The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1880-07-08
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

s.-1 NIfrA pD9h elcNf - ~ WI 49, -
pie attend the State Fair, is again up for
the consideration Of the undersigned and
all else who read these pages.
The fair began this week on Thursday,
July lst, the object Of holding the same
at this season OF the year being, as every
Oregonian knows, to avoid the rainy
season, or, rather, the unreasonable sea-
son or reign of rains which has held
carnival at the three preceding fairs, to
the discomfort Of the pedestrian, the
disgust OF the camper, and the eonster-
nation Of the Agricultural Association.
But "theTe is tide in the affairs OF
men, which, taken at its flood, leads on
10 fortune; - so it seems there is such
tide in the affairs OF corporations. The
Oregon State Fair for 1850 has been q
success, aud the managers thereof are
happy.
On the afternoon Of the first day,
when we reached the grounds, we found
campers already settled in large num-
bers-iucluding their dogs and horses
in the vicinity Of the very primitive
country seat" To which the different
members Of our family annually repair
20 eBjoy-or endure the great week Of
holidays. y number OF the supported
and protected sex were keeping restau-
rants on these grounds, where farmers'
fare Of the oldest fashion could be pro-
cured for quarter Of a dollar per capita;
aud, since the experiment OF patroniz-
ing their table, We are more than ever
in favor OF cooking schools. Then, too,
it may he all right for those who are
used to il, but We raefully confess that
the too near proximity 10 ones bed
chamber Of half hundred horses be-
comes decidedly offensive to unframed
o!iactories before a week is out.
At the gates the ticket-takers we're
constantly Oh duty; aud, weary as they
grew, we confess to a greater feeling Of
sympathy for tired mothers than for
them mothers with babes in arms and
toddling two-year-olds crying after them
while they searched seldom used pock-
cts for checks, without which they could
not hope TO enter the charmed portals Of
gaiety and hustle within the exhibition
grounds-for women at the fair were
taxed this year without representation
aud governed without consent, just as
they ever have been elsewhere in previ-
Gus years. Heretofore they have been
exempt at the fair from the penalty that
rightfully attaches to individual SOW
ereignty.) But one great good will come
Of it, whereat We rej0ice. They'll learn
the need Of pockets, and this knowledge
will increase their desire for funds to
stock them.
Inside the grounds, the new Pavilion
filed up slowly, though its great di-
meUsions, as compared to the old slruct-
ure, made the meagerDess Of the display
apparent rather than real. As the
hours Of Friday and Saturday wore on,
the exhibit increased, until at four p. ".
Of the latter day it was equal to that Of
any former year. In pictures there was
the customary display Of oil and water
paintings, crayOns, penmanship, moss
work, shell-woTh, wax and worsted-
work, etc, etc, accompanied by a very
meagre exhibit Of photography. Then,
there were guns, stoves, tin-ware, patent
medicines, patchwork, alongside Of
tatting, darned netting, silk embroidery,
and a thousand other trifles that impe-
eunious women kill themselves over,
causing the beholler to sigh for the
wasted ingenuity that is so confined to
futile no;hings in its enieavor for ex-
preston that men falsely imagine that
the women OF the land are content to do
nothing else. There were quilts Of
many thousand pieces and tides with a
million stitches. There were day gowns
with a thousand tUcks and night gowns
with five hundred tucks and nearly as
many ruflles. There were millinery
displays and floral exhibits and pastry
cookery Of the modern order in great
profusion, hard by the old loom-made
carpets, coverlets, blankets and fiannels
Of our grandmothers' days, alarmingly
suggestive Of the fear lest many MEM
bers Of yet other generations Of the sons
and daughters Of women are to be robbed
OF vitality through the overwork Of
their mothers before they are born.
The fruits, including those canned, dried
aud green, made a very attractive ex-
hibit. Then there were abalone jewels,
automatic ventilators, patent spring
beds, soda fountains, marble works,
sewing machines, ETC., etc, all Of which
attracted the usual attention.
Outside OF the Pavilion were the usual
shows aud cateh-penny devices that
usually congregate in such quarters
aud there were restaurants, tobacco
stands and lunch houses in great profu-
sion. The Aurora Restaurant was kept
this year by Messrs. Matthews and Eel
lows, and was certainly a financial sue
cess, if one can judge by the throug Of
patronage that daily favored it. Mrs.
Fellows superinlended the culinary de-
partment, and gave the public splendid
evidence OF the difference in capability
between a woman in an squal station
with meu in such business aud wom-
en- who are only servants without wages,
as were the poor listless German women
who used to drudge in the old Aurora
while the men took all the money.
Such men as Matthews and Fellows
ought to have high seats in heaven, and