The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1873-05-07
County Fair.

]
Farmers Club Dear Sir :-You viii
please excuse the liberty I take with
you in addressing this communica
ton to you through the GAZETTE.
know the deep interest you feel and
take in the work of agriculture, and
therefore, 1 feel fully authorized to
adopt this mode of confering with
yeu. Besides, the matter / propose
submitting to your attention is one
of public concern.
/ was anxious to lay before you
my views with regard to your having
a County Fair. If you remember
the idea was suggested on the occa
sion of organizing your Farmers
Club, and, if am not mistaken, ii
was pretty generally endorsed by
most of the members. am certain
that J. G.. Hodges. Esq, did, and
spoke very warmly in favor of the
movement. Be that as it may, 1 am
satisfied that you should have one,
and have it, too, this fall. Keep
that in mind. / am a decided advo-
cate of County fairs throughout East
! Tennessee; and where one county
is not strong enough to hold one,
! then it would be wise for one or two
! contiguous counties to combine and
/ hold it together. Hamblen county
is able to have one of her own.
though if she preferred, portions of
Jefferson and Cooke counties might
join her. Perhaps it would be a
good arrangement. l think. howev-
er, Jefferson county will soon in
augurate fair through the efforts of
Chestnut Grove Farmers Club, which
is now very prosperous and flourish
ing. Cooke county could very we'll
afford to hold fair, but it might be
advisable, for the present, at least,
for her to cooperate with Hambfen,
and to consummate such an arrange
ment, it might be we'll to appoint a
judicious committee to confer with
the leading farmers of Cooke county
on the subject. Important results
might follow such a procedure.
But. all this aside, you should, by
all means, aim to have fair of
your own. Do not become discour-
aged on account of supposed diff
culties in the way. OF course some
will arise, but not formidable enough
to cause inaction. Your grounds
will cost something, and you will
have to improve them some, but if
You will adopt rigorous measures of
economy at the start, and resolve to
improve according to your means,
you will not find it hard to succeed.
You may break yourselves down by
attempting too much-by making
unnecessary improvements, on rath-
er, making them more costly than
they need be in view Of your circum-
stances A plain, cheap building
will answer, while your grounds may
be enclosed with rails the first year.
The idea is to get the start, and to
keep out Of debt. Your subscrip-
tions, with your gate fees, would
place YOU on 4 safe footing. One
difficulty in starting fairs is, that
there is a disposition to have TOO
costly improvements, and the result
is heavy embarrassments. That was
the trouble with the Eastern Divis-
ion Fair. Had it been contented
with less pretentious buildings and
other improvements instead Of hav-
ing to sell out ''under the hammer
to pay it's debts, it would have been
strong, solid and prosperous to-day.
Let the note of warming which it
sends forth be needed in all quarters.
1 was much pleased with the judi
cious management of three county
fairs in East Tennessee-the Wash
ington county, Greene county, and
Monroe county fairs. All of them
were inaugurated upon an economi-
cal basis and conducted with singular
caution and discretion. Their pres
ent workings are now afferding am
pie evidence of the good sense which
has prevailed throughout.
You have strong, wealthy and
influential county, and though young,
is destined, in my judgement, to take
high rank among the counties of our
great section. Add to this that you
have a town Of no common impor-
lance. 1t is bound to become a
commercial center Of considerable
magnitude. When you complete
your railroad connections with the
South, and extend your lines to the
Atlantic coast, you will fully realize
the potency of this assumption
Destiny, also, will open up your way
to the North, and bring your fonr
ishing town into commercial inter
course with Cincinnati and the North
west. can now see Morristown
stretching her corporate limits. her
commanding eminences dotted with
palatial residences, her streets throng-
ed with the evidences of active
trade. her citizens growing rich, her
schools enlarglng. her churches
crowded with worshippers, and her
workshops and manufacturing enter
prises filing the town with the busy
notes of their artizanship.
Under these circumstances what
extraordinary inducements have you
to take hold of the fair question and
push it on to final consummation F.!
BY all means do it. and thus make
your county and your town models
of prosperity. / write to yeu thus
because 1 know you to be an intelli-
gent, man, active, energetic and wide
awake. and that Won have the pros
perity of the country at heart.
Yours, etc, C.. w. CHARLTON.