Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-10-17
AT THE FAIR.
A Study Of the Buffalo Exposi,
ton Visitors.
Not Peculiar, But Typical, WeII-Be-
haved Americans.
The Closing Bays Are Having the Biggest
Crowds Of the Year.

spicy articles on The People at the
Fair. The people We're here, to be
I sure: but they We're not material
They were not peculiar. They We're
not spicy. They We're merely we'll
dressed. well-mannered. typical Amer
| leans. Therefore those chagrined lit
| erary folk went about to make spice
out of whole cloth. Now. however.
summer past and harvests home, the
farms and the back woods and the
waste places of the earth are sending
their contributions to the exposition
| crowds. and the "Pan-Am." as the YER
| nacular hath it. has become an object
, Of real human interest.
J 1t was on railroad day-thut great
| tertleSS circus-that hetook myself tC
the exposition to see what manner of
man this Pan American visitor might
be. l found him as various and as nu-
merous in type as the traditional sands
| of the sea. The "Rube" element the
really truly "hayseed," was there.
| Western New York doesn't supply this
element in its purity; the trolley has
! gone far to make country and city one !;
| but from the Businesses of Canada. or
/
| article unspoiled by civilization had ar
| rived. | found these people trying to
get in at the exits. hurting themselves
desperately against the rigid side Of
! the turnstiles. and presenting their
| tickets at the pass gates or those
marked For Children Only"
| Fancying in the innocence of my
! heart that it would be pretty sight
| to see the awe of these sons of the soil
when the full glory of the fair burst
upon their astonished gaze. | followed
| a considerable company of them across
| the Triumphal bridge. remembered
| those clever pictures by Castaigne in
| the Worlds fair number of the Cen
fury, and looked TO see dropped jaws
| and bullying eyes of wonder But
alas, put not Your trust in the picture
| NAH. nor YET in the skilful maker of
I literature. What said the brother To
! the OK. and the sister to the cow one
and all. they said. call these her,
| buildin's?" THE stony hearted COM
positor denies me itaics). "Euildins
eh? Why look at en-. They're
a-bulein' already. They won't stand
up tell the shows over. Ugh" \
| pleased them better than this whole.
city Of shadowy palaces. They had no
! admiration for color scheme. or fretted
architecture; they had no place 10 put
! it
| What did they do at the exposition :?
| As nearly everything as time would
allow. They haunted the sheep show
and the display of FARMING implements.
! But they did" all the other buildings
on the grounds. not forgetting the
art gallery. Frankness rather than
| conventionality marked their com
ments. They had seen bigger pictures
| than that and they didn't give a snap
| for pictures, anyhow.
What did they get out of it? \ con-
| viction that Ciderville or Stony centre
| is the greatest of all great towns. and
| that there is no state on earth like the
state they came from.
| Farm folk are by no means the only
ones who despise the fair There Is
| a type of man who comes here with
| sneers on his tongue. prepared to find
| everything n fake" OF course. in
| that state of mind he finds what he is
| looking for. | have heard him admit
| that he went into the most nOtoriously
! unworthy shows on the midway on
purpose to convince himself that the
street of streets was one huge fake"
| That sort of man keeps ScrupulouSly
| out of the Filipino village and Dark
est Africa and the Indian Congress.
having heard from afar that they don't
prove his point. Or if, perchance. he
| gets in by mistake. he satisfies himself
| that these are no Indians Afr
cans? Yes. from Georgia." You hear
these people proclaiming on the espla
| made that the electric tower is no four
| hundred feet high. "Of course if you
want to believe it YOU can. but
Nothing satisfies them. The "Trip to
the Noon" Why Of course it's a
fake; it never goes anywhere near the
| moon. The wedding in the lions cage?
"Aw-w-w. it was regular fake The
lions were not even allowed to eat the
clergyman" And so YOU go. The
smaller that man makes the exposition
appear. the larger he feels.
In refreshing contrast with these be
littlers of all things are the people no
small class. who come prepared to adj
| mire. They find the city altogether
lovely; the troleys are the finest ev-
or. the climate is all that could be
desired: they stop to admire the expo
sition gates. and. once inside. their
faces fairly shine With pleasure The
admiration is not always intelligent
though it is heartfelt You will find
these smiling people over in the chile
building observing the slab of rock salt
in the nitrate exhibit. and purring to
each other. Did you ever see such
big rock @ Labels have little charm
for them. They are here to admire and
prefer to do it unhampered by facts
SO it is. Just see them pretty stones"
or, Amt them lovely bugs" with
small concern for the lesson the bugs
and the stones We're meant to convey.
They are at their naivest in the art
gallery, where things are perfectly
| fierce or "a nice blue-Im great on
blue. However. the symptom is so
| much more healthy than the wholesale
| contempt of the other type that YOU are
| ready to overlook 4 world of incense
| quence.
| Seated under the trees on the lake
| shore one day, I came upon party
| from "1oway." The coats of the men
were traVesties upon human garments:
hNN II.