Jasper Republican, Volume 2, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1875 — A Mule’s Fall. [ARTICLE]

A Mule’s Fall.

A correspondent with the Hayden geological party tells the following: We had scarcely gotten the train half-way up the face of the canon, which was here over a thousand feet daep, and stopped a few minutes to rest, when we who were below in the winding path were startled by a. great rushing noise, and upon looking upward observed one of the mules called “ Old Jake” come bounding doWn, pfcck and all, through the air, spinning head ov<r heels, alighting on his back a hundred feet below among a mass of sharp, jagged rocks. We all rushed to the spot to take a sharp look at his shapeless form lying crashed and bleeding in the cliffs. He had been feeding on the brink of the precipice with his back toward it, and in backing a few steps had slipped off and fallen into, a cedar tree some thirty feet below, alighting on his pack, from which he was hurled by the elastic bows high , into the air, alighting a second time some thirty feet further down among the stones, where his pack was burst and strewn with the contents over the trail, and taking a third bound into the air made one more descent of forty feet, where he hit on his back in a hollow among the rocks. When we approached him what was our surprise to see him scramble to bis feet, trembling like an aspen, with great drops of water aDd blood starting from every pore! By almost a miracle he had received no more serious injuries than, some severe bruises and numerous small cuts and skin wounds about the head, tail and legs. The hair was shaved off in little patches all over his body and the fall had astonished and stiffened him considerably, but we arrived at the conclusion that it was impossible to kill a mule unless it was done by shooting. Mules are like Indians in this respect, for who ever saw an Indian die a natural death? They may disappear, but who can tell what becomes of them ?