiny is so absolutely terrible as
an oif-wheeler' in a mule train on the
T Arizona desert. If fifty whacks are given
team of mules in crossing a bad piece of
road or a creek, by a mathematical calcu-
latlon the "off-wheeler" gets forty-three
OF them. When the road is particularly
pad, when the hin is steep and stony, or
when the cody is fun Of soft mire, the
ordinary mule skinner" who rides the
hlgh-wheeler is assisted by half a doz-
en- gentlemen of the same profession, who
Nsnount from their teams to encourage
me crossing. They, too, have long black
WHIPS and they have better purchase
lor thelr feet than saddle stirrups, so they
can whack harder and more frequently
'nah he, and the majority of their bows
9I course, fall on the off-wheeler." These
deputies, as you might calT them, stand in
the middle of the gulch or cody" The
masohs go down so quickly that the lead
IL
III the air, but the off wheeler comes
Hlous just in time 10 catch the downward
e'Iohe' and the tug of pulling the wagon
uP me other side is so hard and slow.
sldl lhey nave time TO whack him again
before he is out of trouble.
WINE caravan Of teams is waiting 81
pad crossing, waiting for their turn GO
Sioss YOU can always hear an occasional
U.dy-aoout one-sixth as many brays as
mere are mules on. the pay roll II come