The record-union., 1892-10-17
AN EASTERN FAIR.
Bonny Annette Lohry Takes in One at
York, Pa.
Our Western s'Backwoods BeIle'' Get
ting Into the Eastern Way of
Talking and Acting.

1th instant. Having heard so much
about 1t. my expectations were naturally
raised to an abnormal pitch and it was
with the greatest interest L entered the
gates and began explorations. 1 had
saved up my pennies in anticipation of
the great agricultural show, and had accu-
mulated as many as ten or dozen nice,
fine, shiny ones to spend in incidentals
and popcorn. This currency is hard to get
used to when one has never handled it,
and buying cents worth of anything
seems at first very queer proceeding. l
have become Injured to it now, however,
and can purchase a penny's worth of
gumdrops and wait for the change to be
counted out with solemnity beftting
the occasion. Paper money is also float
ing about, to the exclusion of gold, and
to me the bills seem cumbersome and
counterfeitish. They are SO crinkly and
ragged, and smell so "unpretty." And
gold is far more pleasing to handle.
wish l had enough to prove cumbersome.
would carry 1t in music roll. And
don't talk about "bits" in the East, if you
value your own peace of mind and want
to econOmize on explanations. The peo-
pie will ask you what in the name of
creased wonder you mean, until you be-
come so glib in your illumination of the
mysterious word that you can repeat it
in the dark, blindfolded and hands tied
behind you. l can converse quite prop
erly now and never say two bits" once
always twenty-five cents"
This years fair was said to be excep-
tional-it was dull. 1t might have been
like the California weather, though. If
stranger complained of heat, we said
'This is an exceptional day-so unlike
our usual perfect weather" Same way
with rainy weather, until the poor per-
spring or rained-in visitor must have
wondered where the ''unexceptionaP'
days came in.
1t is whispered that the glory of the
fair is waning; that great interest is not
taken any more. The boys and girls no
longer perambulate hand in hand MUNICH
ing gingerbread, and the wheel OF for
tune has been barred out.
The fair grounds are situated Just at the
edge of the city OF York and embrace
over forty-two acres. They are hand
somely located and inclosed by a formid-
able board fence. There are five build
ings, the first of which is devoted to the
display of cereals, fruits and flowers. The
flowers looked sick, but the grains were
convalescent. 1 did not know whether
to lose myself in admiration at the spread
of cut flowers, or to appreciate the joke
some one had perpetrated. They were
pretty, but SO scarce and looked weary
and sad like. The rosebuds were a
foreshadowing of what could be done
with less rigorous climate and through
their wan smile seemed to breathe,
"Pd look better if | had only had
half chance" The jams and jeIlies
and canned goods were substantial
proof of the good housewives skill
The apples were simply superb. Next in
the row is the main building, and things
seemed to have been jammed in in pro-
miscuous style. There was anything
and everything. There was the man who
drew your picture in three minutes, and
white-capped darkeys baking hot cakes
as sample of meal. There were rows of
quilts, and the man who examined your
eyes free, gratis and for nothing" There
were groups OF paintings struggling to
hold on to the bare walls and worried
pianos that made the din degree worse.
The selt-playing organ is quite WON
dertul machine. 1t does not require
being ''coaxed" TO play, big advantage
scored over the average young lady per-
former. so say all of us. You simply
push in a roll of music, sit and work the
stops and pedals and look amiable and
the organ is responsible for the rest.
While it was delighting throng with
classical selection, an old lady in a black
beaded dolman, broke in on the strains
with, but what do you do when you
want to play tunes out of a hymn book?"
She was on the lookout for all the wick
edness of the bold, bad world, for when
a fine range was CHANGED away by
merely signing your name and taking
ticket she said Huh, uhi l don't put
my name down. There is some kitch-I
know it.'
The next building is the restaurant,
which is in charge of the Young
Women's Christian Association. They
were busy as bees feeding the hungry
multitude. The poultry is next and the
exhibit was excellent. Forsooth, l
would not know a thoroughbred if met
IL in the road, but the fowls were remark
ably large and fine looking. Sometimes
the judges know thoroughbred,
though, from brass band of music and
award the prizes without tremor and
sleep soundly at night afterward.
The sleighs, buggies and other wheeled
implements made a remarkably fine
showing, and the building devoted to
stoves and ranges was attractive. The
machinery was all out in the open air.
Two large circular saws went blowing
through huge logs like mad. There were
water-wheels, and cogs, and ratchets, and
a whole lot OF things l don't know the
names of, and did not ask the attendant,
for l want 10 meet death other than being
talked into it. TIE absence of combined
harvesters, reapers, threshers, etc., was
conspicuous enough to be felt.
After meandering among the prize pro-
ducts of the county come the side-shows,
and they, with their attendant barnacles,
the fakirs, are so numerous, that it had
more the appearance of circus than
fair. NIiliie Christine, the two-headed
nightingale, drew the largest swarms, and
] patronized the row of canvased attrac-
tion till my pennies dwindled away.
A car was rolled near the center of the
grounds labeled FLORIDA on Wheels
and, fluttering with partl-colored flags,
looked too mysteriously irresistibly at
tractive. A galvanized negro dude took
your dime at the door with flourish, and
you made the tour of the aisles at your
leisure. The marked features of Floridas
tropical wealth were the bigness of the
oranges and the Httleness of the peaches.
The former were big as footballs, and the
latter such as a good genteel cannery
would refuse to buy. 1t was veritable
'Florida Enchantment," and among the
alligators. bottles of berries and slabs OF
polished woods, / looked in vain for the
ebony box and the wonderful bottle of
seeds that Gunter deals out in his crazy
story of that name.
The horned beasts and the race-horses
occupied about a mile of shed, and were
we'll worth the long tramp of inspection.
They were ali sleek and well groomed,
and all seemed deserving of the knot of
bonny blue ribbon. The Pennsyltuckians
horses. and it was manifest at the races.
A band from a different part of the
county doomed the occasion each day,
and the notes of TIA ra- ra- boom -de-ay''
tioated merrily in the air. The small boy
took up the tune and whistled it,
Young maidens hummed it, and
older persons looked dogged and strode
off as if pursued by some specter. At
the race-coprse were trained horses and
balloon ascension, but the high winds
mt a veto on the balloons gyrations.
A novelty for the little folks is the dog