The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-09-30
Women at Fairs.

The agricultural fair is abroad again,
and the annual reports and premium
lists will soon fill the papers. There is
nothing much drier intrinsically. than a
premium list to non-eXhibitOr, but
nevertheless it has its value in the So
cial history of the time. We have been
struck in particular by the character of
the articles in which women are en-
cOuraged to compete, and we think
those articles are peculiarly significant
of the toll eXacted from the sex and the
culture commended to them. Although
these fairs are called agricultural, we
are glad to see that they are also large
ly domestic and becoming more and
more so. In no case do we value the
competition and rivalry aroused so
much as the direction and attention of
the mind toward improvement.
There are always premiums on butter
and cheese and usually on bread, and
perhaps on pickles and preserves and a
few other staples of housewifely prOduc-
ton. This is very proper, and our on
ly suggestion is that the competition is
not carried far enough and with proper
discrimination. We noticed, the other
day, a premium granted for "the best
100 dipped candleS,n when, in this age
of cheap kerosene and dear tallow,
dipped " candles" must be toilsOme
and expensive luxury. We cannot but
entertain feeling Of Indignation also
at the encouragement of elaborate bed
quilts and other products of the needle
in which the amount of labor involved
seems quite dispropOrtiOnate to the
use and beauty extracted. The Ameri-
can farm-wife is generally a
hard-worked person, and we believe
that there are more reStful diversions
for her than in shaving herself to trities
of this sort. We do not mean to frOwn
on the adornment of the house and the
person, but taste teaches simplicity.
The competition should be turned into
other channels also. The clothing of
the family and particularly of the chill
dren, how much may be learned and
saved from a judiciOus comparison of
notes in this direction? In short every
branch of woman's effort in the exhibit
ing community should be represented,
but with view to the encouragement of
the useful. the tasteful, the labOr-saving,
the healthful, rather than of the merely
curious, the prodigiously toilsOme, or the
seemingly impossible.
A suggestive field of exhibitions is
that of E" female accomplishments" in
which are usually awarded 81 or
- 50" for few Indifferent paintings in
oil or crayonings. This is relic of the
New England female culture, which
flourished most violently about twenty
years ago, and which unfortunately is
not vet extinct. We shall have to ac-
knowledge our gratitude to the chromos
for this, among other things, that they
have aided in the extinction of the pas
sion for painting, 50 EXTRA" which
used to beacoHspicuous feature of girls
education. The chromoS are better
pictures than the girls can paint, can be
had for less than the cost of material,
and don t waste any time. OF course
there was some excuse for it; it was
woman's crude effort to adOrn the bare
old farm houses, and she toiled reli-
giously at it, heaven bless her, uncon-
sciouS that she was daubing. 1t was
no worse than multiplyingwicked tucks
ad intinitum on the sewing machine,
and the great sin is that while they are
painting and tucking they are growing
up empty-headed, and without the
knowledge which would sustain life
when it pressed hard
There are other accomplishments not
so exhibitable but better worth while.
4 familiarity with English literature will
adorn the home more even than chro-
mos and tides, though these have their
place. We have been struck by the good
sense of a Vermont grange, which has
offered and just awarded premiums for
the best fiower-gardens-a wise encour-
a@ement to healthful outdoor art.
The first prize was awarded TO a lady
who had raised 80 varieties of gerani-
ums and some very choice fiowers-this
in one OF the remote hill towns. From
horticulture the step is easy to botany,
and so to a whole class of accomplish
ments which are really enlarging to the
soul, recreative and tonic to the whole
being. OF course it almost goes with
out saying that fairs, as concerns wo-
men, should be in the hands of women.