The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1900-04-10
EVANSVILLE. w. VA, TUESDAY, APRIL 10 1900

Some ~, COS or ID, 600 mules have nj.
ready boon sent to South Africa. Tho
animals have given satisfaction to the
British Government, SO much so that
the order has been increased to "a
600, and will probably ruu up TO 40
600, with from three TO four cargoes
of mules leaving New Orleans each
week. The Boer sympathizers in
Cape Colony have endeavored to
arouse prejudice against tho Ameri-
can animals brought there, and tho
papers, which are known to be luke.
warm, are filed with stories that the
imported mules have brought CLAN
| ders, Charlton and other diseases into
the country. There is an outbreak OF
/ CHAMBERS among the animals, but that
( outbreak came after the animals land
ed in South Africa, and was possibly
duo to the exhausted condition in
which the animals reached Africa,
which rendered them prone to the
many diseases that prevail there de-
structive TO horses and mules.
The Afrikander protest against tho
importation of American mules has
led the British Government to order
the incubation Of all the animals with
the Pasteur serum before being
shipped from here; but this inocula-
ton has shown not single glandered
animal, thereby going long way TO
prove that the outbreak of CHAMBERS
among the American pack animals
was not brought there by them. In
no wise dissuaded by the protests OF
the native farmers of the Cape Colony
against the importation Of American
mules, the British War Office will in
crease the amount of its purchases I:
and after experimenting with Italian
and Andalusian mules it has closed its
purchasing bureaus III Naples and
Gibraltar, and will use only American
animals bought in the Southwest and
shipped through New Orleans.
The extent of the purchases will
depend, of course, on the duration of
the Boer war. Present appearances
would seem to call for 80, 600 or more
mules. War is a heavy consumer of
mules. They wear out in a compare.
lively short time, for they receive
very little attention-one of their
CHIEF merits being their toughness
and their ability to take care of them
selves and to endure all the privations
to which they may be subjected. They
are completely used up and of little
value after a campaign, as the United
States found when it tried to sell
some of the superhuous mules en-
ployed in the Santiago campaign.
Whether the mule would be useful
III war In temperate country is a
question that cannot we'll be determ-
lned. His toughness, his stolid-
ness, bis ability to get along with Tit.
tie care, to stand any climate, and to
exist with far less water and food
than his half brother the horse, would
seem to make him a valuable animal
for army packing purposes in any
climate, but to his Importance, value
and indeed necessity in campaign
in tropical or semi-tropical country
the United States, Great Britain and
Spain can all testify. He is now
more important to an army than
horse, and as essential as the artillery
itself. Without him an army can no
longer move any distance without
danger of running out of it's supplies.
The recent fight at Nicholsons Mex
bore evidence to the importance of
the mule i'll warfare; for the result of
the battle was largely due to the
mules, which ran off and left the
British without ammunition-these
by the by, were Spanish, not Ameri.
can mules, the first cargo of the latter
having not yet reached Cape Colony.
AT present nearly all the mules at tho
front in South Africa are the Ameri-
can animal, who are giving Generals
Butler, Gatacre aud Methuen valu-
able assistance in their campaign.
1t can be readily seen from these
facts why mule famine is threatened
in the early future when the present
supply of mules is exhausted Mule
breeding has started mp largely in ali
parts of the West and Southwest, in
consequence of the improved value of
the mules, but the supply of brood
mares is now very limited, and it will
be some years before the new crop OF
animals is on the market. New York
Sun.