The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-08-25
From the Country Gentleman.
TEE COUNTY FAIR.

From. the Country Gentleman.
THE COUNTY FAIR.
Mr.. Editor The agricultural fair, ancient ant
me-honored as it is, is still undergoing rapit
and far reaching evolution. A half century o.
more ago, If we may trust the old premium list
still in existence, 1t was place where mel
brought their best-broken OK teams, their like
lest COWS, their heaviest feeces of wool, theil
oaken firkins of butter, and of course the long
est twists of yellow corn and the biggest pump
kins; nor were the wives absent with Their
most successful culinary efforts and the skillful
products of their looms. Doubtless, too, the
fakir was just as strenuous in his proclamation
concerning the merits of his cider and the I'M
equalled excellence of his gingerbread, and
doubtless the showmen even then solicited the
guileless sons of toll to witness strange attrac-
lions behind the mystic screen of canvas. HUI
man nature, with all our change of customs and
methods, remains at heart the same.
But the fair of our grandfathers, like every
thing else of that time, was much simpler and
more elemental than now. The premium list
was not 1.-THE of its present length, and covered
only few of the everyday objects of the farm.
But little money in that time seemed much,
and the few dollars distributed were well worth
striving for It was on the whole a genuine
agricultural fair.
1t must be frankly confessed that the county
or town fair in its present state of evolution is.
on the whole, agricultural only in name-a
slender fiction of term on which to hang a
great variety of activities. 1t is entirely true
that many of the fairs bring out display of
livestock, agricultural products and farm ma
chinery which is really astonishing, and which
affords excellent opportunities to study our
agriculture at its best 1t is really remarkable
tribute to the advanced condition of our farmers
that so much splendid material for exhibition
can be brought together from within radius
of a few miles. So far as the exhibits are con-
cerned, they are truly agricultural. and they
ought according to the polite fiction of our laws.
to encourage agriculture" They do educate
certain elect few who come to study and to
learn. But the crowd-the 10000 or 100000
people that the village weekly will boast of in
its next issueare not there to see the fat beasts
and the improved ensilage cutter. Trotting
horses are in no sense agricultural exhibits, any
more than automobiles or Japanese acrobats.
But what a universal country holiday it is !!
The humble travellers on foot, and the whirling
wheels that raise the dust on every road that
leads down to that common mecca-the county
in whittier's poem
winding down
Horse and foot to FredericktOwn."
1t must be owned that most of them are drawn
by objects quite Interior to the work of the
farm. There is the honest farmer and his wife
vastly interested in the prospect of a day of
visiting old friends, for to surprising extent
the local fair has become the great annual re-
union. There are the children eager to see the
biggest wonders that thus far have ever come
into their lives. There is the farmers son with
his girl by his side in the new buggy, and the
horse groomed in a way to bef1t the joyful day.
The boy and the maid-after all they are the
best products of the soil-God bless them! and
may they see beyond the fair 1.-THE light that
never was on sea or land"
So they come from all the CONFERENCE.-The
just and the unjust, the master and the mana
great Kaleidoscope, democratic host moving
swiftly to where the waving pennants the toot-
ing bands, the shrill cries of leather lunged
vendors, the rows of decorated booths, the swirl
ing crowds and the pleasant buzz of converse
ton, punctuated by notes of greeting-these
and thousand other sights and sounds go to
make up that great composite picture of rural
festival in full swing. Who can forget it who
has oEce been part Of country fair The
memory of it comes back like the odor of flowers
long withered.
1t is on the whole worthy and innocent event.
If I am correct in my memory. there is rising
standard of ethics as to what is proper at the
fair. The wheel of fortune no longer whirls
openly in the sight of all men, and the hoary-
headed imposter, with his tray, his little pith
ball and his three walnut shells, no longer
publicly exemplifies the truth of the ancient
saw, "a fool and his money are soon parted"
There are still plenty of "shows," some of which
are perfectly silly and inane, but the openly
indecent exhibitions which pandered to the
lewd instincts of foolish men and boys have
quite generally fallen under the ban of fair
arrangements.
The conduct of successful fair in this day
has become very complex business enterprise,
entailing large expenditures, of which the dis
bursements for premiums are only one of many
expenses, and of course calling for large receipts
in turn. The Especial attractions" !. e., the
tumblers, the vaudeville artists, the trained
lions, the balloon ascension and the rest of
similar ilk, make surprising demands upon the
treasury. We may say, "cut them out" but
the fair business is one where competition is
most intense, and if not amused, the people
will not come. So the management must swell
it's receipts by concessions" and thus con-
scientious board finds itself forced into devices
and conditions which are, to say the least, I'M
dignified.
The writer has fondness for thinking about
questions of farm sociology and rural life. and
there is an opportunity so favorable for study
ing the farmer at his merry-making as is given
at his official holiday. So I have watched the
passing show at the fair as the motley groups
drifted by. One thing which is very noticeable
is that the clean-lived farmer does come to old
age in better shape than his brother of the
town. The business man from the Office Is
often a feeble, broken man at 70 but it is re-
markable how many men you will see among
the agricultural classes who at 20 are bent and
grizzled, it is true, but still rugged in frame
sound in digestion and keen in their enjoyment
of life. Their "age is like lusty winter-frosty
hut kindly" JARED VAN WAGENEN, JR.f
Canned Goods Situation in Harford.-
The Belair Times of last week said: "The only
ripple on the surface of the canned goods situa-
ton this week was the assignment of Mr.. J.
Finney Wells. This was forced by the Ches-
tertown National Bank, which held some OF
his paper endorsed by Smith, Rouse & Webster.
The large amount of obligations which have
been turned over to the Packers Creditors
Committee, composed of the leading bankers,
it is believed, will have the effect of preventing
wholesale assignments. Indeed it is rumored
that the Wells assignment may be withdrawn
and the Chestertown Bank put its claim along
with the others with the committee. Sensa.
tional publications in city papers have not
changed the absolute quiet prevailing. There
is no excitement and while every body discusses
the situation with interest it has been topic
of discussion so many months that the wide
publicity given it now by the daily newspapers
reads like ancient history. Hartford county is
not dead broke by long shot. Some of her
people have met with serious losses but all OF
them are game to the core While one brok'
erage firm and its clients have met reverses
every other broker, together with their clients
made money out of the syndcate's operations
Our people have not lost confidence in each
other and steadily refuse to get scared or gel
'paricky.' 1t is fine tribute to the absolute
confidence felt in our bankers that although il
is generally known that every bank in Hartford
county has met with losses, it is just as Ger
tainly known that in every case the bank il
amply able to meet the loss. Our bankers are
men of the highest standing, wide experience
strict integrity and justly deserve the conf
dence reposed in them"
Remarkable Old Lady Celebrates 6
Birthday.-Mrs. Martha Edwards celebrated