The Orangeburg democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1879-1881, 1879-10-24
FauIt-Findinq at the Fair.

W. W" S'' i"'S SooiCy it'ii cFcly unS
as exhibitors and competitors for pre-
miums, often, yes very often, heard
tho words from the lips of visitors, "I
have better than tLat Mt home" II
vas sitting in one Of the booths
watching and listening TO the remarks
ftom those who visited and inspected
the different articles on exhibition
until at last patience was lost. A
lady came in and looked at the differ
ent articles, and then expressing her
scorn, said: 'Why l have got bet
ter at home.' ! sprang to my feet
out of patience, and exclaimed:
why didn't you bring them, mad
am? DO you think it pleasant for
these exhibitors to bring their articles
here and spend weeks time in
Watching and taking care of them,
run The risk of their being spoiled,
damaged OF stolen, and then to be
obliged TO listen over aud over again
to the words you have uttered SO
scornfully-'I have got better at
homer
There is class Of people, and ]
am sorry to say they constitute quite
a large number, who make it prac-
ticc to attend the fairs and pass
through the different departments
finding fault with everything. And
the disease is contagious, for Mr.. a.
will say to his neighbor, just look at
those apples, you have great deal
finer specimens in your orchard
Then this neighbor will go and find
Mr.. G. and show him those apples,
and say, why, what did they bring
those apples here for? I wonder if
he expects to get n premium Oh
them; why have great deal larger
apples at home in my orchard Then
MIR. G. remembers that he has q very
fine yoke Of oxen at home. SO he
goes and looks at the oxen and tells
his neighbor what poor looking oxen
they are, and winds up by telling
what nice yoke he has at home.
So claim that this fault-finding dis
ease at our fairs is very contagious.
1t is not only contagious, but it is un-
pleasant and discouraging to those
who do exhibit; and it is injurious,
too, for these very same people will
go home hugging the delusion that
their products at home are little
better than those at the fair. Nine
times out Of ten they are deceiving
themselves, for we cannot decide un-
til we bring our products together
and compare them with those Of our
neighbors. This is the only true test.
l inquired of good many of my
friends what they were exhibiting,
and they answered nothing Then
in low tone, and confidentially, they
would tell INC their grievance, how
one year and another they brought
such and such things to the fair and
failed to get premium. The judges
were all wrong, they gave premiums
to the men who had the most Inferior
articles, and since that time my
friends had ceased to exhibit at the
fairs.
10 one farmer who talked in this
way / said: Il want you 10 look at
this exhibition Of potatoes, is it not
very fine? Here are, say, fifteen en-
tries, now only two of these can get
Il premium. Would it be right for
the other thirteen exhibitors TO &c,
and make the foolish resolu-
tion never 10 bring anything to the
fair again:'
Here, in every department., you
will find great many different arti-
cles, for which no premiums nre offer
ed. They are simply brought here
10 fill up the departments, and to
mako the fair pleasant and attractive
TO visitors.
Another well-to.do farmer said it
was nothing but sring, q regular
machine and unless a man was in
the ring he need not look for any
premiums.
tried to convince this man that
he was prejudiced against the society.
told him that I had just received
Lhe first premium in a class where
Lbe number Of the entries and the
excellence Of the exhibits had never
been euualed in the past history of