THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MEXICAN BURROS. 
The ass is the humblest member of the 
horse family. It differs from the horse, first, 
in its smaller size, due, in a great measure in 
European countries, to harsh treatment, scan¬ 
ty fare and negligence in breeding; second, in 
its rougher, more shaggy coat, which is capa¬ 
ble of much improvement by grooming; 
third, in the shortness and stiffness of its pas¬ 
tern joints and the lim’d solidity of its hoofs, 
which render it almost incapable of lameness 
and the surest-footed of all beasts of burden 
in difficult mountain travel; fourth, in the 
great length of its ears, which resemble those 
of a hare rather than those of its owu race; 
and, fifth, in the peculiar cross it carries on 
its hack, which indicates its relationship with 
the untamable members of its race—the zebra 
and quagga. From time immemorial the ass 
has been under the dominion of man, having 
been domesticated, it is thought, considerably 
exclusively for the saddle; a.stouter sort used 
for plowing and various other laborious pur¬ 
poses, and the large Damascus breed with pe¬ 
culiarly long body and ears.’’ In Southern 
Europe, too—especially in Spain, Italy and 
Malta—the ass is carefully bred and has been 
greatly improved. No less than $1 000 is 
said to he sometimes paid for a stallion ass in 
Spain. 
In Europe the ass is extensively used as a 
beast of burden by the poorest classes, and to 
a smaller extent for saddle purposes by the 
children of the middle ranks. In this coun¬ 
try asses are used almost exclusively for mule¬ 
raising, having been fii-st introduced by Gen¬ 
eral Washington for that purpose. In Ken¬ 
tucky where mules have long been in great 
request, asses, usually imported from South¬ 
ern Europe, are reared with great care, and 
we are told that they often reach a bight of 
from 14 to 10 hands! The male ass is capable 
of propagation at two years, and the female 
somewhat earlier. The latter carries her foal 
till the beginning or middle of the twelfth 
month. The sexual vigor and prepotency of 
both sexes are excessive, so that the hybrid 
our Southwestern Territories, have the burro 
as a member of the family almost as invari¬ 
ably as the more useless dog and cat, and of¬ 
tentimes the animals are not much larger 
than a large dog; yet they possess great 
strength, for when used as pack-horses the 
usual load is *.150 pounds. 
Burros are used by the children in riding to 
and from school. While the children are at 
their studies, the burros are turned loose, and 
when school is out, each one seeks its master 
or mistress as faithfully as the fabled lamb of 
little Mary, provided, of course., it is well 
used. Like Mary’s Jamb, the burro will fol¬ 
low wherever allowed, and possesses a large 
amount of intelligence. The children make 
pets of them and teach them many tricks. 
In going up the mountains to the mines, 
there are precipices where a bold mountaineer 
would hesitate to travel, but where the burro 
walks iu safety. If loose stones or dirt have 
fallen dowm in the way, he puts down his nose 
and blows or pushes the obstruction aside. 
Where a horse or pony would run from a sus¬ 
picious object, the burro investigates carefully 
much as a dog does with its ever-useful nose. 
of Williams has been thrown out by U3, and 
this experience will add to our caution. 
“I wish to call your attention to an adver¬ 
tisement in a late Rim ax, from William 
Williams, of Chicago, offering 14k solid rolled 
gold plate American watch, stem-winder, 
pendant set for only $0.50. I thought the con¬ 
cern was reliable as its advertisement was 
admitted into the Rural. I sent $6.50 and 
the advertisement, and after a long delay I 
received, by registered mail."a package in good 
order containing a miserable, open-faced, 
copper-backed thing purporting to he a watch, 
which would be dear at $3.50. Of course, I 
will lose tin* $6,50, but I waut. the Rural, to 
expose Williams. I wrote to the man ask¬ 
ing him to send the watch advertised, but 
have not heard from him. F. v. hicks. 
Cleveland Mills,N. C. 
It must not be for a moment supposed that 
farmers are the only class preyed upon by 
swindlers, or that as men they are especially 
gullibe. If they are taken iu more than oth¬ 
ers it is because they have not so many oppor¬ 
tunities of learning the multitudinous schemes 
by which the dishonest try to transfer money 
from the pockets of others to their own Here 
we mention only frauds which are especially 
directed against the rural community, but 
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MEXICAN BURROS. (From Nature.) Fig. 207. 
before the horse. A wild variety, still found 
in Abyssinia, with long,acute ears, is supposed 
by Darwin aud others to have been the origi¬ 
nator of the domestic variety. Xenophon, B. 
