Mr. Thos Moore - Master of transportation

A NON PROFAIN MULETEER-

From the book; “Dateline fort Bowie - Charles Fletcher Lummis reports on an Apache war".

"Among the noteworthy people I have met here, there is one deserving of special mention – Thomas Moore, nominally chief packer of the Department of the Missouri, but in fact master of transportation of the whole army of the United States. He has an odd, kindly, homely face, twinkling grey eyes and a droll turn of conversation. But he is a man of clear, original and often deep ideas. If there is any creed of universal popular acceptance, it is that a mule – particularly an army mule – cant be properly engineered without a club and plenty of profanity. But here is a man that has more to do with army mules than anyone else in the country; a man who never swears at anything, and who discharges any employee whom he catches raining blows and profanity upon one of the long-eared train. In speaking of his pets Mr. Moore states;

“The mule has never been done justice. It is popular to disparage him, and people do so without knowing anything about the subject. God made the mule on purpose. The horse has that in his nature which shows what he was made for more than a servant of man. God saw that man needed a straight out servant, so he built the mule. And a true servant he is. Almost as soon as he is able to walk, he begins to be used; and his tireless service ends only when the last breath leaves his worn-out carcass. You might also say that he is useful every day of his life. He is always faithful and always reliable. He understands his work, and does it as few men do theirs. The idea that he needs to be cursed and clubbed to work is pure idiocy. He does his best with kind treatment. Kick? Yes, he has a bad reputation as a kicker, but that arises mostly from faulty handling. I am in less danger of being kicked when among mules than when among horses. A greenhorn unused to handling horses or mules will be in less danger among mules than horses.”