The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1912-06-21
CAMEL-RIDING AN All.
AND ONE THAT Is PECULIARLY
HARD TO ACQUIRE.
English Soldiers Have Humorous Elk.
periences With the "Ships Of the
Desert"-Animai's Obstinacy
Seemingly UnconquerabIe.

All that is necessary, it is claimed
by those In a position to know. to be.
come an expert camel rider is to get
the right tension on the reins, or rath-
fr on the nose-string, when the camel
will trot along at perfectly uniform
gait, hour after hour. If the reins are
Slackened the beast stops. When they
are pulled too hard he goes the fast.
fr. Experienced riders tie the reins
at the proper tension to the pommeml
or the saddle and then settle them.
felves down to sleep, if they are so
plnded. The reputed docility of the
camel Is said to be unmerited. He is
simply stupid beyond all other beasts
of burden.
ne takes no heed of his rider, pays
no attention whether he be on his
pack or not, walks straight on when
once he Is set going, merely because
he Is too stupid to turn aside; and if
anything tempts him out of the path
ne continues to walk on in the new d.
rect1on simply because he Is too dull
TO turn back into the right path. To
contend successfully against the pro-
dlglous, persistent and invariable stu
pfdity constitute the whole art of cam.
Ell riding.
Experts aver that nothing is more
amusing to the officer initiated into
the mysteries of camel riding and
driving than the sight of a recruit in
the east fighting against the dullness
of his camel
1t is said to be a common sight of
the march in countries where the Brit
lsh have employed the camel to come
across a soldier standing, with a coun-
tenance of utter despair, by the side
g loaded but motionless dromedary,
gazing up at the supercilious brute
With an expression of most comical
helplessness.
The recruit has exhausted every de-
vice that he can invent to make the
beast understand what it ought to
DO, but all in vain, and there the SOL
der stands, utterly staggered and
dumfounded by such a miracle of stu
pidity. Generally the man is too far
gone in hopeless bewilderment even to
use profanity. His vocabulary has
has long since been exhausted.
1t generally happens that the SOL
der has nothing with which to beat
the beast. He cannot reach up to it's
body with his foot to kick it. Pummel-
ing with his fist has no appreciate, ef-
fect upon tie camel; he might as we'll
thump the ground. So he is at his
51its' ends and his discontinue is as
complete as it is ludicrous. AS for
the camel, it stands there exactly
where it had stopped, gazing into space
with look of silly loftiness, as If it
saw the north pole in the distance. and
with complacency that would not be
Inappropriate were it viewing a vision
of an angel
That it is falling short of its duties
obviously has no interest for the idi-
otto beast. 1t never so much as winks
but Simply stands in it's tracks with
its head high up in the air as if await
Ing revelation. There is nothing to
be done except to wait until the 9TH
er camels come along and then to
tie It's nose to the tail Of the last
"ship' in line.
The sight of the hind legs of the
animal in front of it moving and the
tension Of the string on it's own nos
trils are the only hints it can under
6tand-Harner'a Wooklv