OCR Text |
Show "HE WEEKLY NEWS EXPRESS. LAYTON. UTAH Scenes and Persons in the Current ;. News Then, after several years in Albany, he suddenly put adventure behind him by moving to a farm, near Pittsfield. But the country life experiment came too late, his habits, as he said, being settled for city life. To fill up the void in an active mind led me first to ceive the idea of an agricultural society on a plan different from By ELMO SCOTT WATSON WONT be long now TT until some of us will II be enjoying one of IT A annual events are as dis- m tinctlvely American as I playing baseball or celebrating the Fourth MtrX of July or observing I' Thanksgiving, day. . . No, we dont mean going to the circus or attending a Sunday school pie nic or getting ready for the first day of school or even taking part in the of the Presidential campaign which comes to its climax ' on November 3. ' We mean going to the county those which 1j ' whoop-and-hur-ra- h falrl For the last week In August and the first two or three weeks In September is county fair time and somewhere in a county seat town or some othex trading center ' of rural America this great American festival is. in full awing. ' There are not so many, of them as there once were. Bhck in 1927 It waS estimated that nearly 3,000 district, state and on the county fairs were held continent of North ' America. That probably represented the' peak in numbers; Then along came the depression and the county f.air, along with other American institutions, felt' the . . pinch' of hard times,- - Public--' spirited business men' could 'no longer continue to go in the red to support them. So .in hundreds of communities school children (to whom county fair time was one of the high spots pf the year) looked in the home 'town newspaper for the announcement of the dates of the nearest county fair, and they looked In vain. ,What they found instead wpgf'ah announcement that Jat'fennual county fair at Jcrfesville will not be held this year and that temporary suspension became a' permanent " one. Along with . ' the reduction- In these annual the number events has. come a change in their character. Like so many other American 'institutions it has gone modern. in more Gasoline comways than one. bustion engines have so radically changed the picture of the. county have diffifair that culty in reconciling themselves . to thegreat agricultural Ehows of the motor age," says a recent Instead of observer. ground at every hamlet, our county fairs have become cen-- . tralized, thanks in large part to ' motor: cars. Hitching rings and posts have disappeared from the neighborhood... In place of .long lines of box wagons and car- riagea are serried ranks of mo-- , tor cars. .. .The radius of attraction or drawing territory is no longer dr fifteen-mil- e limited drives. A hundred miles in all directions is now covered by a county fairs Advertising. Patrons Come' by .'automobile er airplane ilf thousands and stay for the night show before ihey starts home again.. The modern fair is made by electricity and gfis- - , of old-time- rs a-f- air . to.-te- . all. others. In the fall of 1807 ! procured the first pair of merino sheep that had appeared in Berkshire, if hot in the state. I was induced. to. notify an exhibition of these two sheep under the great elm in the public square in Pittsfield on a Certain day. Many farmers 'and even females were excited . by curiosity to attend this first novel and humble exhibition. It was by this lucky If accident. I reasoned thus: two animal's are capable of exciting So much attention, what would be the effect of a larger scale, with larger animals? But Elkanah Watson sooh discovered that it wasnt as easy as, all that. The farmers would come to soe, but .feared to ex-- , hibit lest they he laughpd at. ELKANAn WATSON, FATHER OF TIIE COUNTY. FAIR" Finally, after three years, he make you drunk. And then as when New ' York was ' New Am- got 26 of them to sign an 'for a cattle show. The you stroll along' you find your' sterdam, but they were modeled self In the hog barns where that on the European plan. In 1641 ice, . according to the Pittsfield litter Of sucking pigs seems Governor Kieft established two Sun next day, was now broke ..til squeamish, feelings very interesting. Come, lets fairs in New Amsterdam; one on have a look.