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Show WHY is a fair? We can't all answer that from a single view-point. It means something different to practically every one of us. There is no doubt, though, that the feeling of gaycty is universal even to those who must work like Turks to make the occasion a success. The man or woman with a grouch has no business at our fair this year. You must go prepared to enjoy the blare of band music and the million noises that aren't music. You must be keyed up to revel in the sight of thousands of chattering holiday makers, of bright decorations, of pretty girls, of sideshows and ballyhoos, of popcorn in red tissue and sweating glasses of orangeade, of sizzling sandwiches and ice cream cones, of livestock and household and implement im-plement displays, of pattering trotters and pacers and running horses, of buzzing grandstand, of golden sunshine and yellow dust-c'.ouds. dust-c'.ouds. Yes, and tired feet and wimpering babies with heat rash and smart alecks here and there for we haven't reached the land of perfection yet. ' Now let's peel the surface off the situation and sec what's inside. in-side. This year's fair is going to be a pretty fine advertisement for our whole community the surrounding farm lands and farmers, the town and its enterprising, public-spirited merchants. And really that is the rock-bottom purpose of holding a fair advertising. advertis-ing. It is a community aim and eftort to show its people how much they amount to, and to show outsiders that this is a mighty good place to live in prosperous, progressive country and neighborly people. A man looking for a place in which to settle down couldn t reasonably ask for anything more or better. COURTESY TO VISITORS. The folks of this community understand one another. Our farmers know the town business men with whom they deal. Our business men are pretty well acquainted with most of the people who come into their stores. Now we want to show all of us our spirit of kindliness and intelligence to the strangers within our gates during the festival season. It is the best sort of advertising we can put forth. It is inestimably worth while to us if visitors go home and say: "I always like to attend their fair. The whole town seems to wig- I gle its latchstring at me. And they're the 'whitest' people! go out of their way to be polite ready to give information or do a little favor I'm certainly going back oftener and get acquainted ' with some of them." In order further to answer the question which introduces this article, we take down our handy reference book a large red vol ume and turn to page 426. Therein we learn that the word "fair" is derived from the Old French "feire," the modern French "foire," the Italian "fiera," the Latin "feria," meaning holiday, and that this is connected with the Latin "festus," meaning feast. Inyhe United States there are no fairs of the kind that have been common in the Old World. The term here is applied to a variety of exhibitions, such as church, charity and agricultural exhibitions, ex-hibitions, and local, state, national, or international expositions or fairs. The fact is, the term is applied to all exhibitions where people are expected to bestow patronage or make purchases. BITS OF FAIR HISTORY. The most common kinds are agricultural fairs county and state, as you know. This kind got their start as a regular thing in America in 1819. At Albany. N. Y there was a prosperous merchant, mer-chant, Elkanah Watson, who believed that such an enterprise would encourage farming and manufacturing and help business. He used his influence with the state legislature, and that body appropriated ap-propriated $10,000 yearly, for six years, for premiums on agricultural agricul-tural products and family manufactures. Since then annual county, district and state fairs arc quite generally gen-erally held. The district and county fairs especially are held, not mainly for the sale of goods, but for advertising purposes as we have said. City street fairs, where amusements of various kinds are furnished, are intended to promote the welfare of the city by attracting traders to them. The same goes for world's fairs which are held in this country. While commodities arc sold, the primary object is to advertise. In the Old World the fair or bazaar is an ancient institution. If we could find files of the daily papers and country weeklies when old Mr. Pharaoh was kinging for a living, when Professor Plato was discoursing on pure democracy and the what and how of a republic, when the thousand and one events of the Arabian Nights Entertainments were being worked out, we should probably find articles like this one an editor's write-up of the annual fair in his town. BARTER AND EXCHANGE PLACES. People throughout Europe look upon the fair as a nieetitlg held for the purpose of exhibiting and selling goods. Originally fairs were held at stated times and places, some for the sale of a particular class of merchandise, others for the sale of goods of a general character. People resorted to them to exchange goods and collect their stores to last for several months. Princes and the magistrates of cities encouraged them and some of the privileges granted long ago still remain in force. Such fairs as these flourish today on the outskirts of civilization, civiliza-tion, as in Siberia, Manchuria, Asiatic Turkey, where people live isolated for long stretches of time and do their buying no oftener than once or twice a year. They originated in the church festivals, which were found to afford the best opportunity for commercial transactions, the concourse of people being such as took place upon no other occasions. OTHER EUROPEAN PRACTICES In some parts of Europe persons of all ranks still wait for the great annual fairs to make their principal purchases of articles of every description. This applies especially to parts of Europe where trading facilities including transportation, advertising announcements an-nouncements and the like are not as highly developed as in all parts of America today. One of the most noted old fairs was that of Saint Bartholomew in London, founded at the beginning of the twelfth century. The greatest fairs in Germany arc those of Frankfort, Leipzig and Brunswick. Other noted and historic fairs held yearly or semiannually semi-annually in Europe are those of Zurzach, Switzerland; Budapest, Hungary; Sinigaglia, Italy; Lyons, France (before the war), and Nizhni-Novgorod, Russia. The last named yearly attracts buyers from all parts of Europe and central and northern Asia, and merchandise mer-chandise worth $100,000,000 changes hands. At Mecca, in Arabia, the fair is held in connection with the annual pilgrimage of Mohammedans, Mo-hammedans, and is one of the most picturesque in the world. We hope this array of solemn facts all guaranteed to be reasonably reas-onably true will not put a damper on your frivolous mood and spoil our own fair for you. Doll up in your gayest drapery and set your heart on having a regular picnic this year just like the year you were sixteen and had a sweetheart ; when you had tintype pictures pic-tures made together and exchanged them. Remember the Cache County Fair will be held four days this year, September 27 28 29 and 30. |
