Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-04-01

atlanta, Ga, Marcn ZS. liver nun,
dred thousand mules are now sold here
every year, making this the second
mule market in the United States. st.
Louis is the only city that does big
ger business in these hardy, long cared
monarchs of labor.
Mule trading has been capitalized
and incorporated and organized to a
fine point in Atlanta and yet 1t re-
mains--mule trading. 1t is still mat
ter of barter and haggle and bluff;
farms and automobiles and all sorts OF
other things are snapped; and the man
that thinks quickest usually comes out
ahead. . a. ,
For the mule is one product that
you can't standardize. He comes in all
sizes, colors and dispositions, and is
affected with all sorts of idiosyncra-
cies. peculiarities and blemishes. He
can't be sold by specification, as big
business sells everything else. With
hundreds of thousands of mules to be
marketed, it is no longer possible to
barter and argue over each individual
mule, SO they are sold in punches OF a
dozen to thirty, and that is where the
rapid thinking comes In.
The man that brought the mules
from the country, the commission deal.
er who is selling them and the buyer
who NAV be an officer from London, a
Russian count or a Chatham county
farmer, are gathered in a great barn
which covers five acres. A bunch OF
nine mules are turned into little pen,
where the men watch them, while q
colored man makes them race up and
down to show off their points.
"What'll you take for the bunch?
demands the buyer.
"A hundred and ten," is the answer.
The mules are sold at an average price
ner head, no matter how many diner
ent values are represented in the
bunch. ...
"Cut out that little brown mare ana
the big mule with the broke ear. NO"
what'll you take for 'em?'
"A hundred and twenty-five comes
the answer like shot. Continually
tho buver makes new combinations, by
adding or subtracting various animals
end each time the seller must reval'le
them in a fash. This fencing may 60
on for half an hour, until one or the
other thinks he has an advantage ana
closes the deal. Naturally, the man
with the greatest ability to judge
mules and think fast will make the
most money at this game.
"You guarantee those mules sound:
demands the buyer, when the deal IS
closed
"If they amt sound, hope never
get home alive" pronounces the man
from the country solemnly. That set
ties it. ..H..
During the last ten or fifteen years.
The mule has achieved new import
ance in the world. Here in Atlanta 5
stock yard twenty mules are SOLD 10
one horse and the mules bring surprls-
ingly large prices while horses are Al
most incredibly cheap. The fact OF the
matter is that the gasoline engine mas
the horse for speed ana
Measure; but it can't supersede the
mule for hard work. When 1t comes to
blowing new land and blowing 1t Deep
the mule is the one logical candidate
and he always gets the job. He can
stand an amazing amount or naro
work, is subject to very little disease,
lives to a great old age and seems to
he the natural working partner OF the
southern darkey. So the mule multi
niles and increases in value through
out the south.
Now Europe is after American mules
too. They move artillery over rough
= orntrv with the same plodding deter
that drags a plow through a
CLAW soil full of roots. The allies have
an Office in Atlanta, and four buyers