Word: donkeys
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...When I read the story of Pele, the "criminal" donkey [Nov. 15], I was reminded of a similar story of a persecuted donkey by the German author Christolph Martin Wieland. In Geschichte der Abderiten, he intended to point out absurdities of small-town government and life. A Grecian dentist named Struthion and a donkey driver nearly came to blows over whether or not Struthion might stand in the shadow of his rented donkey since he had not rented the shadow as well. Struthion felt that the donkey came with the shadow...
...took their quarrel to the city-state of Abdera, which soon divided itself on the question until civil war seemed imminent. The problem was solved when the people set upon what they considered to be the real troublemaker-the donkey-and consequently tore him into a thousand pieces...
Last week, to the great relief of jailers and prisoners, Pelé was back on Fernandes' farm. In Salvador, the state capital, the state security secretary, hearing of the case, had sent the police chief a telegram curtly informing him that "the donkey has served his sentence," even though he had never been tried, and ordering his release...
Last summer a Brazilian farmer named Osório Fernandes took his don key Pelé with him to town. In the marketplace of Venceslau Guimarâes, a small boy began tormenting Pelé with a stick, and the donkey struck back-killing the boy with a kick in the head. Police Chief Emiliano Gonçalves had the farmer arrested, but Fernandes wept so profusely in his jail cell that Gonçalves changed his mind and locked up the donkey instead. The charge against the animal: murder. Osório Fernandes angrily leveled a charge...
...Anti-donkey or not, Chief Gonçalves mulishly insisted that the donkey was dangerous and had to be kept behind bars, despite Farmer Fernandes' pleas that the animal had only kicked in self-defense. Months passed. The other prisoners, being human, had protested that the donkey stank; even worse, it brayed all night. The prison cook complained because he had to prepare special meals for the donkey. The jailer, grumbling that cleaning up the animal's cell had doubled his work, threatened to go on strike unless he got extra...