Show to f 00 THE FHE 0 Odd Odd- l D TIM lil E C O. O U N T Y F FAIR A I R D Dy ELMO SCOTT WATSON I IT T WONT WON'T be long now until some of us will willbe willbe I be enjoying 0 one n e oft of t tho those h o s e annual events which are as ae distinctively dis dla American as playing baseball or celebrating the Fourth of July or observing Thanksgiving day No we dont don't mean going to the circus or attending a Sunday school picnic pic plc nic nie or getting ready for the first day of school or even taking takIng tak tak- ing part In hi the whoop whoop and and hurrah hur- hur rah of the Presidential campaign cam cam- which comes to its climax on November 3 3 We mean going to the county fair faint I IFor For the last week in August and the first two or three weeks in September Is Is' county fair time tune and somewhere in a county seat town or some other trading center of rural America this great American festival is In hi full awing swing There are not so many of them as there once were Back Dack DackIn In 1927 1027 it was estimated that nearly district state and county fairs were held on the continent of North America That probably represented t the h e peak in numbers Then along came the depression and the county fair along with other American institutions felt the pinch of hard times limes Public spIrited business men could no longer continue to go In hi the red to support them So in hi hundreds of communities school schoolchildren schoolchildren children to whom county fair time was one of the high spots of the year looked in the home hometown hometown hometown town newspaper for the announcement announcement an an- of the dates of the nearest county fair and they looked in vain What they found instead was an on announcement that the annual county fair at Jonesville will not be held this year fear and that temporary suspension suspension suspension sus sus- pension became a permanent one Along with the reduction Inthe in inthe inthe the number of these annual events has come a change In their character Like so 80 many other American institutions it has gone modern modem in more ways than one Gasoline combustion com corn bustion engines have havo so radically changed the picture of the county fair that old timers old timers have difficulty dIm culty In hi reconciling themselves to the great agricultural shows of the motor age says a recent observer Instead of a fair ground at every hamlet our county fairs have become centralized centralized cen cen- 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 carriages car are serried ranks of motor motor mo mo- tor cars The radius of attraction or drawing territory is is' no longer limited to ten or mile fifteen mile drives A hundred miles in all directions is now covered by a county fairs fair's advertising Patrons Pa come by automobile or airplane air plane in thousands and stay for forthe forthe forthe the night show before they start home again The modern modem fair is made by electricity and gas gas- 1 I II cue AI hawl Al pawl will make you drunk I powered machinery Thanks to human and metal machinery it Is the acme of variety and em effi clency Despite the swift m modernization tion of this time-honored time American Ameri Amerl can institution in recent years it is still possible in n many parts of the country to find the county fair as it t was described thirty years ago by Eugene Wood in his Back Dack Home sketches in the old McClures McClure's magazine and illustrated by A. A D. D Frost some of whose sketches are reproduced in this article There youcan youcan you youcan can Join a group of good judges of as they hang over the rail beside the racetrack anc and yell fell Go it t Go Ill t Go it IU ye devil you youl with your four throat all aU clenched that way and your fOur face as red as a turkey gob bIers Or you may find yourself kind of t t half listening to the theman theman man sellin selling bitters and denouncing the other hitters bitten because they have cue al cue hawl hawl e hawlin In la them and al cue hawl ue-hawl ue will r s iw r ra r a I a N t ta ELKANA WATSON FATHER O OF TIIE THE COU COUNTY Y FAIR I make you drunk And then as you fOU stroll along you find yourself yourself your your- self In hi the hog barns where that litter of sucking pigs seems very interesting Come lets let's have a look And as you lean on the top-rail top of the pen and look down at them you youcan youcan youcan can picture in n your mind without with out out much effort ham and side- side meat and bacon and spare ribs and smoked shoulder and headcheese head cheese and liverwurst liver and a n d sausages and glistening white lard for crullers and piecrust- piecrust Yes I think pigs are right in in- After youve you've done such things at this time old-time county fair if youre you're lucky enough to find s sIr M Ir try 1 Go It Ye Tit devil you I one onel there are two things you simply have to do door or you arent aren't right sure youve you've been So says Eugene Wood who continues con con- One is to drink a glass of ot sweet cider just from the press which I may say in pass pass- ing ng is s an rated over luxury CIder has to be just the least bit frisky to be good I dont don't mean hard but frisky You know and the other is to buy buya a whip if it is only the little toy fifteen cent ent kind On the next soap box to the old fellow that comes every year to sell pictorial Bibles and red plush plush- covered albums the old tell fellow ow in is ip the green green slippers that talks as if he were just ready to drop off to sleep sleep sleep-on on the next soap box to him is the man that sells the whips You can for fora a dollar two for a dollar or four tour for tor a dollar but not one for tor fifty cents or one for a quarter Dont Don't ask me why for forI I dont don't know I am just stating the tho facts It cant can't be done for Ive I've seen it tried and if you keep up the tho attempt too long the whipman will lose all an patience with your unreasonableness and tell you to go long about your business if youve you've got any and not bother the life Ute and soul out of him because he wont won't sell anything but a dollars dollar's worth of oj whips and that's all there is about it itt IU IUSo So the Back Dack says Home nome writer but in these modern days of ot the automobile with fewer whips being used than in the days when the horse was king maybe hed he'd be glad to sell you youa a whip for a quarter I If you find the whip man there ask him and see if if he wo would ld i e e When you go to the county fair far this fall fan you might give a thought to Elkanah Watson who was wasPs its father and whose persistence persistence per per- persistence in promoting his idea more than a hundred years ago resulted in this American h sU becoming so firmly established fished that it survives even cven though its form is somewhat modified to this modem modern day Incidentally t this his h