Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-09-16
Tzs ABANDONMENT OF PasmIuas.

TIE ABANDONMENT CT PREMiuAs.
The proposition recently INSIDE BY the /
RECORD UEIoN to abandon the plan OF
offering cash premiums, and using the
money heretofore offered to partially or
wholly reimburse those who make the |
exhibition. has met with almost universal
favor by those experienced in the organ !
iz4tion and management of fairs. Among
these who have already expressed decided
concurrence in the suggestion we are
pleased to name General John Bidwell, of
Chico, and George W. Hancock, of this
city. Both these gentlemen have been
Jealous friends of annual exhibitions,
and both speak from the standpoint of
mature experience. General Bidwell was
pioneer President of the State Agri-
cultural Society, and well knows the ardn-
Gus labor required to make an exhibition
of that character successful. The sugges-
ton is no longer one of debatabie propriety,
because its value has already been tested
by an experiment which has placed its ad-
visibility beyond doubt or question.
Whoever attends the State Fair this year
who was an attendant upon the annual
exhibitions Of past years viii have an
opportunity of comparing the result
Of the old and new plans, as illustrated BY
the Art Department. The art exhibition
of this year is the third of a series given
under the new idea. All have been sue
cessful, both as to the quantity and quality
of the art work displayed, as well as with
respect to the harmony and unity Of the
exhibition as a whole. This year, as in
the preceding years, the State Board has
placed the amount usually offered in
premiums in the hands OF the art exhibitor,
with instruction to make the best possible
display for the money. The sum this
year disposed of in this manner is
only 5000, but there will be more extern
sive display of better art.work than could
be induced with five times that amount of
money offered in premiums for merely the
best specimens. An objection has been
raised that an exhibition given on the plan
of dividing equitably the money among
the exhibitors would attract only medi-
ocrity. This would be good theoretical
objection if its fallacy had not already been
established by the experiments already
made. The last three art exhibiiiona have
embraced higher order of good art-work
than was ever placed on exhibition under
the cd plan.
The close of the coming fair will offer
many opportunities for illustration by the
citation of examples wherein few exhib.
itors obtain all the money offered. Take,
for example. the cash premiums offered for
the exhibition of thoroughbred cattle. The
sum offered in Glass I. aggregates 81, $50.
This sum, if equitably distributed to the
cattle-praeders of the State, would produce
a splendid exhibition. In the first place
transportation to and from the fair is free
by rail in the second place the Board of
Agriculture provides feed for the stock
during the fair. 1t need not, therefore,
cost large sum to exhibit considerable
herd. Let it be understood that each ox-
hibitor would receive a pro rata of the
cash offered to partially reimburse him,
and the State Fair would become re-
oII,, n ra,,rarar4ol;ya ,,-h;h;tsor Of
the thoroughbred herds OF the State-a
thing it never has been and never viii be
under the old plan. We shall note the
distribution of this money, and we have
no hesitation in affirming in advance that
the showing to be made will prove inan-
| cially remuneration to one or two exhibi.
tors leaving the many to stand loss by
reason of their contribution to the exhibi.
ton. We confess to our utter inability to
comprehend the sublime genius which pre-
sides over the formation of premium list
In that before us Dist for State exhibition
we find the premium offered for the best
cheese to be $40, and in the same list we
find the best "top buggy" is to receive
only SO. In the first case the premium
would buy outright the article exhibited,
in the second instance the premium offered
is but about one-fortieth of the value OF the
article. The best specimen of printed book
is to receive silver medal, worth perhaps
so cents, while the best ten pounds OF but
ter is to receive SIS, or about three times
the value of. the article exhibited. From
all these absurdities it is a relief to turn
to the seventh department., 81 Fine Arts, :"
| and read "The sum of 5000 net viii be
distributed among exhibitors in this de.
"partment, in equitable proportions, con-
"sidering the merit of the pieces and the
"relative value of the exhibition" If the
same language had been used at the head
of other departments, varied only by the
amount of money mentioned, the premium
list would have been short, sensible and
comprehensive, and the exhibition tenfold
mora meritorious, representative and in
structive.