Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1880 — A Mule’s Petition to the Legislature. [ARTICLE]

A Mule’s Petition to the Legislature.

The New Orleans Picayune prints' the following petition, which i(j alleges was presented to the Louisiana Legislature: To the Honorable the Senate and House o Representatives of the State of Louisiana: Your humble petitioner begs leave to represent to jour honorable body that he, in company with about one hundred and twenty thousand companions, brothers, half brothers and other relations, is suffering under a servitude of the most brutalizing nature, and that, with some honorable exceptions, we are compelled to submit to hardships ,of the most cruel character. Our masters and oppressors place a high value upon the species of property with which we are connected, and also consider our services indispensable in carrying on the plantations and farms of the State of Louisiana, which State your honorable body represents. Our value in the census list, including all of this kind of domestic property, is pnt down at nearly sixteen million dollars. By our aid the cultivator of the soil is able to pay heavy taxes; without us agricultural pursuits in the State would be impossible, and the whole domain of the State would be waste lands, and “ a waste howling wilderness.” When well fed and well cared for we serve our masters cheerfully; but starvation and stripes often render us incapable of valuable service, and hurry thousands of our species yearly to premature graves. I our petitioner has often been scourged with raw-hide lash and hooppoles, in a half-starved condition, often nearly perishing for want of water to cool his parched tongue and feverish body, and has been cursed as though he were the most hardened convict, because he could not draw a load which would be sufficient for two such as himself. He has been tortured day after day in a hot sun, with galled shoulders and a back covered with sores as painful as those of Lazarus, or as the boils of Job; and when humane neighbors appealed to his master to grant lief from this suffering, the reply was that your petitioner was his property and he had a right to do with it as he chose to. Your petitioner has no rest or peace, day or night—he lies down on the oold wet earth in winter to rest; hungry and often thirsty all night long, and rises up in the morning with stiff and sore limbs and in hunger, to endure another day’s work under stripes and curses that are hard to endure. He is youngln years, but old in body which has oeen nearly worn out, ana will not last half of a natural life time. There is a law in Louisiana for the protection of animals against such cruelty as you petitioner daily suffers, but it never protects your petitioner. In view of these barbarous practices—which are worse than death to your petitioner and his unfortunate companions—in view of the abuse and destruction of this species of property, thus damaging greatly the public interests and other revenues of the State—in view of the defenseless condition and the utter helplessness of all who suffer in this manner—in view of your duty as the representatives of a great and Christian State—as the law-givers of that State, who have power to protect the weak and innooent against the strong and heartless oppressor—in behalf of abuse and suffering and dying companions, your petitioner prays your honorable body to inquire into these great wrongs set forth* in this petition, and to enact such laws, in adcutioA to that already enacted and referred to in this petition, ee may more effectually protect your petitioner and all others in the state, who suffer from cruel treatment by heartless masters, or by others who may be intrusted with them. ' i " A Mule. , Tennyson is one of twelve children who were all clever verse-makers in their childhood. ,

tires in strange lands. of her little home recall the fate that followed her in life. When Napoleon became Emperor, she ares oae of the mom brilliant and talented women of his oourt. She wrote excellent verses, arranged plays and oompoeed songs that have cheered the trench armies in battle from that day to this. Her song “ Partant pour la Syria” may last with the French lans' I **?- When Napoleon’s star of destiny failed him, and all who bare his name, or were related to him, ware banished from France, poor Hortense. after being refused a restiug-plaoe in many lands, bought this little villa in a qniet corner of Switzerland. Here she devoted many years to self-culture and the oare of her two sons. Here was spent the boyhood of France’s second Emperor. Arenenberg is a plain villa outside, but is situated on one of the loveliest spots of the shores of the river Rhine. In the garden near the villa is a long, low house, used then, as now, for stables. The upper floor of this out-house contained the rooms of the young Prince, Louis Napoleon. Here he studied, and here he schemed. In a recent visit to Arenenburg the writer'hunted up a number of old residents of the neighborhood who had been companions of Napoleon, and a few who had been friends of Hortense. There were many remembered incidents of the life of both; for both, though in a very different way, had been mnch liked by all the villagers. Hortense’s kindness to the poor of all the district has embalmed her name in grateful remembrance there, and even the stern republicans of Switzerland had a warm sympathy for an unfortunate Queen. As to her son, the late Emperor, people never could tire telling of the incidents of his boyhood that pointed to the coming man. What a swimmer he was! what a horseman! what a wrestler! Of his horsemanship it is maintained he had not an equal anywhere. It was a habit of his never to mount a horse by the use of stirrup, but to run and spring over the crupper and into the saddle at a bound. Louis Napoleon visited Arenenberg when he became Emperor, and twenty .thousand people came to bid him welcome. As a young man he had been a captain of militia sharp-shooters here, and president of the village school board. These bodies joined officially in the greeting. There were several coaches and four drawn up at the station for the Emperor ana his staff to ride in. What was the astonishment and ioy to see Napoleon jump into the one-horse wagon of a friend that happened to be there, and with him head the great procession through Constance! How the people shouted and clapped hands at tne democratic Emperor! Hortense, after suffering several years with a dreadful cancer, ended her eventful life here in 1637. She died in the little upper east room. The stranger going in there now will be impressed to see everything just as she left it. There Is the bed on which she died, and near it is the camp bedstead which her son the Emperor nad at Sedan. There, too; is her harp, as well as the harp of Josephine. Down stairs there are five rooms filled with remembrances of the Napoleon family. On a little table in the reoep-tion-room is the gflt clock used by Napoleon on the island of St Helena. In other rooms' are good paintings and statues made from life of Napoleon the First, Hortense, her mother Josephine, and her brother Prinoe Eugene; also the furniture presented to Hortense by the city of Paris at the time of her marriage to Napoleon’s brother. There, too. oovered with a crown of ivy, is a marble bust of Napoleon the Third, taken from a oast of his face after death. The Empress Eugenie repurchased this'plaoe (it had been sold after the death of Hortense), and presented it to the Emperor. It was lately the summer residence of herself and. the young Prince Louis. Over the-hills from Reichenau, and in another arm of the lake, lies the pretty little island of Mainaq, with its charming gardens reaching down to the blue waters. Real royality dwells here, tor it is the property of the Grand Duke of Baden; and his father-in-law, the Emperor of Germany, often spends his summer days in this lovely retreat. In fact, the Kings and Princes of Europe have managed to secure most of the rare spots around the lower end of Lake Constance.— B. H. M. Byers, in Harper 3 a Magazine for April.