Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-10-10
STATE GRANGE FAIR.
THE THIRD ANNUAL EXHIBIT
CLOSED A GALA DAY.
Governor HoSS Delivers a Wholesome Ad-
dress on Political and Agricultural
Reform-Given the Blue
Ribbon
Correspondence of the Gazette.

McGREGoR, McLENNAN Coc4..., TEX,
| Oct. S-To-day brought to a close the great
est event in the history of the Texas
| Grange, the third annual exhibit. No great
| enterprise was ever managed with less
wrangle and friction. The president of
this association and his associates certainly
| deserve great credit for their untiring en-
| ergy in making the occasion so pleasant
| and at the same time such grand success.
! 1t seems almost phenomenal that so many
| premiums could have been awarded with
out a complaint from any source.
| More than fifty races, many of them}close
| and intensely exciting, have been passed
upon during the fair, and not dissenting
| voice has been raised against the final de-
! cisions of the judges, a record few aSSocia-
| tions have made and one this organization
should be proud of. When it is understood
| that nearly $4,000 have been awarded in
| premiums and about the same amount
changed hands or the race tracks without
single misunderstanding, it is worthy of
| special mention. -
To-day the weather has been delightful
and the crowd immense, variously esti-
| mated at from five to seven thousand.
Governor Hogg is the chief attraction. The
| notice of his arrival last evening spread
like wildfire. The governors best friends
in this section and his worst enemies and
the Indifferent, were here to-day 10 en-
courage and to abuse him.
Long before the hour for the speaking to
begin every available space on the pavilion
floor, banisters and stairways was occupied.
At IL o'clock President Ray arose to intro
duce the governor who stepped to th5'
front of the platform amidst deafening ap-
plause. The friends of the governor wore
broad smiles, and looked as though they
were where St. Paul heard things he could
not afford to repeat before mob The
governor spoke for an hour, and confined
his remarks to political and agricultural re-
forms.
He said no political reform was ever eff
fected by abusing those with whom we diff
fer. He said the man who spent his Satur-
day afternoons down town chewing tobacco
and splitting at fiy-specks and cursing the
country was never much better through
abuse. He advised the Changers ito deal
squarely with their tenants and encourage
them to secure homes, that the ownership
of land made patriots. In referring to the
burden of taxation he showed very plainly
that it was not all levied or collected by the
state. He cautioned the young men about
loafing around saloons. He asked the
Granger who takes his morning drink, If he
ever thought that the cost of ten drinks
would pay years state tax On $1,000 worth
OF property, that one drink would pay his
school tax for one year on 500 dollars
worth of property. He advised them to
quit some of their worse than useless in
duigences that Were depressing labor more
than was public taxation, and they would
find less reason for curSing the country and
the government in general. The governors
speech contained some wholesome advice
and was well received. 1t was an honest,
unvarnished. plain statement of facts with
no effort at all at oratory or eloquence. The
governor brought q basket of vegetables
with him from Austin. He said he thought
it was the duty of every Granger who came
to the fair to bring an exhibit.
At the close of the governors speech Mrs.
". c. O'Bryan, wife of the editor of the
McGregor Observer, stepped upon the plat
form and pinned the blue ribbon on the
governors exhibit amidst tremendous APP
plause.
Lieutenant-G Governor George H Pendle-
ton made few remarks at the close of
Governor Hogg's speech. MIR. Pendieton
was well received and felt perfectly at home
among the Changers and urged upon them a
most thorough cooperation in an agricul-
tural reform.
Immediately after dinner there was