The Hartford republican., 1915-09-03
The MULE IS
A PEACE ADVOCATE
Traits Of Animal That Serves
Man So WelI-StandS to
His Principles.

chapters in which he figured was
the torpedoing of the Armenian.
He is distinctly an American prod
act. There are mules abroad, but
they are not real mules. The com
panionship of the negro and the eli
mate of the Southern States and the
Southern portion of the Central
States are required to bring the mule
TO his full development.
Missouri is the greatest mule-rais-
ing State of the Union. More and
finer animals are raised in this Sec
ton of the country than anywhere
else on earth, and East st. Louis is
the greatest mule market in the
world.
Tennessee ranks second in the pro-
duction of mules, but the Volunteer
State does not raise two-thirds the
mules Missouri does.
The Southern planter depends al
most altogether on Missouri for his
mules. Roughly speaking, mules
are divided into two classes, the cot
ton and sugar mule. The latter is
the better grade, the huge, we'll
5uilt animals which are used on the
sugar plantations of the far South,
while the cotton mules are smaller
and more adapted for use in the cot
ton fields.
In the agricultural districts of the
South, outside the cotton and sugar
sections the sugar mule is used.
In the Boer War thousands of
mules were purchased in Missouri
and adjoining States for the use of
the English army in South Africa.
But the mule is temperamentally op-
posed to war, and they are not a
success. 1t has been said that the
real trouble was that the English
did not export Southern darkies to
handle the mules in warfare.
Whatever the cause, the mules ab-
soluteiy refused to go to war. And
the most obstinate creature on earth
and the hardest to move when he de-
cides he doesn't want to be moved is
the mule. The sound of cannonad-
ing will cause mule to stop dead in
his tracks, then turn hurridly, kick
up his heels and start in the opposite
direction. Nothing will stop a mule
once he gets started. He will non
chalantly kick himself free of his
harness, plunge gayly through bar
bed-wire distractions and do what
ever else he pleases once he makes
up his mind.
A Civil War veteran, a Souther-
ner. once told the writer of losing
his cavalry mount in the fighting
around Chattanooga. Later he OBJ
tanned a mule for a mount. and the
mule got her baptism of fire in the
lighting at Chickamauga.
She was a peaceful mule, and
nothing louder than the sounds of
the farm had ever assailed her ears
until that day at Chickamauga.
"Our company was ordered to
charge through a wood. There had
been considerable firing all morning,
but old Lucy beyond pricking up her
ears, paid no attention to it. How
ever, when we got into the woods
the firing was closer, and she didn't
appear to like il. Then some shells
began dropping about us. And she
wheeled about and started for the
rear.
"I'll never forget that. couldn't
turn her head toward the front and l
couldn't stop her / did make her
pause once or twice, and all the time
the bullets and shells were falling
about us, men and horses were drop
ping and every one was yelling with
laughter as they passed us. jerked
d branch from a young oak tree and |
beat her, but that had no effect on
her.
"She started on a gallop in the op-
pOsite direction, and | couldn't stop I
her for about half a mile. Then the !
stop was only mOmentarily, for she
merely paused long enough to pitch I
me over her head and then she went |
ON. | never saw her again. don't
know what became of her. | only q
know that, smarting with humilia-
tion, | made my way back through J
che woods and finally rejoined my
AS long as the war lasted
and after, when I'd meet any of my !
Did companions, | was reminded of
Lucy.
The story illustrates the character
IF the mule. Like certain recently
'etired statesman, the mule is for
,eace at any price, and the mule is
trong enough to get il.
What is country life without a
mule? Nothing.