Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-03-28
ATLANTA SOUTHERN MULE CAPITAL,
the Days Best Cartoons.
BY FREDERIC :. II.skIN.

ATLANTA, GA, March 27.-Over 100
400 mules arc now sold here every
year, making this the second mule
market i'll the United States. 81. Louis
is the only city that does Il bigger bust
ness in these hardy, long-carcd mon
archs Of labor.
Mule trading has been capitalized
and incorporated and organized To II
fne point in Atlanta; ana yet II re-
mains-mule trading. II IL still a
matter u! barter and haggle and bluff
farms and automobiles and all sorts ..
other things are snapped; and the mar
that thinks quickest usually comes
out ahead.
For the mule is one product tina. you
can't Standardizc. lie comes in an
Sizes. colors and dispositions, and is
affected with all sorts OF idiosynCra-
cics, peculiarities and blemishcs. iio
can't be sold by specification, AS big
business sells everything else. With
hundreds OF thousands OF mules to he
marketed. ii is no longer possible To
barter and argue over each individual
mule. SO they are sold In lunches o,
dozen to thirty, and that is where
tho rapid thinking comes in.
The man that brought the mules from
the country, the commission dealer
who is selling them, and the buyer who
may be officer from London. Rus
sian count, or Chatham county farm
er. arc gathered in the great barn
which covers five acres. a bunch OF
nine mules are turned into a little pen,
where the men watch them. whil- 81
negro makes them race up and down
Ia show off their points.
Quick Thinking Required.
"Whatn you take for the bunch"
demands the buyer
"A hundred and ten" is the answer
The mules are sold at an average price
per head, no matter how many differ
ent values are represented ia the
bunch.
Cut out that little brown mare and
the big mule with the broke ear. Sow
what'i you take for EN-
~ hundred and Twenty-Five" comes
the answer like shot. Continually
the buyer makes new combinations, by
adding or suhtract!ng various animals,
and each timc the seller must revalue
them in a flash. This fencing may 20
on for half an hour, until ono or the
other thinks he has an advantage and
closes the deal. Naturally the man
with the greatest ability 10 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.
get npme alive" pronounced the man
from the country solemnlN. That set
Ties il.
During the last ten or fifteen years
the mule has achieved new import
ance in the world. Here in Atianta's
stock yard twenty mules are sold to
one horse. and the mules bring sur
prisingly large prices while horses are
almost incredibly cheap. The fact OF
the matter is that the gasoline engine
has superseded the horse for speed ANA
pleasure; but ii can't supersede the
mule for hard work. When IL comes
to blowing new land and piowlss 1t
deep, the rule is the one logical candi-
date, and lie always gets the JOB. tie
can stand ar amazing amount OF nara
work, is subject TO very little disease
lives 10 q great old age, and seems to
be the natural working partner OF the
Southern da"key. So the mule multi
plies and increases in value through
out the South.
Europe Wants Mules. Too.
Now Europe is after American mules.
too. They move artillery over rough
country with the same plodding de-
termination that drags u deep plow
through a clay soil full of roots. The
allies have an Office in Atlanta, ana -FOUR
buyers are at the stockyards almost
daily. They have purchased httcen
thousand mules from one firm, paying
nearly two hundred dollars a piece for
them. \ good. sound mule at least a
| thousand pounds in weight is what the
military men like. The price for such
mules ranges from slS5 to $3.50 You
can get any sort Of a mule you want in
the Atlanta market, however, from a
fort dollar runt to Il fifteen hundred
pound giant in perfect condition.
The mule trading in Atlanta takes
place almost wholly between October
and March. During the season last
year about 10000 mules changed
hands They are shipped in from all
parts OF tho South in lots of four to
one hundred or more, and are turned
| over to the commission men, who own
the immense stockyard barns covering
some twenty-five acres. The buyers
with the exception of those from Eu-
rope. are dealers from various small
towns and country districts. They buy
| mules In lots OF twenty or more, take
them homo and retail them TO the farm
crs, making an average profit of per-
| haps fifteen or twenty dollars upon
mules OF the better grades. Thus At
ianta acts as "a clearing house through
which large part OF the South buys
and sells it's mules.
In Atlanta tho business is carried
forward with great directness and
upon Il high plane OF honesty. Every