Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-10-13
At A COUNTY FAIR.
THIS IS THE TIME OF YEAR
WHEN THIS INTERESTING
RURAL CONSTITUTION
FLOURISHES.
LOTS OF FUN TO BE HAD ON THE
GROUNDS INCLUDING THE AG-
RICULTURAL ''HOSS TROT."
FAKIRS AND FLIRTATIONS. TUMBLE RIG
CLING AND LOVE MAKING. IT'S ALL
FOUND THERE.

To see the fair right one must get uT
at a. m, to drive in the COWS fOI
milking. Gee whizz. but it's cool
Every time you drive up cow from
/ the soft spot where she's been chewing
the cud of reflection, you stand awhile
on the ground where she lay, war med
with her body, to refresh your bare
/ feet.
| Milking is done with a rush and the
COWS turned out again for one of the
/ longest days in their mild bovine ex-
perence. The pigs are fed and . hur-
ried but substantial breakfast eaten.
Just as you 20 out to the barn to
hitch up'' Eb Snyder's boy drives past
with his mother ard sisters in the farm
wagon.
Coin to the fair?" says Ed.
"Yeh.'
Going? Is there anybody who isn't:
The road is a well travelled one. and it
is white with dust as far as one can
see. When you get Maud S. and the
old roam out on the road you can see
from the crest of the hill something al
most like procession stretching away
towards the grounds. From ten
ana fifteen miles away, starting before
break Of day, some Of them have come,
iii every conceivable kind of rig, shack,
blackboard, wagon, sulkey, and once
i'll great while a smart village cart,
Ihe usual rig is a one or two horse
democratic wagons. with high, square
box, in which are now slowed away a
bag of oats for the horses, water pail,
lunch baskets and few other things
MauG S. and the old roam have been
groomed within an inch of their lives
aud pampered with a three days rest.
They don't match exactly, but if Saun-
deIs hired man tries to drive by as he
did last year
The stores of the little village are III
gala dress and business is booming.
Teams stand at the hitching posts
along both sides of the street, teams are
three deep IN the main roads cOnverg
ing upon the carriage entrance" to
the grounds. Only the village folks go
in Oh foot by the little gate. inside
the grounds, the fence ali around is
lined with teams as thick as they cali
stpnd.
You go in. My! But this is fine
Over you is Il Ferris wneel-in minia-
ture, It's true, but the genuire affair
turning over and over to the tune Of
after the Ball" There are ice cream |
stands, watermelon stands. peanut
stands, soda water stands, Toy balloon |
pure and simple. A pair of rustic low
ers walk along, he clasping her hand.
each munchirg manfully at hugh |
''caId O gingerbread, each flying a |
toy balloon at lapel.
Over there is a big fellow with a
hoarse voice crying necessarily: "Ere's |
YOUR ragico. maGicO, tragicO chewing |
gum, prize in each and every pack
age."
And opposite is a little fellow with a
pretty decent face, the burden of whose
is: Toys for the babies, fps
(whips) for the ladies! Toys for the
babies and fps for the ladiesH'
"What d we say, Sal?n indispensable
young lover, sheepishly. shall I get
We whip"
The toy-seller trandishes his whips
and jumping jacks and assumes a con-
tidential tone.
&c long, Hank. g." filters the blushing
maiden, we d ont thing l want to whip
ye, do ye?'
Oh, these faklrs! What contrasts
present. Here are the fresh-faced vii,
age boys buying lemonade. Here, just
beyond are men grown old in sin, men
who follow the fairs, men whose seamy
faces make you shudder, but on whom
The simple country folks look unmOv-
I'd. By and by these fakir5 with be
running a thimble-rig on the sly, and
hey have bottles of vile whiskey hid
away that YOU can samp)e-if you'll
/ eep very quiet about it.
There are the sights. 1t would never
10 to forget that i'll the long rows Of
"a tie sheds are Devons, ShOrthOrns,
Jerseys. Guernseys, Attorneys. Hol-
tribe, Cotswolds, Merinos, Southdowns
and sheep superlatively wooily and
fat, m0nstrosities of pigs
AMI fCathered prOdigies of tt e hen
tribes. There is the dining hall, where
a good home dinner costs 80 cents,
with pie at discretion. The ladies Of
the first Presbyterian society, nice
women YOU ii like to know, are the |
cooks aud mattresses, and go flying |
around like the traditional headIess
hen. The proceeds are for the heather.
There's machinery hall, where locai
sewing machine, moving machine and |
churn sellers exhibit samples and give |
out circulars. tThere is dairy hall-alI |
the halls but one arc merely long, low,
wooden seeds-where butter, cheese,
bread. cake, pumpkins, squashes, traces
of seed corn, canned fruit and other
edib,es are exhibited for premiums
ranging from 80 cents to So 90.
Dairy hall is in ferment just at
present. Zeke Topper, special police
man, has just ''snatched little Abe
Mosher bald headed because he
"wouldn't quit fingerin' them egg
plants" Abey protests between sobs
that he never heard Ezekiel's admon
itions, and as Mosber senior feels him
self to be quite as good as Topper in
spite of his (Mosher's) lack of a red rib
bin, it is evident that there will be
smolderIng i'll feeling between the fam
lilies for generation or so. The funny
part of it is that Abey probably tells
q l. l.