Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1902-05-05
A SERIOUS EFFECT
High Prices of Meats Driving
Boarding Houses Out of
Business.
HOUSE RAISED
RATES, BUT LOST ITS
HOADERS.
Beef Steak Now Getting to Be Lux.
ury to Be Sought by the Rich
Only.
INT ERVlEW WITH A PACKER

meats and other necessities of life now
prevailing in this city is beginning to
have serious local effect Life in
Pine Bluff is getting strenuous Board
! ing houses are suspending on account
OF not being able to supply their board
ers with their accustomed fare at the
present range of the market without
advancing the price Of board. and the
small salaried epicurean is trying to
reconcile himself to just anything he
can afford. Should the prices contin-
ue to soar toward the ETHEREAL regions
as they have during the past month.
beef will only be known to the aris-
tocracy, or the fellow with plenty Of
long green. The working people and
those who occupy common place posi-
tions in the mundane sphere will know
ut no more, except when some one
| gives beef supper-the bon-ton affair
of the future.
Recently the proprietors of the Bal
timore house, the fashionable Main
street boarding house, raised the rates
for board on account Of the high prices
of all meats and other articles neces-
sary in conducting a boarding house
Their rates for single boarders were
raised from s22.50 to $27.50 month,
and for couples from $45 to $55. The
new rate went into effect few days
ago and the result was that the house
was practically depopulated of board
ers, most of whom now only occupy
rooms at that house.
The foregoing is only one of many.
Mrs. Cliff Dowell. who has been con-
ducting a select boarding house Oh
East Sixth avenue, is another who
could not make a boarding house pan
out at the present prices on meats,
etc
With the view of&obtaining an eX.
preston as to the causes of the ad-
vanced prices of meats, from the
standpoint Of the packing houses, a
Graphic representative interviewed a
packing house representative He at
tributefthe high prices of beef to the
scarcity of cattle, as shown by re-
port published recently in the Graphic.
Notwithstanding the high prices Of
meats" he said, "the packing houses
have not made any more money re-
Gently. In fact they have never made
any money. This condition prevails
all over the Southwest. My COM
pany has invested thousands of dollars
in Pine Bluff, and, allowing for interest
on the money and insurance and eX-
penses, not a cent has been made in
Pine Bluff
The packing houses in this terri
tory were in a much better condition,
financially, a year ago than they are
today notwithstanding the prices they
are getting for meat
1t IS all attributable" he continued,
to the scarcity Of cattle. This is
shown by accurate reports, an1
brought hoH!e bv the fact that Texas
eattlemen have been buying cattle up
and Gown the Valley read for some
time- something which was never
done before
"3teat is cheaper at present than il
was ten days age, and butchers at the
present time are not paying any mora
than they did sixty days ago. Hogs
TOO, are much higher this year than
last which makes the consumer pay
more for pork as we'll as beef
1t is quite probable that an agitation
will be started here to get the various
religious institutions at work against
the iniquitous beef trust. A sugges-
ton has been made that each church
undertake the proposition of organic
ing boycott against the trust. and
the idea seems to be meeting with ap-
proval.