The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1884-08-30

VIC vi tllS DOSS ID HOW otsttC llC.iS-
urer of Arkansas, and another, | be-
lievc, is one of the Supreme Judges of
Louisiana.
COUNTRY FAIRS.
The Philadelphia Sunday Press, of
the 18th inst, among other things wise
and otherwise, discourses as follows
upon country fairs. We give it without
comment, leaving that to the reader.
We don't believe, however, that the
writer has beer in this part of the
country lately:
They supply the field for ambition
and for amusement to 4 large majority
of people, for it is a fact which we are
apt to forget that the American nation
is not handful of politicians or jour
nalsts, nor yet the bakers dozen of
seNtillionaires, nor even the women and
young men in the large cities who lead
the fashion, but the innumerable small
farmers, the mechanics and the gentry
of small inland towns. Among these
millions who never come before the
public in any other way, the yearly fair
is the one chance of fame. For months
they prepare for it. Anxious house
wives are kneading bread or moulding
butter; pretty, white armed girls are
making amber jellies the old grand
mother stitches at the marvellous quilt
on which her name and age are to be
pinned while, outside, the whole farm
is alive with energy and competition,
from the huge turnips to the Morgan
ponies which are to trot for the first
prize.
The whole family will be at the fair,
the ladies in the carriage, in their we'll
saved silk dresses and flowery bonnets.
and the men in their farm clothes,
burned yellow in the sun, down among
the bceves and pigs. What an out
pouring of gossip there is during the
five days. Kindly gossip, emphasized
with hearty hand shakes and bursts Of
inCcssant lau5 hter-incessant astonish-
ment, too-to find the .'old folks look
ing SO rugged" or the girls grown into
such downright beauties" or, more than
all, at the babies. The babies carry
off the applause from even the prize
pig or the statue of Hebe moulded in
butter. The young mothers invariably
appear in their jaunticst gowns, bear
ing the latest marvel of creation in flow
ing embroidered garments, and the
eager crowd gathers to see "Sally's
boy" with keen delight, as though
Sally were Eve and this the first-born
heir of the world. Down by the ring,
too, the round-cheeked girls gather,
gay with unreasonable vclvets and
Haunting plumes, to watch the young
farmers run their ponies and flllies for
the prize. Johns tanned cheek grows
hot under his whiskers as he sees Jenny
clasp her hands while he flies past, and
his heart throbs high when he gallops
| up under her eyes to receive the blue
ribbon of victory. So Decius rode at
the Olympian games, and his blood
throbbed and his face burned while
Livia looked down from among the
noble ladies of Rome Pursuits and
arenas differ, but the man and the wo-
man continue the same.
We of the city smile with amused
compassion as We read of these strifcs
and ambitions. But are ours different,
in the grain? This man is proud of
his large and fat steers or bloodcd
sheep, this of his bundle of bonds, or
pile of brick and mortar on Walnut
street or Murray Hill; this woman tri-
umphs in her silk quilt, that in her
Gobelins tapestry; here, as there, the
old man and woman strive feebly to
keep their place among their fellows
and make pathetic failures ; here, as
there, there are love and jealousy and
unreasonable joy of youth, and the
equally unreasonable gloom OF age !;
and here, as there, the baby is king,
Life, like a Chinese song, has but three
or four notes, whether it is sung in a
palace or barnyard.
But the broad, sweet, healthy life of
America, which expresses itself in these
yearly assemblies, is not appreciated,
even by Americans. Foreigners know
our people principally by the more
fashionable inhabitants of the great
cities, and compare them with the same
class abroad. When America is con-
trasted with England, to show the re-
suits of national Influences, it is Picca-
dilly and Murray Hill or Bacon street
that are set side by side, not the novels
of Yorkshire and the farm homesteads
of Pennsylvania.
There is, too, in our country life, dis
tart from the great centres, and, nee
| accorilv ca far ont of the ,-rlr,riyinn