C. 400, describes another wild variety which 
flourished in great numbers in Mesopotamia, 
which were of extraordinary speed aud en¬ 
durance, aud whose flesh was considered the 
most exquisite venison. The wild asses of the 
same country to-day possess the same charac¬ 
teristics. 
The ass has generally been the object of 
neglect aud ill treatment, and attempts 
have seldom been made to improve the breed 
by selection aud the matching of the best spe¬ 
cimens. It bus thus gradually sunk to bo the 
dull, obstinate creature which is generally 
seen. Its reputation for stupidity, however, 
is very ancient. The old Egyptians symbol¬ 
ized an ignorant person with the head and 
ears of an uss. In Southwestern Asia, how¬ 
ever, the ass has loug been carefully raised as 
a saddle animal. The Arabs and Persians 
know the pedigrees of t heir asses, and by care¬ 
ful selection and close breeding they have 
formed several fine breeds. Darw in tells us 
that there are four distinct breeds in Syria— 
“A light and graceful animal with agreeable 
gait used by ladies; an Arab bi’eed reserved 
offspring of the horse and ass are nearer to 
the latter than to the former in organ¬ 
ization, temper and appeal once. In all cases 
the mule is an ass modified by a strain of 
the horse rather than a liorso modified by a 
cross with an ass. The hybrid foal of tbe male 
ass and the mare is the true mule; that of the 
stallion and the female ass is the hinny. The 
latter has less of the blood and form of the 
ass than the former, owing to the superior in¬ 
fluence of the male m producing the physical 
form ami external organization of the progeny. 
The mule, like the ass, brays; while the hinny, 
like the horse, neighs. 
A characteristic phase of the Mexican 
civilization is the burro, a small variety of 
the ass. This useful creature combines the 
economy of the Irishman's goat, the usefulness 
of the Arab's horse, and the hardiness of the 
Indian's pony, and the docility and general 
all-around qualities possessed by nothing but 
himself. He is the Mexican’s pack-horse, 
wheelbarrow, express wagou, aud saddle horse 
for the mountains, all iu one tough little hide. 
Like their own brothel’s, the donkeys, seen in 
the North chiefly iu public parks for children’s 
play-thiugs, the burros are gentle, never vic¬ 
ious, and have a great fondness for children. 
The American families in Mexico, Texas, and 
This burro-donkey fills a place for Northern 
! country homes that nothing else will. For 
any child that is old euoughto sit in the saddle 
he is a safe and reliable pet and working com¬ 
panion. Of late there has been considerable 
interest manifested iu this useful little animal 
among the people iu and about New York, 
and on April 8th, there was a sale at the 
American Horse Exchange in New York City, 
where a lot of them were sold at good prices. 
This lot was brought from New Mexico, and 
we understand that the sale was so satisfactory 
that others will follow. At Fig. 207 we pre¬ 
sent to our readers the likeness of four of these, 
drawn and engraved from photographs. 
The following letter exposes a dishonest 
concern, aud shows that even the most cau¬ 
tious publishers can be occasionally deceived 
in the character of the advertisements ad¬ 
mitted into their papers. The advertisement 
we could readily double or quadruple the list 
by including those aimed at the mercantile or 
other classes. For instance: a recent dispatch 
from St. Louis says that Horace J. Pullen, alias 
\V r . H. Armour, and T. T. Johnson were arrest¬ 
ed on the charge of carrying on a gigantic 
fraud under the guise of a legitimate enter¬ 
prise. Armour arrived in the city a month 
earlier and leased a store for the avowed ob¬ 
ject of carrying on a wholesale grocery busi¬ 
ness. He ordered fully $100,000 worth from 
manufacturers in all parts of the United 
States. He gave Dunn and Bradstreet as ref¬ 
erences, and, without taking the trouble to 
communicate with those mercantile agencies, 
about 100 firms senthimgoods valued at about 
$20,000, with the understanding that it should 
be a cash transaction. The bulk of the stuff 
shipped to him was flour, and this he disposed 
of in the cars, aud did uot carry over $100 
worth of the goods to his store. Drafts were 
drawn on him by the score aud allowed to go to 
protest, and the detectives were putou the case. 
From papers found in the possession of the 
rascals it appeals that they operated last fall 
in Detroit, under the name of John H. King 
& Go., dealers in stoves. Unpaid bills to the 
amountjof“810,000 were the result of the Det¬ 
roit operation. Their scheme; was ^to give 
