Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1880 — Only Case on Record. [ARTICLE]

Only Case on Record.

One of the mules in the Big Evans is going lame on three legs to-day, and thereby hangs a brief but marvelous tale. On last Thursday afternoon this mule in question was not working, and amused itself romping about the corral. There was a post, containing a number of nails partly driven, within tlfb confines of the inclosure, and the mule discovered that fact. Backing up within easy reaching distance, it began kicking the nails home. When the head of a nail projected but a short distance it would tap it gently with its iron-bound hoof, and drive it just as a carpenter with a good hammer would a nail. When a nail was only half driven then it would require a heavier blow, but the mule apparently understood perfectly the weight to be applied to the nail. Something like fifty or sixty nails were driven in this manner, and then a rough old twenty-penny was encountered. Two or three fair blows were administered without any perceptible results, and then the mule fairly trembled with subdued rage and anger. Stepping a little further- away from the post, it laid back its ears, doubled up its back, and fired away with both ends. The blow was a terrific one, and the post was broken off at the ground. In the kick, though, the mule had in some manner outdone itself, and sprained the tendons of the left hind leg seriously, and now goes lame. It is the first instance where a nude has been known to lame himself in a kicking matinee. Leadville (fol.) Chronicle.