with so little trouble that two
men could conduct a throng of several hundred. Nevertheless, if the
foremost mule of the procession turned aside, all the others would
blindly follow him in the manner of a flock of sheep.

I recall an amusing instance of this "follow-my-leader" motive which
occurred many years ago in a way somewhat personal to myself, in
southern Kentucky. Engaged in survey work, I was passing along a quiet
road when in the distance I heard a thunder of hoofs, and in a moment
saw a great drove of mules, the appointed leader of which, a man on a
white horse, had fallen to the rear of the column. The creatures,
thinking that it was their duty to overtake the missing master, were
going on the full run. Heeding the shouts of the troubled herder, I
turned my wagon across the road, which, being at that point very narrow,
was effectually barricaded by the vehicle. Although the rush was so wild
that the brutes nearly overset my "outfit," they were brought to a full
stop. Unhappily, on one side of the road and one hundred feet or so from
it, there was a comfortably built southern house, with a broad gallery
extending along the front; while in the door of the mansion were some
women who had been attracted by the tumult. No sooner had the mob of
mules been brought to a state of surging quiet, than one of the
creatures jumped the picket fence, and started for the open house-door,
thinking, perhaps, that he would find some peace of life in what
probably seemed to him his accustomed barn. In much less time than it
takes to tell it, a hundred or more mules were on the gallery, the floor
of which gave way beneath their weight; they quickly broke down the
columns which supported the roof, so that the whole structure at once
became a heap of wood and mules. The unhappy proprietor of the drove, in
his consternation, forgot even to swear--an art which I have never known
on any other occasion to pass from a mule-driver; and, sitting on his
white horse, he lifted his hands like an oriental in prayer, and said to
me meekly, "Did you ever in all your life?" I assured him that I had
never, and went my way, leaving him to settle an interesting case of
damages with the owner of the mansion.

In considering the general influence of the horse and its kindred forms
on human culture, we clearly perceive that we are now attaining a time
when the machinery of civilization is to depend in a much less degree
than of old on the help which