The Florence tribune., 1901-12-07
MINE MULES PUZZLED
Brought Above Ground They Are
 Dazed by Daylight.
So Long Used to subterranean Dark ness the Grass and Fields Are Source of Wondernont
 to Them.

At the time of the recent strike of the mine fremen in the anthracite coal fields hundreds of mules from the va rious mines were brought to the sur face. Most of the animals had not seen daylight for many years, and some cf them had quite forgotten all they ever knew about pure air. green grass, and blue sky, says the Phila- delphia Press.
 It was pathetic as well as am amusing sight to see these animals turned loose to graze in the fields. The daylight dazed them, and it was with difficulty that they could be forced from the cage and driven to the fields. and there their antics were pitifully humorous. Crowds lined the fences each day.
 The mules, free from the driver and the whip, stood for long time seem ingly afraid to move. To them the soft springy ground, so different from the ties and rails and rocks of the mines, was insecure. The air. the grass, the | space, the unbounded room to move, bewildered them. They walked slow ly and with hoofs tapping the ground many times before | step was attempt 1 ed, and it was hours and sometimes days before they gained sufficient con fidence to run and tumble and roll. But when they realized that the strange surroundings were harmless and actually enjoyable. they reveled in their new-found freedom, hee- hawed, kicked up their heels, and gam boled very much in the manner of the schoolboy set free after a long and arduous school term.
 The grass was the greatest mystery to them. Instinct doubtless told them 1t was good to eat, smelled inviting. but it was so strange, so new that it was long before they gained courage to nibble and to eat it.
 Air and light made many of the mules study for hours before they knew that the novel world into which they had been raised was not thing of mystery, and that they felt better by breathing and could see better after the novelty had worn off than they ever could see in the dark and narrow passages of the mines.
 The extent of the fields, too, wa. a source of great wonderment to them Here they did not knock their heads against the roof. for there was nc roof; nor graze their sides against the rib, for there was no rib; only space above and about them, unlimited, in comprehensible space. new, strange thing, with which most of them had t. get acquainted by degrees.
 Those who had enjoyed the freedom for day, as they met the newcomers bumped into them. to see them los, their balance on the yielding ground rolled under their noses, kicked u their heels, and played with then much as boy swimmer will play witt a younger one.
 In the days which the strike taste,
 most of the mules experienced ney
 sensations which they may never re f peat. for they were hustled after thei Il brief freedom down into the darl Il depths and narrow iron-paved pass Il ages where their only light is the fain
 flicker of the miners lamp, thefr ai Il the gas and smoke-stained heavines Il of the mine, their food the hay an oats which taste little like the greer II fresh grass, and their gamboling cor 1! fined to the narrow space of fve-foo II stall.