Boer War Behind Increased Cost of Mules, Says James Wadsworth, 1904

“Increased Value of Mules,” from the Charlotte Observer, as reprinted in the March 3, 1904 issue of the Watauga Democrat, Boone, N.C.

Mr. James W. Wadsworth returned yesterday from Indianapolis where he purchased 18 horses and 232 mules, which will be brought to Charlotte and sold here. Every year the firm of Wadsworth’s Sons & Co. sell between 500 and 1,000 mules in this county and they buy these at about $26 apiece cheaper in Indianapolis than in Atlanta, “though in Atlanta,” said Mr. Wadsworth, “there are more mules than in any other place in the world.”

“The increased value in the price of mules has been noted for six or eight years, but the greater increase of the value came with the Boer-British War. A mule that now sells for $150 could have been bought five years ago for $100.”