The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-22
THE MODERN STREETFAIR
As OLD As CIVILIZATION, COMING
DOWN FROM EARLY TINES.
1t Originated as Religious Festival,
and with the Years Has Become
an Agency of Commerce.
St. Louis cilohe-Democrat

our Western people, and as anything which
meets their wants or tickles their imagina-
tons at once becomes popular, this species
of entertainment seems likely to become
general. The fashion was inaugurated at
Nation, ILL.,. other cities following suit, and
since the Mattoon fair d dozen or more
have been held in Western towns No great
expense nor trouble is necessary to estab-
lish street fair The booths are set up
in the streets, there being no charge for
rent and therefore the purchase or lease of
considerable tract of ground is unneces-
sary. Being in the heart of the city, the
situation is convenient, no trouble is ex-
perienced in reaching the locality no ex-
tortionate fees are demanded by the drivers
of vehicles, there is no jostling, no crowd
at the gate; no one feels obliged to stay
all day to get his moneys worth, and if he
takes his family he is under no anxiety as
to the ways and means for returning home
The street fair is thus free from many of
the annoyances which seem to be insepara-
BILE from an entertainment of the same kind
held on grounds at some distance removed
from the center of population, and no doubt
| its good features have promoted its popular
| ity and probably increased both the attend
ance and the profits.
Many persons suppose it to be novelty,
| not having heard of it during recent years
in this country, but the street fair is
old as civilization itself and, modified by
| circumstances and nationality, has come
| down from very early ages. The street fair
| originated in the religious festival. In pa
! gan days, ages and ages before the Chris
| tan era, in the valleys of the Euphrates
| and Tigris, there were certain days in the
year when the feasts of the gods, of Ash
taroth of Baal, of the myriad deities wor-
| shipped by the Babylonians and Assyrians,
were held; thousands of strangers came to
Babylon, to Nineveh, to Nippur. to wor-
ship and insure for themselves good luck
for the remainder of the year by their de-
votions. The citizens of these three famous
centers of ancient civilization appreciated
| the commercial value of the festivals, for
| the strangers spent immense sums of money
during their stay, and special prepare
| tons were made for the entertainment of
the hosts of visitors. Merchants laid in UNI
| usual stocks of goods, the makers of the
| tiny images sold in every temple were busy
| during the whole year in preparing for the
| next great feast knowing that there would
| then be demand for their wares. The
festival was made the occasion of visit
| to the city by travelling merchants from
/ different parts of the country. and even
| from other countries, and 5000 years be-
| fore Christ the great shrines of Mesopo-
tamia were the meeting points of caravans
| from all parts of the Eastern world. mer-
| chants taking advantage of the festal sea-
son to make their annual visits, knowing
| that they would meet the traders from far
| distant lands and be enabled to exchange
commodities to much better advantage than
| at other times.
AND THIEVES CAME ALSO.
There is abundant testimony to the fact
| that on these annual festivals most of the
| leading streets of Babylon and Nineveh
were converted into fair grounds. rows of
booths being erected ON each side, where
all sorts of wares We're displayed for sale
and in addition TO the business feature there
were juggleIs and showmen, dancers, min
strels. and even swinders, foreon tablet
! nov in the Imperial Museum at CONSTANT
nople there is report of judicial sem
tence passed and presumably carried out in
| Babylon, over four thousand years ago, on
one Bel-Attavi for fleeing a stranger, prob
| ably from the country districts of MeSo-
Potamia; OF bag OF gold dust Il ana nd, four
to the city to sell.
There is documentary evidence to the eff
feet that fairs OF the same kind were held
on the banks of the Nile. and, as in AS
| syria, the dates of the religious festivals
were also those of the fairs. Curious pic
old-tme street fairs in Nineveh, in Baby
lon, in Memphis. in Thebes, for the sharp,
with his puppies and fine linens, set up his
| stall side by side with the man from Arabia
other side was a black from the Sudan,
who displayed ivory and precious stones,
and across the way was the booth of the
| slave dealer for the traffic in human flesh
was popular then as it continued to be
almost down to our own times, and was 80
profitable that municipalities, went to the
| expense of erecting luxuriant booths for the
| accommodation Of the dealers and their
property. There were whole streets set
| apart for the of the slave traders, where
slaves, male and female of almost any race,
beautiful girls from northern Europe the
dark-eyed damsels of Spain, abducted from
| their homes by kidnaperS; mountain girls
| Of the Caucasus, dark-brorvn and chocolate
maidens from Arabia and Persia, and the
jet blacks of central Africa, We're all on
| exhibition and for sale to the highest bid
| der, and crowds of excited wOuld-be pur-
chasers intimated with hand and voice to
the auctioneer their willingness to purchase
and the prices they were ready to pay. The
street fairs of these old cities were veritable
| revels in color, in variety, in extravaganza
of word and action, genuine Babels, for ev-
cry language was spoken every known cos
tune was worn; they were pages out of the
Arabian Nights
There were fairs in Greece and Rome
too, for every city had its protecting deity,
every deity his holiday. and every holiday
and festal season was taken advantage of
by resident and visiting merchants as a
business opportunity. There is a record at
Pompei of perfumers' fair, in the Per-
tuners street. How often this fair was held
is not known. but on the solitary occasion
awarded to one Attilus Asada for the finest
Tosewater, a fact which shows that there
were probably competitions In the displays
and Judges and heart-burnings and quarres
among the exhibitors about the justice of
the awards and threats never again to ex-
hibit.
The manner Of life in southern Europe
gave every street the appearance of a street
fair, for the booths shops were COM
pletely open ON the one side, the entire
front being in one piece with hinges at the
top. and when the proprietor wished to open
his establishment he and his assistant
raised the street wall. placed a couple of
supports underneath. and. presto, the shop
was open, with an elegant awning in front.
protected from the sun and negotiate their
purchases.
IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
In the middle ages the feast days or festi-
walls of the church, when large numbers of
people congregated at particular shrines,
were utilized as fair seasons. The great
fair of st. Denis, in the suburbs of Paris,
which was held annually for many CEN
turtles was begun on the feast of the French
patron saint and continued during several
weeks. In the last century. however, it de-
generated to such an extent that it became
an assemblage of disreputable characters
and in 1889 was abolished as a nuisance
The famous fair in Italy, that of St Mary
Magdalene, held at Sinigagla and that of
near Madrid, notable instances of the
origin of fairs in religious festivals, and
indeed il is believed by antiquarians that if
the truth were known almost every annual
gathering of this kind for business purposes
had similar beginning. he feasts of the