I s institution which had a particular appeal to rural America was founded by a city man But he was aman aman a aman man who tired of city life retired re rev tired to the country at the age of fifty years to enjoy rural rura felicity and and failing falling to find it It conceived the idea which resulted resulted re re- suited in the county fair as 81 we we now know knON it The first fairs of any sort held in this country were those sponsored by Dutch governors when New York was New Amsterdam Amsterdam Am Am- but they were modeled on the European plan In 1641 Governor Kieft established two fairs airs in New Amsterdam J one on October 15 for lor cattle generally general general- ly y and the other on November 1 for hogs In 1648 there was also ilso held in the Dutch colony late ate in August and at the beginning beginning beginning be be- ginning of September a Dutch kermess which was strictly commercial where the burghers met net to exchange commodities The custom was continued even under English rule and as late as 1676 had the sanction of Gov Edmund Andres But the county fair lair of today Is s 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 do agriculture which began bean be be- gan an to manifest itself early Inthe in the he history of the new nation The leaders of that time such men as Washington and Jeffer Jetter son were tarm farmers rs and farming was vas the most important business In n the country Between 1785 and 1702 1792 agricultural societies sprang into being in Pennsyl Pennsylvania vania vanla Maine New York Massachusetts Massachusetts Massachusetts Mas Mas- and South Carolina as evidence of the organized interest interest in- in terest erest in agriculture These socIeties societies societies so so- began offering otTering prizes for superior farm tarm products but they held no fairs or exhibitions and really did but little to stimulate better farm production The principal interest seems to o have been in live stock and in 1804 and 1805 three live stock exhibitions w were re held in Wash ington At the second one members mem mem- bers aers of congress began to take an interest and subscribed half halt haltof of the 10 fund which was raised and distributed as prizes for Tor the best lamb sheep steer much cow cow jack oxen and horses actually sold In 1809 the Columbian Agricultural society society so so- society was organized in Washington Washing Washing- ton and held an exhibition in the city of Georgetown nearby But Dut this was not the sort of thing n m that appealed to the average farmer of the day for tor it was more or less a society event and as some one has said Its attendance list reads more like the social register headed by the President of the United States and his lady and the cabinet members It remained for Elkanah Watson Watson Wat Wat- son to originate a fair in which the common farmer would be interested because he could feel that he had a real part in it Watson was a Yankee born in 1758 within of Plymouth Plymouth Plym Rock flock Ills His n natural B t u r a I shrewdness was enlivened by early travel and adventure At twenty-one twenty he was entertained by Benjamin Franklin in Paris and later at The Hague by John Adams He lIe made a tour of Europe and traveled in Eastern America setting down his experiences experiences ex in one of the most important im Ian memoirs of the time Then after several years in Alban Alban he suddenly put adventure adventure adventure ture behind him by moving toa toa to toa a farm near Pittsfield But the country life experiment expert ment came too late his habits as he said being settled for lor city life We To fill up the void in an active mind led me first to conceive conceive con con- the idea of an agricultural society on a plan different from all others In the fall of 1807 I procured the first pair of merino sheep that had appeared in Berkshire if f not in the state I was induced induced in in- In to notify an on exhibition of these two sheep under the great elm in the public square in Pittsfield Pittsfield Pitts Pitts- field on a certain day Man Many y farmers and even females were e excited by curiosity to attend atten d this first novel and humble ex ex- ex l It was by this luck lucky y accident I reasoned thus If 1 f two animals are capable of exciting exciting ex citing so much attention what wha t would be the effect of a larger large r scale with larger animals But Elkanah Watson so soon o discovered discovered dis dis- discovered covered that it wasn't as easy as all that The farmers would come to see see but feared to exhibit ex hibit limit lest they be laughed at Finally after three years h he I got 26 of them to sign an a appeal appeal ap peal for tor a cattle show Thice The Th ice lee according to the Pittsfield d Sun next day was nov no broke brok e all squeamish fee feelings 1 In g s buried burled The show came off An agricultural society w was a s formed with Watson as president press dent and next year he began PIgs Figs are right interesting I the fair with a par parade de and closed dosed with a pastoral ball There were prizes to the amount of 70 By the next year the premiums premiums pre pre- premiums had risen to and Watson having made the fair popular now proceeded to seal it with respectability He had conceived the shrewd notion ol of enlisting the clergy and women But neither clergymen nor women were obtained without a struggle In 1811 no clergyman could be found to officiate for fear tear of being ridiculous The women were still more coy Though they sent in exhibits of weaving and sewing no woman appeared to receive the seven valuable premiums of silver silver- plate to be awarded This was the crisis wrote Watson and I was extremely agitated lest Iest the experiment should fail fall Native timidity anc and the fear tear of ridicule restrained them the women To breakdown breakdown break down this feeling we resorted to a maneuver which in an hour accomplished our wishes I left I n m 1 k d i 1 I k r rt Z tit k F t u ti Aa a f A COUNTY COUNT FAIR IN TilE THE GOOD OLD DAYS From a 11 Drawing by A. A D B. B Frost the hall and with no small dif Acuity prevailed on my goo good d wife wile to accompany me to lh the e house of exhibition I then dispatched dis dis- patched messengers to the ladies of the village ing lag that she awaited them at the Cloth show They poured out out the farmers' farmers wives and daughters who were secretly watching and the hall was speedily filled This was one of the most grateful moments of my life lile For Tor twelve years Watson labored endlessly to put his idea across By 1819 with the aid of Governor Clinton of New York he had induced the legislature legislature legis legis- lature of that state to pass an annual appropriation of to aid the new societies From that time on the idea spread rapidly and the county fair b became be be- e came an established American institution O 0 WIra N w p p r Union a |