Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1903-11-26
How Government Has Made
Him a Useful Animal.
THE PANTHAY METHOD
An AmlabIe Fellow When Properly
Tralned-The Troubles In SomaIl-
land and the Troubles of All Of
Brltalns "Little Wars" Due to DIFF.
fIcuItles Of Transport.

HrItains "LittIe Wars" Due to Diff
ficuItles Of Transport.
The troubles in Somaliland, the trou-
bles of all our "little wars" are due
for the most part to the difficulties OF
transport, writes a correspondent OF
the London Daily Mail. Most Of these
campaigns are fought in roadless coun.
try, generally hilly, the requisite
transport being mules. The mule can
go nearly anywhere and everywhere.
If, therefore, the government can put
its hands on an unlimited supply Of
mules, "regrettable incidents" will be
fewer, and the cost to the nation in
good lives and good money very must
less.
On the borders Of our Indian en-
pire-i e., in the province of Yunnan,
in China-is the largest mule-breed-
ing industry in the world.
1t is controlled and managed by the
Panthays, tribe Of Chinese Moham-
medans. They do not only breed the
mules, but train them to an almost
incredible pitch of perfection. On the
slopes of the range of hills dividing
Yunnan from this district of BhamO,
upper Burma, are numerous breeding
establishments, containing in the ag-
gregate something like 100000 mules,
each establishment ranging from as
few as twenty mules to as many as
10000 or 10000
The Panthay method is really won
derfully successful. No mule is ever
worked until it is three years old. Out
of the batch of youngsters few of the
most dOcile are picked. These under
go a careful training. They are taught
to halt at a certain. sound, and to fol
low like a dog at heel. They are
also taught to come to a call, and
not to pass over a branch thrown
across a patch. The reason Of this
last is that all the main paths in those
parts are intersected by hundreds Of
others, and on coming to one of these
by-paths the man in front breaks of
a small branch from tree and throws
1t across the by-path, so that the lead
ing mule never leaves the right road.
When the education of the mule is
complete, 1t is hung with bells, and
the other mules are taught to follow,
which they do implicitly.
The Panthay saddles, instead Of be-
ing heavy, clumsy leather arrange
ments like our own, on which the loads
have to be deliberately tied every
morning and united at the end of each
march, consist of two parts made Of
wood exceedingly light and strong
The upper part resembles a sort of in
verted cradle, on which the loads are
tied and where they remain until they
are wanted. This cradle is lifted with
the loads attached and placed on the
lower part, into which it fits.
1t is not often that you see a Pan
thay mule with a sore back. In the
morning, when it is time to start,
each mule has the lower part Of the
saddle tied on and then it's foreleg is
untethered they only tether one fore
Leg, and, incredible as it appears two
men hold up the cradle with the load
on and the mule quietly passes be-
tween them the cradle is dropped into
the grooves, and off 1t goes at a trot
in the direction of the bells it hears
in the distance, then the next one,
and so on until you have two or three
hundred mules ready and away in less
re than it would take us to get off
tInty. The Panthays know and
reize the meaning of the word SIM
pity.
'otted here and there along the line
90 catches glimpses Of the mule driv-
erwith their enormous straw hats, at
let a yard in diameter at the brim,
slog over their bare yellow bodies,
an their broad, loose blue Chinese
bseches showing their brawny calves.
TIE hillsides echo with their shrill
cr9s as they urge on the mules which
haze stopped by the wayside to nibble
sole grass.
hen at the end Of the days march,
asthe mules come up, one by one the.
cRdles are lifted off and placed in
rows, so as to be ready for the morn.
In, when the mule will range along.
size and its pack will be lifted on
aglin without any trouble or delay.
When the load is taken off, the mule
is stripped and simply turned adrift
into the jungle to forage for grass.
Cne by one they disappear. Occasion.
ally one of them strays to far and Is
carried off by a tiger or a leopard,
but not often.
When dusk begins to fall it is time
to call the mules in to their feed, and
the deep silence Of the jungles is
broken by the incessant rap tap tap
of 1.-THE pegs being driven in, after
which the drivers go out, and, placing
leaves between their lips, make Pc
GUITAR shrill sounds. In a short time,
in y groups of .twos and threes, the
STURDY little animals emerge from the
jungle at a trot. They know that
sokund; it is their dinner bell, and they
ara hungry after their days march.
At last they are all collected, and each
.et&hered by its foreleg to the peg in
'rd4nt, so close together that their
Ia INKS touch. The evening meal over,
tie night falls and all is still,
The road from Yunnan Foo (via all
fu9 to Bhamo, which is the terminus
of Sthe railway from Mandalay, Is
twelve days journey. These vast
BREEDING establishments on the hill
slopes between Tali-fu and the border
are thus only few days distance from
ourt railway, just across the border.
The government has, therefore, only
to- stretch out its hand and obtain an
unlimited supply Of the finest trained
nude transport in the world
r 4 cHILrs CONGRESS.
Impressive openii.s of the Session