24 THE MTTLE. 



that are not hardy and capable of endurance. I have 

 had some, whose color did not vary from head to foot, 

 that were capable of great endurance. But in most 

 cases, if kept steadily at work from the time they were 

 three years old until they were eight or ten, they gener- 

 ally gave out in some part, and became an expense 

 instead of profit. 



Various opinions are held as to what the mule can be 

 made to do under the saddle, many persons asserting 

 that in crossing the plains he can be made to perform 

 almost equal to the horse. This is true on the prairie. 

 But there he works with every advantage over the 

 horse. In 1858, I rode a mule from Cedar Yalley, 

 forty-eight miles north of Salt Lake City, to Fort 

 Leavenworth, Kansas, a distance of nearly fourteen 

 hundred miles. Starting from Cedar Valley on the 

 22d of October, I reached Fort Leavenworth on the 

 31st of December. At the end of the journey the ani- 

 mal was completely worn down. 



In this condition I put her into Fleming's livery sta- 

 ble, in Leavenworth City, and was asked if she was 

 perfectly gentle. One would suppose that, in such a 

 condition, she would naturally be so. I assured the 

 hostler that she was ; that I had ridden her nearly a 

 year, and never knew her to kick. That same morning, 

 when the hostler went to feed her, she suddenly became 

 vicious, and kicked him very severely. She was then 

 about twelve years old. I have since thought that 

 when a mule gets perfect^ gentle he is unfit for service. 



Proprietors of omnibuses, stage lines, and city rail- 

 roads have, in many cases, tried to work mules, as a 



