Amanuensis Monday: Missouri Sheriff Has a Mule Problem

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

I began this project back in February of 2009, and since then, many others have joined in on the meme.  Why do we transcribe? I provide my three reasons in the linked post. You may find others. If you participate, feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments.
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This week, I transcribe another document relating to the ancestry of my fiancée. This is a newspaper article from The St. Louis Post Dispatch concerning her second great grandfather, Louis P. Gober (1867-1948). [The article was found at ProQuest Historical Newspapers.]

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St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Jan 1, 1911 – Page B7
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: St. Louis Post Dispatch (1874-1922)
 NEW AND STRANGE THINGS IN AND AROUND ST. LOUIS: 
Missouri Sheriff Has a Mule Problem

SHERIFF GOBER of Scott County, Mo., recently acquired some experience. He “seized” 47 mules belonging to a construction company against which the Cape Girardeau & Thebes Terminal Railway had started proceedings. The construction company had been building a levee across the railroad tracks for the United States Government. The sheriff’s troubles began when night time came. Every one of the 47 mules had to be fed, and such a contingency was new to the sheriff. He learned more about the appetites of mules as to regularity and capacity, in a few days than he had previously discovered in his whole life. They were the star boarders among all his prisoners. The Terminal Company finally came to his rescue by asking the court to make an order to have the mules sold at once, but at last reports the sheriff’s still had his four-legged charges on hand.

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Notes:

1) I cannot attest to the accuracy of the drawing that accompanies the article.  I suspect it does neither the sheriff nor the mules justice.

2) It appears the newspaper might be making fun of Sheriff Gober.