The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1886-09-28
The Missouri State Fair.

IL NlAN HWY
than one respect. 1t is the third
largest city in the state. 1t aspires to
become the seat of government, and
this week is holding "The State Fair. "
Next TO St. Louis and Kansas City,
the one at the eastern and the other
at the western extremity of the state,
Sedalia is by all odds the most impor-
tant railroad center. 1t is 1S9 miles
west of St. Louis and 81 miles east
of Kansas City by the Missouri Pa
cific Railway. 1t is 142 miles from
Hannibal and III miles ftOm Fort
Scott on the NJ, h. d I. branch of
the Missouri Pacific system, and is
therefore as nearly in the center of
The state as, for all practical purposes,
it needs be.
1t is the county seat OF Pettis
county has beautiful farming coun-
try around it in every direction, Is
full of enterprising farmers and go
ahead citizens, does a large retail
and good wholesale business and Is
generally a live, progressive and
wealthy city. Ithas two, if not more.
daily papers, and quite number Of
weeklies, one by the way devoted al
together to literary and social mat
tiers. Some four or five banks, a street
railroad, a beautiful park and fair
grounds, and possesses generally the
makeup and Surroundings OF grow
ing and populOus city.
With all this, as we have said, 1t is
DOW holding the State Fair, a fair that
is always attractive because at it, are
found the focks, the herds and the
stables of the breeders of thorough
bred stock with which the county and
the neighboring counties abound, and
because, therefore, thousands of the
very best farmers OF the state with
their wives and their families 60 there
to see, sell and to buy.
Why. then, should We not have at
this point a State Fair? A fair sup
ported by the state, for the state and
its producers Not cosmopolitan
affair, but a state. A fair where the
best the state can produce and own
may be exhibited? Where the best
herds of cattle may, with state pride,
be pitted one against the other; where
the best fiocks may compete for the
same premiums where the best swine
owned in the state and bred here may
offer challenging grunts and win the
prettiest ribbons: A big horse fair,
where the hOrsemen from all Missouri
shall be proud to show their Clydes-
dales, Percherons, Cleveland Bays
and their very best trOtters; have
plenty of room TO do it in, and a good
homemade state premiums to COM
pete for. Why not? Why not hold
an agricultural fair, for agricultural
purposes and no other!
A great fair can not, 1t Is true,
make a state great; but 1t Is also and
equally true, that a great agricultural
and stock growing state like Missouri
may hold a great fair and make itself
all the greater by the holding. Every
farmer in the United States is COM
parativelv a competitor with the
farmers of the world. His success in
the larger field depends very much
upon that he has attained in the more
limited sphere of his own state, where
the combative energy, the intelligent
enterprise, the spirit of emulation
and of acquisition is inspired. That is
the arena in which the athelete is
trained, where vigor is secured by
combat, and where by repeated con-
tests he rises to the full stature Of
manhood prepared to enter the lists
against the world.
We do not say the days Of county
fairs are ended, but it is evident that,
with our improved methods of travel
ing, one can carry his stock and HIM
self a hundred miles quicker and
cheaper than he formerly could ten.
That being the case, We see no reason
to doubt the expediency of suggesting
a State Fair for Missouri for sgricult-
ural purposes supported in a measure
by the state. Nor do we see any rea-
son why the young, growing central
city of Missouri named should not be
made the recipient of the honor Of