The age-herald., 1900-01-14
STATEMENT OE CONDITION IF
 THE STATE FAIR ASSOCIATION
Complete Report Submitted by Secretary ROuntee at Recent
 Meeting of the Board of Directors,

that amount T. G. Hewlett paid $9,500; T..
 A. Stubbefeld, $2,310 and P. G. Bowman,
 $1,OO0 Subscribers of from one share ($1O
 each) to ten shares were subscribed by diff
 ferent ones. to the amount of $2,0S4, and of
 this amount only $40 was subscribed by the
 merchants of Birmingham. Donations were
 made to the amount of $1 665, as follows:
 l.. x N. Railroad ......................$ $500. co
 Mobile and Ohio Railroad ............. 500. %
 Southern Railroad ...................... 200.0
 A. G. 5. Railroad ....................... 15O.00
 Citizens of Birmingham ................ .0O
 On September 29 a crisis came in the his-
 tory of the fair. All money that had been
 paid in on stock had been disbursed on the
 buildings and track and they were half
 completed; money had to be raised and in
 order to float the enterprise and push it to
 success, Messrs. P. G. Bowman, J. A.
 Rountree and A. E. Caffee made a mort
 gage of $6,0O0 their personal property,
 and furnished said association with the
 proceeds of such mortgage, which paid off
 due indebtedness at that time. except
 balance of about 5000 due on the buildings
 to said contractor. To settle this balance
 we issued warrents to J. l.. Burns and the
 Randolph Lumber and Milling company,
 who were furnishing said contractor with
 material; and to secure the payment or
 these warrants we assigned to the Berney
 National bank, as trustee, the proceeds oi
 the railroad coupons of admission, as per
 
 livered to said bank and mailed to the sev-
 eral railroads. After perfecting these ar arrangements the association had every req
 son to anticipate success. The hrst TWO
 days though not up to expectations III
 monied receipts, gave hattering pronllse'
 but on the third day the courts enJolned the
 racing feature for the fair. thereby threat
 ening to eliminate the main attraction or
 fered to the public. As you know, we had
 offered and advertised large purses to the
 racing men of the entire country to bring
 their horses here, and by such had at that
 time over 300 fine racers in attendance Ine
 racing of the first two days fully justified
 the enthusiasm of the crowds in attendance, and demonstrated that 1t would be impossi-
 ble to continue without this feature, there
 fore notwithstanding the fact that the
 revenue for this privilege was entirely cut
 off by the action of the courts, we decided
 to put up the purses and continue the races,
 paving these purses out of the gate recelpts'
 which as shown from my book statement,
 amounted to $5,Si1,3O.
 The next popular feature of the falr' as
 demonstrated by the crowds in attendance.
 was the Midway, which. as you know hau
 been secured after much labor and expense
 and upon the most promising represeh'a-
 lions. Our income was to be certain per
 cent of all money taken in by said snow.
 We however agreed to furnish lights ana
 water After getting these people starleu'
 we found it impossible to get the grouhus
 and shows lighted by any Birmingham en-
 terprise and were forced to send repre-
 sentative to Atlanta. Ga. to make con
 tract for the lights necessary. ana had to nav, over $500 for this item alone. After the tbdrd day the manager of this attractioh threatened to leave on account or tne ui satisfactory crowds in attendance. que 'o the .labor boycott" and the fact that alter entering the gate the crowds seemed 10 fr nal ant shovs owing to the fact that some ran,ias of the fair had stated that the shovs were improper (they knew because thev had attended the sarne in NashVli,e' Atlanta and the Worlds fair)' consequently
 to keen this attraction here, we had to give ur, practically our per cent, therepy ciea' | ing a liability instead of resource
 Offices ,pened
 TIL, ,rosrects for the fair were so bright r5 tba incorporators received so many | words of encoura cement from the lousi- ness neople that they would supscripe ioi | stock and donate to the fund, WHICH uiieS ~ | did not do. that on August 4, by direeuoii | of the board of directors, olhces .s1.e l opened in the Peerless building and active l work commenced. The work of promot- 1 inc the fair was carried on with as much 1 system as possible, under the circumstan- 1 ces The business being entlrely new to 1 the secretary it was frequently necessary l to adopt meHnOuS WIllth "NhO Pe'S'' ~-~ perimental and from time 10 time you were | informed of every detail of the work l Systematic effort was begun immediately | after opening the office, with the view to l enlisting possible exhibitors in all lines. Work was done almost entirely through | correspondence. I had employed two ste | nographers, as well as had Q great deal of l tyDeWriting done outside the office; circu- , lars were not used to sTsz5 extent, except | brief explanatory matter prepared especial l ly ito accompany typewriter communica- tions. I am convinced of the Virtue or l this method of approaching possible ex- | hlbftors. It certainly gave satisfactory re- | suits in this instance. The cost of type | writing and postoge is, of course greater 1 than would result from the ordinary means of circularizing, but I am satisfied thai the l additional expense was a profitable invest l ment.
 | The total number of exhibits actually in 1 stalled was 415. These completely filled a l creditable size building. I will not enter l upon the character and general excellence 1 of these exhibits. You are thoroughly con- | versant with this phase of the matter | desire to state that the Superintendents in I the different departments worked fattf1ful- l ly, and did all in their departments to make | the fair a success, and I consider for l only sixty days time ito work in securing l exhibits, that it was a wonderful success. l woman's Department
 | l desire to compliment, particularly, the | noble women of Birmingham and the state ] for their earnest and faithful work for the success of the state fair. They stood oy l the enterprise in all of its stages, and did
 more than any other agency in promoting | the same. This department was decidedly
 the most creditable of the whole fair. | Negro Department
 l The negro department new feature | of state fairs, and was somewhat experir 1 mental They did well in their department, and showed much enterprise and develop l ment.
 | Premiums and Appropriations l On August 25, at a regular meeting of the l board of directors a resolution was passed l appropriating 5000 for premiums in the | different departments and offer as liberal 1 premiums possible. This I did, after l consulting with the different superintend- l ents. which is shown in the printed pre- l mium list. At said meeting a resolution l was also adopted unanimously authorizing l the advertising committee to spend at least | $500 among weekly newspapers of the state. | By instructions of said committee I made