The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-02-01

these fine mules They are the best here today. They are worth any mans $500. Be reasonable. Don't make us give them away"
 Ralph Fies looks at their teeth again, says they have perfect 5-year- r-old mouths, but as he knows they are they must sell for that age The auction is re-
 stunned; five dolars is added to the last bid and after showing them off again they are sold at s560
 Then come the horses. 17-rst is a sad dler, 12 years old, but looks to be only
 eight or nine. Ralph Fies assures the crowd. Twenty five dollars is the first
 offer. Why, men, s500 was paid for this horse four or five years ago and he Is just as good as then. He is gentle, broke and goes all the paces. He's worth $250, Moxie Fies confides.
 Auctioneer: How much am I offered
 What will you give for this fine saddle
 horse? Twenty-Five dollars? Why, were
 selling this horse. not renting 1t out.
 He's worth more than s25 as beef. Come
 on. make a reasonable offer for him.
 The bid is gradually boosted to s75 and
 the horse sold.
 Auctioneer: Here we have a fine horse an artillery horse. How much am I of fered?'
 Ralph Fies stops proceedings to look at llle dillildl IOulil anu Wicli llc ld ascertained and stated his age assures
 the audience that the horse is sound broke, acclimated, inoculated against every kind of disease has worked in the open and won't get sick
 Auctioneer: Now, you've got 1t. Did you hear that? Won't get sick. What do I hear? Thirty dollars? Why, he's worth s250,' (Moxie Fies interrupts with the statement that the government paid sl77.50 for the animal and that he was
 the best of a lot that were Jumped and sold to the government for that sum each) Now what do you say? Forty dollars? You want us to give you this horse, don't you? Fifty, sixty, sixty-f1ve seventy-seven fifty. Make it eighty. Eighty you say; make it ninety. Eighty two fifty, I'm offered, make it eighty five. Ninety, ninety-five, ninety seven fifty Now we've got to get one hundred One hundred over there? Yes. Make 1t
 one hundred five. I've got to sell. Well if you won't give any more, it'll have tC go at one hundred. One, two, three, sold
 over there. Whats your name? Settle with the cashier"
 Thus throughout the day and until late at night the sale goes on, until the 4o( and more animals have been passed through the ring into the possession oi new owners. It is an interesting sight-these auction sales. The jockeying, the scheming, the maneuvering to get the best animal fol 1 the least money. Farmers, merchants l loggers, truck owners, all vie with eact other, and watch each others move. l ments with the sharp eye of hawk tha' i has it's chicken spotted.
 | We sold over 400 horses and mules
 at this sae," said Moxie Fies, the price 1 for the horses ranging from s6o to sll5 1 and for the mules from sl25 to s250 | Practically all of those sold this weel
 were purchased by farmers in nortf | Alabama
 1 So the 40 or 50 horses and mules tha1 | had been furnishing the power to trans
 rort guns, munitions and supplies fol I American soldiers while they prepared | to finish the Huns, now pass into tn more prosaic existence of pulling blows, cultivators, wagons and othe vehicles and implements familiar to tn farmer.
 1 Birmingham has grown to be one o
 the most important horse and mule mar | kets in the south within the last fev Iyears and each sale attracts buyers iron l15 or 20 counties in this part of the state
 The greater number of the animal
 come from Tennessee. Kentucky, Mis-