38 



THE MULE. 



be applied to stop it. Army teamsters and stable-men 

 seem to regard it as a virtue to be cruel to animals. 

 They soon cultivate vicious habits, and a bad temper 

 seems to grow up with their occupation. It naturally 

 follows, then, that in the treatment of their animals 

 they do just what they ought not to do. The Govern- 

 ment has been a very severe sufferer by this ; and I 

 contend that during a war it is just as necessary to have 

 experienced and well trained teamsters as it is to have 

 hardened and well trained soldiers. 



The mule is peculiar in his dislikes. Many of them, 

 when first harnessed, so dislike a blind bridle that they 

 will not work in it. When you find this, let him stand 

 for say a day in the blinders, and then take them off, 

 and in forty-nine cases out of fifty he will go at once. 



It has been said that the mule never scares or runs 

 away. This is not true. lie is not so apt to get 

 frightened and run away as the horse is. But any one 

 who has had long experience with them in the army 

 knows that they will both get frightened and run away. 

 They do not, however, lose all their senses when they 

 get frightened and run away, as the horse does. Bring 

 a mule back after he has run away, and in most cases 

 he will not want to do it again. A horse that has once 

 run away, however, is never safe afterward. Indeed, 

 in all the tens of thousands of mules that I have 

 handled, I never yet found an habitual runaway. Their 

 sluggish nature does not incline them to such tricks. 

 If a team attempts to run away, one or two of them 

 will fall down before they have gone far, and this will 

 stop the remainder. Attempt to put one up to the 



