Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-07-01
THE FAIR.

THE FAIR.
The Sanitary iair now going on in this
City is really g wonder in its way. 1t is as
perfect an illustration as could be desired
of what patriotism combined with energy
can do in an incredibly short time. In
very ancient times it was only necessary
for some genius like Aladdin to rub his
glass and get up a scenic display of any re-
quired proportions, but in more modern
times such operations have been attended
with much more effort, delay and expense.
But it would really seem as if the days of
Auadin, after q fashion, had come again.
No one glass has been especially rubbed,
but great many other things have been,
including the purses of almost every patri-
otto man aud woman in this city. The
result is the same as in the case of the
genius of the Lamp. A great display has
been gotten up-one of the most wonder
full ever known to this community, and one
which rivals recent exhibitions of the same
character in the larger cities. Indeed in
some points we might we'll challenge q
comparison. Taking the size of our city,
the shortness of preparation, and the fact
also that this is busy time in the COM
try, and it is matter to be wondered at
that such variety of not only substantial
but really brilliant display has been ac-
complished.
The Fair ia scarcely at its zenith yet.
Things are just under good headWay and
in regular working order. The ladies
have just got the run Of their manifold du-
ties and reduced everything to such sys-
tenn as they only know how, and now they
can talk and electioneer and exhibit and sue-
tioneer in style that is charming to the
most stoIid spectator. All the little side
shows are at work like SO many clocks,
from the wonderful skating pond down to
the still more wonderful family group, the
latter to be seen at ten cents a sight and
only once in the course of a lifetime. The
gipsies are feature of themselves, not to
speak of the mystic arts of divination, in
csntstiou, sugurstion and fascination
which they practice with their bewitched
cards. So also are the Indians, and 80 also
arc WIN
are met in the different hooks and cor
uers "doing" admiring crowds at very
triaing expense. Then, too, the wayside
places, such as the Swiss Cottage, where
the tired rambler, satiatsd with the many
gorgeous visions of rare and radiant fan
cies that have bethrouged him, "turns at
last to find his welcome in an inn," where
buttermilk aud sweet milk are eagerly
served up to him by simple hearted natives
invery rustic garbs for the smallest possible
consideration per glass.
Ours is no "Vanitary Fair" like that
wherein poor Christian and Hopeful SO I'M
happily strayed, and where they Werer we
always thought, so unciVilly treated
Neither is 1t a Donnybrook affair, where it
Is the rule "wheu you see head to hit it.
Quite the contrary from both these. It is
sort of fairy land where people wander
around in sense Of perpetual enohant-
ment-where the hard realities of our prac.
teal lives may be happily forgotten for
awhile in the enticements of imag-
ination, such as arise from the
flashes of a thousand cleaning jets Of
burning gas-the sweet SMELL of de-
licious aOwers-the grateful cooling and
soothing noise of playing fountains-ths
sight of moss grown rocks and cliffs-the
odor of delicate fruits, as if in orange
groves, and the strains of music that come
falling and rising aud threading their way
through the hum of great mass of human
voices.
These are the things and the times We
are now having. Space would fail US tc
tell our county cousins" of all the other
thiugs-the vast array of practical things
the produce of our factories and
stores and the niceues of our pri.
waite parlors. including the gallery OF
enc arts aud the old Curiosity Shop,
modelled and styled after that celebrated
one gotten up by Dickens, the kitchens and
Cookeries, the bazSsrs where silver sheen,
gold mountings. rich laces and embroider-
les, pendant folds of yari-colored and costly
goods, are to be seen in most attractive ar
raugement. The whole thing is grand
spectacular exhibitiou-the most imposing
of the kind we shall see for long time
again in our midst. s~.tAr cess
s1eRErARr CHAsR's resignation is the
feature of the news this morning. The
announcements will take the country by
surprise. What effect it will have on the