THE MASTER MULE.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3302, 22 July 1879, Page 3

THE MASTER MULE.

*M^NtMAL WHICH HoNOTTBED PIOCHE "'" BY HIS PRESENCE.

This morning a couple of miners were "•'idiilfecf on a boulder alongside the road to Sutro, discussing the kicking powers of Jitie mule. One had just returned '" Ir'brb' putro, and the other was on the way therej'ahd hayjng met near the rock they sat down fbr a talk...

" Have you quit, over there ? " said the one who was eastward bound. : "Yes."

"Why?" >■■'■ .. "ißfuks.", ..-...••■ : :, i ! " You bet. I saw one yesterday alongside o{ an old boiler kickin' off the rivet heads, one by one. Never missed one. I was just goia' on shift, aud when I saw the mule and heard there was more .of :.,'em.- ; inside,, I weakened and threw up jfcy" job.' I've got a wife, and three; children depenain' ou me, and I don't take no chances."

j"T i^e,,^oitst; mule I ever saw," said the; otne|j fi s'' r^as< in ;Pioche some years age. It was one I owned. One day it rubbed against some nails sticking out of a post, and it :^urned, square round and drove' thoS6iiai)s,m one by -one,, using a single blow of the hoof with the iron shoe on for \ each nail. It never missed its lick, and; always drove j'^ni, juat ; .in .-. to the head. Then he saw a few tacks on the post a iutle lower down which were only half driven inland,,. .he ,drove them in, too, with-'lj^fctap^/ofitlie_hoof,just as gflhtle iffiaea*sy as'could be. One day a man came ajp ( n^,j\nd ict out a can of nitro-glycerine |n$ ; g}ant'powder. He Iwanted to get the mule to^ljtiokit and get .killed. I saw him about,the corral with the can and knew what was up. At first I was going to stop him, but then I thought if my mule; vms,cany -kind' of a mule at all he could hiiakeioareiof: himself; So I ijust j Ifatehed^ji^Weilj'the mule saw the can, and, walking up, smelt of it, and then tq«taed3hinifelf'for 'the kick. The man ««|tft^i(^^ Ji6'!n c,;'-an^: jasi\as'i:^e^''mu]e wa« fOiMtto;kick t^e can he caught sight of the feller, and dhinged his position so that his tail was toward the man. He lifted his tail just like be was takin! aim, and let?fly'liii^igh'f'hoof. r The can went flyin' through, the air,,and.hit the man aquare in the rear, just "is ne was gettin 1 over a feric'Sabout a hundred feet away. The thirifir'i^pilbaed, and I never saw the man again. But next morning Pat Holy land came oat in the Record and said that the town Bad been visited by a shower of blood." <; " Mules are immense when they get roused;"!- ti!!''; ••1 i:t; "'^'i/r ' .'. ; 11 You bet."—Vi^inia.Chronicle.