Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-04-28
LIFE OF THE NINE MULE
QUEER TRAITS OF THE BURDEN
BEARER OF THE UNDERWORLD.

The mine mule, the sturdy burden
bearer of the underworld, has enough
of the abnormal about his makeup
to induce curiosity, If not admiration,
in the average persons mind. In the
sunless black the unwearied night,
this Erebus of the beasts feigns SD
preme. His sinewy shoulders, just
behind the long, tapping cars, tug
down and up the tunnelled caverns
and there seems something of the mys-
tic and the magician about him as he
stands immovable in the deep darkness
of q pasasgeway or cut-throngh. The
pit mule, as his years grow, assumes
a fine Indifference to trivial matters.
His life has been so full of half-averted
tragedies that he has neither the time
nor inclination to bother about the
small things. His dropping ears would
not move an inch il the cage fell five
feet away from him.
But he does not leave his stubborn
ness nor his brains behind him. He
can knock enough front teeth out of
a drivers head to spoil his chances
with any girl in the county deep down
in the dusk of a heading just as easily
as he would on a country road at high
noon. His accuracy in gauging dis
tances would make an excellent me-
chanic of him were he not mule.
He has a certain bravo about him, too,
which runs into a cunning deviltry
as he grows older. If the lights 20
out he is sure to run away with a trip
down n grade, and If it does pile up in
a wreck the mule is almost certain to
be the only thing which escapes I'M
harmed.
Many of the mines in the Connells-
vile coke region of Pennsylvania are
shafts, running from POO TO 700 feet
deep To get the mule ON the cage
is not pleasant duty. As soon as he
smells the warm air from the pit,
sometimes accompanied by streakings
of steam on account of the difference
of temperature between the air from
the mine and that outside, the brute
pluDges and attempts to escape. He is
usually put upon the cage by sheer
force. Sometimes he is blndfolded be-
fore being dropped 10 the bottom. The
trembling animal is taken from the
bottom of the shaft to the stables.
These are located at a little distance
from the shaft bottom, and in the Con
nellsville region are lighted with cleo
tricity, are coo! and very much superior
to many upper world stables.
The mine mule is obliged to keep
his head under very trying circum-
stances, and he is in short time
much wiser animal than his brothers
above ground, whose every movement
is guided by rein and voice. There
is no harness worthy of the name in Il
mine, and never any rein. The mule
is hitched TO a sinGletree, which is at
the end of Il long chain or rope. There
are no holding back straps. The mine
mules business is to pull when he
is on an up grade, and to keep out of
the way on Il down grade. His Won
derful sagacity is shown in his accu-
rate gauge of the speed of the wagons
behind him. lie maintains just gait
enough to keep his rope well stretched
and never allows it TO become en-
tangled under his heels. nor does he
get his heels caught under the wagon.
Just a bit stolid one would think the
mule until a mine wagon gets away.
Then he shows his brains. On he gal
Tops, sure-footed as Il chamois; over
the crossties, over the bitches and
waterways, over the steam pipes he
pounds with roar like an avalanche
behind him. \ clear track is all he
asks. =
The agility of the mine mule was
well demonstrated once in the mine
of Leisenring No. 3 in the Connellsville
region. a gang of worllmen were put
ting in an air line, and had their work
ing truck on one Of the main headings.
Suddenly the laboring men heard a low
rumbling up the heading. All the trips
were being switched off on to another
track while the men We're Mt work.
but this one seemed to he coming
nearer 1t grew louder and louder.
One of the men put his car to the track
and realized in second that the trip
was coming down the blockaded head
ing. The men ran for their lives, leav-
ing the truck on the track. As they
went they saw there was no light on
the runaway trip, showing that it was
without Il driver. Only dim safety
ON the edge Of the heavy truck showed
where it stood. Like thunder the run
away wagons rumbled nearer, and
3 with crash struck the obstruction.
The laboring gang came from their
places of safety expecting to see the
Z Snule crushed to pieces. Instead their
lights flashed on him quietly standing
upon their side of the truck. He had.
in one comprehensive glance, taken
In the situation by the flickering light
on the corner of the truck, and had
jumped clear over the obstacle-to save
himself! His trip was piled behind
him in Il crushed heap of debris.
A mule, which had been in the pit
but a short time, once came up the
main heading at Mammoth slope. He
had gotten away in the mine and
started for fresh air and groom mas