- , buried. The show came off. , And as October 15 for cattle generalof the ly," and the other on November An . agricultural society was you lean on Ihe top-ra- il pen and look down at them, you 1 for hogs. In 1648 there .was formed; with Watson as presican picture in your mind, with- also held in the Dutch colony, dent, and' next year he began out much eiTort, ham, '.and side--' late In August and at 'the bemeat, and baeon, and spare-ribginning of September, a Dutch and smoked shoulder, and headkermess" which was strictly t, and commercial, where the burghers cheese, and sausages; and glistening white met. to exchange commodities. The custom was- continued even lard, for crullers and piecrust- under English rule and. as late Yes, I think ' pigs are . : . as 1676 had the sanction of Gov. After- youve done such things Edmund Andres. e at this But the county fair of today county fair (if youre lucky, enough to find is not a lineal descendant of the Dutch .kermess," although it may resemble it in some of its features. . It grew out of.. the interest in agriculture which be' ' gan to' manifest itself early, in the history of 'the new nation. The leaders of that time, such Pig are tight interesting." men as Washington, and Jeffera parade and son, were farmers and farming (he fair with was the most important business closed with a pastoral ball. in' the country. Between 1785 There were prizes to the amount and 1792 agricultural societies of $70. sprang .into being in PennsylBy the noxt year the prevania, Maine, New' York; Mas- miums had risen to $203, and sachusetts and South Carolina Watsorj, having made the fair as evidence of- the. organized in- popular; now proceeded to seal terest in agriculture. .These so- it with respectability.-- He had .' Go Itl Ye devil, you!.. cieties began offering prizes for conceived notion of superior . farm products but they enlisting the clergy and Women. onel), there are two things you held no fairs or exhibitions and But neither clergymen not simply have to do or you arent really did bujt little to stimulate women were obtained without a right sure youve been." So better farm production. 1811 no clergyman In struggle. says Eugene Wood, who conprincipal Hiterest seems could be found to officiate for tinues: VOne is to drink a glass toThe of being ridiculous. have The of sweet- cider- just, from the. in 1801 been1,805in live stock and fear women and were more live still three stock coy. press (which, S may say in pass- exhibitions were held in Wash- Though they sent in exhibits of luxury. ing,' is an over-rate- d At the second one memweaving and sewing, no woman Cider has to be just the least ington: of congress began to take appeared to receive the seven bers bit frisky to be good. I dont an interest pnd subscribed half valuable premiums of silver-plat- e mean hard, but frisky, 'You of the to be awarded. fund Which $100 know): find the .other is- to buy raised and distributed as was This was the crisis," wrote prizes a whip, if it' is only the little,' for the best lamb, sheep, steer, Watson and I was extremely kind. .' On the toy fifteen-cecow, n)ilch jack,.' oxen and agitated lest the experiment next soap box td the old fellow horses sold." In 1809 should fail. Native timidity and actually tha.t comes 'every year to Sell the Columbian sothe fear of .ridicule restrained Agricultural pictorial Bibles and red, plush-- ciety was organized in Washing- them (the .women), To break covered albums,', the old fellbw ton and held an exhibition in the down this feeling we resorted in the green .slippers that talks of Georgetown nearby. But to a maneuver which in an hour city as if he were just ready to drop this was not the tort of thing accomplished our wishes. I left oft to slecp-K)'- n the next soap bog to .him is the man that sells the whips. You can buy one for a dollar, two for a dollar, or four for a dollar, but not one for fifty, cents, or on for a quarter. Dont ask me why, for I dont know. I am just stating the facts. It can't be done for Ive seen it tried and If you keep up the attempt too long, the lose all patience whlpmah-wilwith your unreasonableness, and .tell you to gt long about your business if youve got any, and not bother the life and soul out of him. because he wont sell anything but a dollars worth of aU there U 'whips, and' that about itl" . So says the Back Home" in but these modern days writer, of the automobile, with fewer whips being used than in the days when the. horse was king, maybe' hed be glad to sell you A COUNTY FAIR in THE GOOD OLD DAYS" a whip .for quarter I If you From . . Drawing by A, U, Frost , . ' . find .the Whip-ma- n there, ask him and see' if he would! that appealed to the average the hall, and with fto' small dif' . farmer of. thv day for it was ficulty prevailed on my good When you go ; to the County more or. less, a society event wife to accompany me to the fair this, fall, you might gjve a and, as some one has said, Its house of exhibition. I then disthought tO'Elkanah Watson who attendance list reads more like patched ' messengers to . ' t h e was. its father and whose per--1 the soefal register, headed, by ladies of th? village,' announcsistenCe in promoting his Jdea the President of the United ing that she awaited them . at more than a hundred ytfars ago State? and his lady , and the the Cloth show. They .poured ' .' resulted io this American insti- cabinet members." out, the farmers', wives and tution. becoming so firmly estabfor Jka.nah Wat- daughters, who were secretly . It remained lished that if' survives, even son to originate a fair in which watching, and the hall: was -though its form, is somewhat thd Commbn farmer would be speedily .filled. This was one.