THE NATURE OF A MULE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2114, 7 October 1885, Page 2

THE NATURE OF A MULE.

I know that the mule is the only animal that Noah didn't take into the ark with him. I looked over tho freight list carefully, and could not flee a mule waybilled'for any place. So clear-headed a mail as Noah did not care to take one on board, as he knew he would kick a hole through her in less than a week, 1 don't know a man on whose head you could pour quicksilver and run less risk of spilling it than on Noah's. He was a dreadful level-headed man, and before the freshet was over everybody on earth realized the fact. The origin of the mule is enveloped in> a good deal of mystery. Tradition informs us that when tho fire had subsided and the ark had lain on Mount Ararat, Eoah was very much surprised in one of his observations to find a A* good healthy mule standing on the top of an adjoining mountain, The same tradition informs us that the mule is the only animal that lived through the flood, outside the ark, The mule can be considered in a great many ways, though the worst place to consider him is directly from behind, anywhere within a rjuflb, of ten feet. I never consider a m'Jpj ffom that point unless I am looking through the flue of a boiler.

Tho mule has one more leg than a milking stool, and can stand on one and wave the other three round in as many different directions. He has only three senses—hearing, seeing, and smelling. He has no more sense of taste than a atone jug, and will eat anything that contains nourishment, and he doesn't care two cents whether it contains one per cent, or ninety-nine. All he asks is to pass him along his plate with whatever happens to be handy round the pantry, and he won't go away and blow how poor the steak is, He just eats whatever is set before him and asks no questions. If I were to have a large picture of innocence to hang in my parlour and T did not wish to sit for it myself, I should get a correct likeness of a mule. There is innocence in a mule's countenance to fit out a Sunday school class. It looks as guileless' as an angleworm. A mule never grows old or dies; once , brought into existence lie continues for- i ever. Tho original mule is now alive somewhere in the South, and his name is Bob Toombes, because he is so stubborn. Mulesare chiefly found in the South and West. They have been more abused than Judas Iscariot. A boy who would not throw a stone at a mule when he got a chance would be considered by his parents too mean to raise. The mule is a good worker, but he cannot be' depended on. He is liable to strike; and when he strikes Human calculation fails to find any rule by which to reckon when he will go to work again. It is useless to pound him, for he will stand more beating than a carpet. He has been known to stand eleven days in one spot, apparently thinking of something, and start off again as if nothing had happened, To fully appreciate the mule one should listen to his voice. You never can really know whether you like a inula or hot till you hear him sing. I attended a mule concert at Chickamauga during the war. The wagon train was in front. Tho mules were starved for water. The gallant Clieburne wasprotecting the rear. Thomas pressed him hard. The music, or programme, opened with a solo and then swung into a duet, and then pranced off into a trio, followed up by a quartet, and ending with a full chorus of the whole army tram. I didn't hear the whole thing, for when I came to, the regimental sur- ' geon was standing over me, giving me powerful restoratives, and I heard him say that 1 might possibly get out again, though I would never be a well man again, I have been in places where., it took nerve to stand—such as falling out of a three-story window, and having been through the New York Exchange and spent a part of a day in a boiler factory, and have been on one or two Sunday school excursions where the orowd were all girls—but I never knew what noise was till 1 heard a lot of army mules bray, —[Dyesbury (Tenn.) Gazette.