Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 283, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1912 — Mules Object to Service in Army and Desert [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Mules Object to Service in Army and Desert

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.—Seventyfive mules, comprising the more energetic part of a delegation of three hundred of their kind that have reached San Francisco for the purpose of adding glory and efficiency to the "United States army, suddenly decided not to enlist. As a result squads of cowboys, platoons of cavalrymen from the Presidio and deputies of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals passed a whole day galloping madly through the thoroughfares of the Mission district attempting to capture the deserters. f The three hundred mules were shipped into the city under consignment to the army authorities at the Presidio and were turned into corrals at Sixth and Berry streets to await the coming of the soldiers who were

to be sent for them. They stood the confinement without protest for a few hours, but things were not very lively in the neighborhood, and, besides, the reception committee had deserted them and it didn't seem just right for so many strangers in the city to spend their first night penned up in a corral without a chance to see th 6 sights. It was some time after midnight when the fun* started. A few well directed blows from the determined hoofs, and a breach was made in the fence surrounding the corral. Five minutes later seventy-five mules were scampering at top speed through the Mission, the clatter of their three hundred hoofs startling householders in quiet streets from their sleep and bringing frightened faces to windows of the houses they passed. With utter disregard of city ordinances, the visitors trampled over gardens and lawns and demolished everything in their path. In the course of ten minutes the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals received nine telephone messages of complaint regarding the mules. Deputies were tumbled out of their beds and sent in pursuit.