-omodified, to this modern day. Interested beca.use' he could feci the most grateful moments of Incidentally;, this institution, that lie had.a real .pact in i't. .my lif$." .. which, had S particular appeal Watson .was a Yankee; bom .ki For. . twelve- years Watson ta rural America, .was founded 1758 within rifleshot of Plymr labored .endlessly toput bis by His nqturaj idea, across city. man. Bit'.he was a outh' Rock; By 1319,. with the man who, tiled 'of city life, re- shrewdness was enlivened by aid of Governor Clinton 6f Ngw tired to the country ' at the age early travel 'and adventure. Ai York, he had induced the. legisof fifty years, to ehjoy '.rural twenty-on- e he was entertained lature pf that state to pass ah felicity .and; failing to 'find It, by "Benjamin Franklin dh PariS, annual appropriation of $10,000 conceived the idea which re- and later at The Hague by John to aid the new societies. From sulted in the county fair as we Adams. He made a tour of that time on the idea spread now know it. Europe and'traveled in. Eastern rapidly and the county fair be The first fairs' of any sort held America, setting down his ex- came an established American in this country . were those periences in one of the most im- Institution. sponsored by Dutch governors portant memoirs of the time. C Wtro Cn!on. j LJ' .if ij k r films . ap-pea- s, . liver-wurs- h' '1 '' i&Wlt ' asjsi! gljty J ', v-f . C "'i I A t "fe U 'At,-ps, . I - fir tit rrwrt-rrv- Coast guard cutter Cayuga to which Ambassador Bowers moved himself and his staff because of th Spanish rebellion. 3 CoL Frank Knox of Chicago accepting the Republican nomination for the vice presidency, 5 President Ropsevelt and Premier Allison 'Dysart of New Brunswick province, enjoying hot dogs on the beach of Campobelle Island. Following his outing there, the President proceeded to Quebec, where he visited Lord Tweedsmuir, governor-genera- l of Canada, and the two on behalf of their respective countries extended the hand of amity and The President then returned to hij home at Hyde Park, N. Y. to plunge into " .. of the work organizing his campaign for I Fordham Grid Star ' . Tnvokjng Aid of St. .Christopher Sighed by Dodgers Pro Football Team - right-interesting- . V, v ,'"':x.;-- . - old-tim- I . - An I k I IfI 'll v r v!pr - ,s , o -- wuy MtF ' ' , ' ' W; 52 r f 1 1 ! : tha-shrew- The blessing and protection of St. Christopher, patron saint of travelers was invoked by autoists in annual picturesque ceremonies at St, Christophers Roman Catholic church in Baldwin, L. I. Rev. Augustine Struth, Rev. Ulick O. S. Buckley, and Rev, M. P. Kelly are shown . . officiating at the ceremony, John Maniac!, captain and back-fiel- d star of Fordham last year, who has been signed by Jack Kelly to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers football team. . - . nt . . Father and Son Are on Same Ship U 'iff': " I . - vs 'v X' IF v it . i tr a Gen, Emilio Mola in Command of . Spanish Fascists .tifirw t&vigsJ j 4 s2- - - v V i : f' 1 I - v 7$A l . will ; makeyou drunk , powered machinery . ... Thanks to human and metal machinery, It if the acme of variety and effi.. ciency. . Despite the swift modernization of this American institutidn in recent years, it is still' possible in many, parts of the country to find the County lair as it was described thirty years ago by Eugene Wopd in his Back Home sketches in the old McClures magazine and illustrated by A. B. Frost (some, of whose sketches are repro-- ' duced in this article). '.There you can Join a group of good judges (of hossflesh as they hang over, the rail beside the racetrack and yell: Go itl Go itl Go it! ye devil, you I' with your throat all clenched that way and your face as red as a . time-honore- d' . turkey-gobbler- s. Or you may find yourself kind of half listening to the man selling Temperance bitters, and denouncing the other bitters because they have in them and will ' ' Not often do father and son serve concurrent terms In the naval service. Here are Joseph W. Dowd, storekeeper first class, and his son Francis, seaman, both of whom are attached to the 17. S. S. Pennsylvania. flagship of the United States fleet. They were ' with their ship on recent maneuvers in. the Pacific. Another Greyhound . Recent cl photograph Emilio Mola, in command northern army of Spanish rebels. for . Uncle Sams Pack . , f - - - Nwrpr With her crew and guests at attention on the after deck, the States' destroyer fleet, is commissioned into service. for the United States navy and took command. U. S. S. Tucker, latest addition to the Unite Lieut Commander George T. Howard accepted the sh |