Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-09-13
THE ATTENDANCE AT THE STATE FAIR


The State Fair to this date has not been
so largely attended as has been usual The
attractions are as strong as in the past, the
exhibits are plentiful and representative,
the stock gathering unsurpassed, and the
speed programme of the best order. Why,
then, is there lighter attendance 1t ma '
be attributed to several causes. First nd
| foremost, seventy thousand people of the
interior visited San Francisco last an d this
week to witness and engage in the, Admis-
sion Day festivities They spent ON that
trip not less than 100000, and the most
of them exhausted themselves, for further
holiday entertainment. The farmers have
not so much ready money q.s they would
like to enable them to ind lge in "a week
Off" But there is not sue n a stripgency as
should withdraw them s. > largely from the
State Fair. The hortic nlturists have done
well, and ought to be ash of purse, and the
viticulturists and h op-raisers and other
classes of producers, aside from growers of
cereals, have bee'A reasonably prosperous,
but they nave not yet manifested any
strong disposition to visit the State Fair.
The District Fairs were more numerous
this year irl advance of the State Fair than
usual, we believe, and they have had the
effect or satisfying the people, to a con-
siderable extent. We do not think that
the Sta tie Fair has been SO judiciously adj
ed as it might have been. While
the losts were gathering in San Francisco
there ought to have been made special
Ell ort in that city to attract attention to
t. Ae fair, but we saw none upon the streets,
and we searched the San Francisco papers
in vain for any special reference to the
State exposition, and to this hour some of
the leading papers there have not men
toned even so much as the bare, bald fact
that the fair is in progress. This can be
charged only to mistake in advertising or
in handling matters so that the press
should not overlook the fair.
We are convinced that the engraved ad-
vertisement that was used throughout in
the press of the State, for the fair, was
not by any means the most effective
method of advertising. A good deal
of display appears to have been
made of advertising in sporting
papers and but little, in comparison, in
/
the general press. Unquestionably those
in charge acted as their good judgment
dictated, but we submit that the skilled
advertiser would have used the same
amount of money expended by the State
Board for advertising very much more
effectively by the small ad" repetitive
system.
All these and some other such reasons
combine in disclosing causes for the light
attendance. Let us hope that the added
attractions of music, athletics and special
contests and exhibitions will have the
effect of bringing the attendance next
week up to the old time mark Our own
people can do good deal in bringing
about that end. They should exert them
selves to publish abroad the attractions of
the fair, and redouble their exertions to
greatly increase the local attendance. The
Board Of Agriculture has labored hard to
bring on an exposition of great worth,
high State value and beauty, and has emf
nently succeeded. That there is so little
response from abroad was in some measure
anticipated, but it is less than even the
doubling expected. 1t behooves Sacra-
mentans, therefore, to stand by the Board
in this "of year"-such a year as will
make record in State Fair annals about
once in seven or eight years. Our citizens,
for pride in such State institution, should
exert, even incommode themselves, to en-
courage and sustain the Board, and we
believe that they will do so, and that dur
ing the next week the people of the in
terror will also put in larger attendance
and thereby recognize and commend the
labor that has been put forth to make the
States annual exposition one in every way
worthy Of California-as il certainly is.