The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-12-25
HO!! FOR THE FAIR!
It's Origin and Early
History.
THE FAIR IN UTAH.
Honor to Whom Honor is
Due.
REPORT OF THED.A.M. SOCIETY
EEumbIee and GrumbIes AnenU this
Fair Past and the Fair to Come
Notes of interest.
Honor to Whom Honor is
Due.
OF THED.A.M. SOCIETY
EumbIee and GrumbIes AnenU the
Fair Past and the Fair to Come
Notes of interest.
ORIGIN OF THE FAIR.

AS GIG as GnrlSCenQOm IS the 1QsClCu-
ton c3l!ed the fair. It's origin is as
oribed to CaiausiuS, thu rebel Emperor
of Buton, away back in 207 A. ID. How
ever, as it Is only natural that fairs
should arise wherever the means of
communication between producer and
consumer should be considered made
Guate to the demands of CONNIE cree, it is
enore than probable similar institutions
existed previous to that time. In early
days the fair was understood to be a
customary or iegalized public place for
the sale Of all kinds of commodities-a
market, only on an extensive scale. In
ancient Rome fair was generally held
during the period of Saints feast and
in the precincts of his church or abbey !;
but IN early England the people were
not inclined to allow the hallowed pre-,
cincts of the church to be desecrated by
aHything quite so utterly vulgar and so
one Of their Inonarchs, Henry III it
was. arose in his pious wrath and de-
mauded that the fair b. relegated to it's
proper sphere, and accordingly some
special legislation was hurried through
forhdding ny further communion be-
tween the church and the fair
However, so very intimate was the con-
nection between the fair and the feast
of the saint, that the former hiss very
com monty bee1 regarded as an offshoot
CT development of the latter. At lie asst
IL may be inferred that the "chu Oh
fair of to-day was suggested by the
SsEj-religious character of the ancient
institution. The first recorded grant
for q fair in England was that of Will
liam the Conqueror to the Bishop of
Winchester for leave to hold an annual
<'fres fair" at st. Giles Hill. Some
times charters for fairs were granted to
towns as a means for enabling them to
recover from the effects of war and
other disasters. Thus Edward III.
granted free fair to the town of Burn.
ley, in Rutland and in subsequent
times Charles VII. gave one to Bor-
0ezux after the English wars. It is not
to be supposed that the Legislature of
Utah had any one of these precedents in
MIND when it chartered the Deseret
Agricultural and Manufacturing So
ciety, or subsequently when it granted
q M5eTaf appropriation for the estab
Hshment of Territorial Fair, though
the same principle that actuated the
Rucients in chartering their fairs, name
s1y, 60 en- able the county to recover from
business depression, may have been
the Euling motive of the latter gra-
zHity. The Importance attached to
these old fairs may be understood
from the inducements which in the
IL lo1I
soaS TO traders visiting the great fair of
Fraukfort-on-the-M Maine. The charter
declared that both during the contlnu
aucs of the fair and for eighteen days
before and after it, merchants would be
exempt from imperial taxation, from
csrrest for debt or civil process of any
ssort, except such as might arise from
t1hs transactions of the market itself
and within its precincts. In those days
the fair had its staff of notRries for the
closing and attestation OF bargains. its
court OF justice, its police officers, its
sergeants for the execution or the mar
keS Judges DEGREES, and its visitors.
among whom were the prud 'hOmnae,
whose duty it was to examine the
quality of goods exposed for sale and to
confscate those:found 10 be untitfor con.
sumption. The effect of these great
IN the DEVELOPMENT of society was very
great. They helped to familiarize the
western and northern countries with
tue banking and financial systems OF
the Lombards and Florentines and to
educate the people in the dealings of
commerce, 70 sharpen their wits and
make th EN- enterprising and self-reliant.
Like the CHURCH on the religious side,
the free fairs on the side of commerce
evoked and cherished the international
spirit And during the long ages,
When commercial protection was re-
garded as indispensable to a nation IS
Wsaith, when, as the historian puts it,
&@the merchant was compelled to fight
his way through wilderness of taxes, "
the fair was the sole, and so far as it
vent, the complete substitute for our
modern free trade.
But the word fair, as now used in the
limited States, seems to have completely
lost its old significance. 1t appears
now to be exclusively applied to indus
trial exhibitions, and SO universal have
khey become that any State or Terri
torV, or indeed any county. not aole tC
have and hold its annual fair is deemed
20 be Eunenlights1ed and behind tbe
shirt of the times. On the principle Of
these American fairs. only on broader
scale. the national and internatlona
exhibitions of late years have beer
conducted, and these may be ranked
among the most remarkable feature
in the industrial records of thu
world, having taken their place a
Drorninent instruments Of civilization
Nv means Of which the diffusion
Of knowledge has been advanced
and extended as could perhaps +,
done in NO other way. 1t is to tn
&aSociety of Arts" that the credit is do,
ct having originated national exhibi
lions. So far back as the year 176l tina
society offered prizes for agriculture
aud other machines, and had an exhlol
Giou of these in its apartments. In 119S
Rrance began q series of national expo