The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-09-15

MI. Ktndtg laughed and began to
tell OF mule adventures.
He was driving In q buggy with q
friend not lon6sag6. when they came
upon q draymanssw whose load of thirty
harrels Of douNNas mired at a right
angle turn. while his pair Of mules
were standing atock still but peace
able under . rnin OF blows that was
enough to kin IN elephant. Their
bodies were maps Of welts. but they
wouldn't pull trace for him.
Hold the reins,* said Kindig to his
companion. "1l pull 'em out for
him"
Pull them nothing!" retorted his
friend. That load needs a donkey
engine. not q pair of mules"
you hold this horse"
With that Kindig went over the
side of the buggy and made for the
team. The driver, tired with his fog
ging, was for handing him the whip.
None Of that for NINE" announced
the mule expert. They've had beat
ing enough already to last them
year."
He took the mules by the head.
turned them to one side, and said
whoa" They were perfectly will
ing to whoa. and stopped like a pair
Of automatic. But they were obeying
him. He turned them to the other
side an said Whoa" a second time.
They had obeyed; already they had
the habit. Then he Strengthened them
out and they came to him. He a
ressed them and started them up the
killing road they had baked at.
They lifted the tremendous load with
a willing heave and strain. and of
the dray surged with a misguided
mule driver looking as foolish as he
was amazed.
Some time a%fterward Mr.. Kindig
came upon .. feed man delivering a
small load of feed at a popular driv-
ing stable. The boss and half a doz-
en- stablemen we're applying their
puny strength on the wagon, the feed
man way laying on like a demon and
the mule, like Bre'r Fox. was laying
low. AS usual. when kindly offered
to help. the brutal. futile whip was
rendered him; as ever, he refused. He
simply turned the balky animal from
side to side with a friendly whoa"
Strengthened him, and OF went the
wagon as lightly as a feather.
"And that's the wonderful thing
about the mule" remarked Mr.. Kindig.
Nobody realizes the enormous
strength q mule, can muster IL his
driver knows how to enlist his inter-
est. A horse is q weakling beside
him; just as a horse, by comparison,
is a chronic invalid as we'll as a fool.
The horse is always liable to corns:
I've v seen q single corn on any
OF the thousands Of mules I've han
died. I've never zen a mule idiot
enough to sicken himself at his feed.
Take a horse to his stall, whatever
his condition, and he'll glut himself
on grain II it's there, and it kills him.
Take a mule in. all overheated, and
he won't touch his oats until he has
prepared. himself with plenty Of hay.
Put a mule in the circus and he'll
amaze the populace with the tricks
he'll learn. Make a friend Of him
and all you have. to do is to refrain
from making him an enemy-and he'll
work himself to death for you.
Exaggeration. Not q bit of it.
MY father sold . mule to an IRON
works. The firm sent it back, with
word that 1t wasn't worth a hill of
beans for work-laziest. most stub
born cuss that ever took a licking. He
gave the concern another animal and
/ took the discard and put it in my
team. Within a few weeks l quit the
team, and when l did l told my faith
er to be careful about the man he
sold that mule to.
III he doesn't prevent 1t, there's a
mule who'll work. himself to DEATH
I told my father.
HE sold the mule to an old team
ster who had been driving mules since
he; could handle. .reins. He laughed
when my father gave him the caution.
A month later, with a team Of eight,
his wagon. landed in a chuck hole.
That mule I'd trained. without a
pound~of help from the rest, yanked
the wagon out alone, ruptured a blood
vessel and died right there"
Mr.. Kindig was driving q pair of
big Kentucky mules along the York
roads when he came upon a brick
yard teamster who had half a dozen
horses helpless in the traces Of a
3,000-pound wagon that was laden
with 1000 bricks, a total load of six
and a half tons, mired in sticky clay.
why, Bill" he called, as he swept
past. "why do you monkey around
with such things as horses? Take
EN- out and I'll heft that load of
yours like an egg in an omelet."
"Why dodgast your fool hide" re-
turned Bill, in candid pessimism,
them spider-legged mules of yourn
couldn't pull a tack out of cheese. /
dare you to try it with them"
Which was far from being what
Kindig wanted, for he didn't know
the mule horsepower then as he does
now. But his bluff was called and he
had to make good. He eve worried
over a mules real strength after that
trial. The six tons of wagon and
bricks fairly sailed out of the clay.
tits always the way" he explain
ed. MANS imagination and his con-
f1dence can't keep up with the mules
capacities. And a foolish mule!
There eve was one. I've seen the
Twenty-Five borax team travel straight
ahead until it reached a turn, a full
turn to go back, along a wide street
| When they came to the turn. thov