The age-herald., 1900-06-17
BRITAIN'S DEBT
 TO THE MUl E
From the New York Herald.

From the New 1ork Herald.
 Since the commencing of hostilities in l the Transvaal Great Britain has spent
 millions of dollars in the United States for l supplies. Of that amount by far the great 1 CT portion has been invested in live stock , The American mule has been in demand i for army purposes and cavalrymen have | cried aloud for the American horse. There l is no method of computing the amount of 1 American grain or other foodstuffs which l has been imported by England and then 1 shipped into the Transvaal, but the stock dealers of the Mississippi valley and of the west have kept a pretty accurate tab on the number of animals which have passed through New Orleans bound for the land in which Queen Victoria's s subjects are struggling to subjugate loom Paul" From the figures which they have on tab the | statement that most of the English money l which has been spent in this country since ! the commencement of the war has been | dedicated to the purchase of mules and | horses is justified.
 In round numbers about IS GOO mules, bred | on the plains of Missouri and Kansas for
 the most part, and about 5000 horses which first saw the light on the plains of the west, have been loaded into British trans ports and sent to the South African front. At the outset the stock could be had at very reasonable figures, out as the war l went on and the demand showed no signs | of slackenng the astute dealer hoisted his | prices, and it is not eXaggerating to say l that, head for head the mules cost the 1 warning nation in the neighborhood of $60 l apiece and the horses $75.
 1 In the beginning vessels were sent to l New Orleans which had not been prepared 1 for their use as stock transports, and some l employment was offered for time to the l carpenters of the port in fitting up the 1 ships with stockpens. This condition of af- l fairs soon ceased, however, and the latter l day transports which have loaded at New 1 Dreams have come from the other side
 ready for their living cargoes Some very l large and very costly vessels have been 1 sent there.
 Every ship which has sailed loaded with 1 live stock has carried American men, who 1 have been paid a stipulated figure for tend ! ing the animals on their long voyage across l the seas. The rule has been to send a muleteer for every twenty animals, that 1 thirteen hundred citizens of this country l have been shipped from New Orleans and 1 dumped in the Transvaal. Had circum- 1 stances been different, it would have been 1 fair to assume that the same men made l the trip several times, but this supposition 1 is negatived by the fact that remunera- l tion for services on the voyage was fixed | at a lump sum and did not include return | passage.
 The consequence has been that the unen- l l qualifications have gone hand in hand in choosing muleteers-to be found in New
 | Orleans has been depleted and that the last
 | transports to sail have been provided with
 | mule valets as the men are sometimes
 | humorously called, from St. Louis, Mem
 | phis and Kansas City St Louis has been
 | favorite depot of supply and has furnish
 l ed several hundred muleteers.
 l These men, according 60 reports received
 l from South Africa, have had pretty hard l time. Indeed, at one time so-cruel were l the tales which erept back of privations l and lack of work that the British consul l at New Orleans, MT. Van Sittart, saw fit l to dlsavow any responsibility for the wei l fare of the men engaged to care for the | stock.
 There has been from first to last several l score of English army officers and veteri- | narians in New Orleans, intrusted with the l duty of purchasing, inspecting and shipping l the mules. At first each bunch of officials was the object of great interest, but as l time went on and they pursued the even | tenor of their way, without so much as | visiting the stock dealers of New Orleans, | their arrival ceased to be of moment and the last officers have transacted their busi- ness and departed without attracting much notice.
 As matter of course, the shipping of | the stock has necessitated large purchases Of provender for feeding the animals en route and providing for their wants after they reached the end of their long journey The purchase of mules and supplies Is still going on, five thousand mules and horses having been shipped in the last two weeks with several transports due to sail in the near future. The coming, loading and de- parture of each transport at New Orleans is now so commonplace that the ordinary dock lounger has ceased to evince the least interest.