The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1909-12-17

same course Of reasoning is applicable.
The horse has always been the most
important feature Of the county fair,
and where all the interests are concerned
| the horse must be there to make it COM
plete. Mr. Davidson suggests that the
horse show is only absolutely necessary
to'complete the horse department-that
| the farmer does not need race horse
TO pillow or to draw a wagon, This is
true, but Mr.. Davidson should not over
look the fact that the people through
out the country generally need buggy
horses and saddle horses, and while not
so many of the latter are used the mode
of conveyance almost exclusively in the
counties is by the use of the trotting
horse. OF course we do not want speed
horses in the buggy, but the introduce
ton of good horse flesh in the county.
There are very few men in the country
who do not fancy good trotting and
pacing horse, and these interests would
certainly be abridged and the scope of
the county fair greatly limited without
the trotter or PAGER. We could agree
with Mr.. Davidson about eliminating
the running horse, but there are not
few who delight in the running races.
Still the running, we agree, is not es-
sential But suppose the county fair is |
reduced to trotting and pacing in the
speed ring, does the gentleman suppose
that we could have a respectable entry |
with nothing but unframed horses.
Suppose the purses were reduced to
sums less than a hundred dollars, what
would the speed ring be- This was
tried here last summer on the Fourth of
July, and if we must confess it, the
races were a discredit and shame to
those who had the management of the
affair If there is to be a speed ring
the purses must be large enough to at
tract the owners of good horses. 1t
seems to us that this was proven con-
to those who attended the last
meeting Of our fair. Good purses had
been offered but the fair had been
'knockedD and criticised so severely
hat the prospects just before the meet
ng were actually disheartening. What
must have been the SURPRISE of the
when the stables began to
i'll up with some of the best trotting
md pacing talent in the circuits of Ken
lucky and Tennessee. This feature
lone saved our fair from immediate
dissolution. Even the preachers and
he better element generally commended
he last fair as the best we have ever
lad sinces the present association was
rganized.
Now in regard to the conduct of fairs
which have been managed successfully
We have in the office as many as a dozen
catalogues of various fair associations, :
md we take from these catalogues the
elative proportion of purses paid on
lorses and premiums on hogs We
axe a few instances for example. 1t
will be seen by an analysis of these
igures that the big fairs of Tennessee
md Kentucky pay from $500 to 81 900
n purses for trotting and pacing events
md for the best boar, two years or over,
rom $15 to $40. The oldest and big
rest county fair in the State, the Ten
lessee Fair at Columbia, paid in 1906
400 for a pace, $3.50 for trot and :
,nly S. for the best Berkshire boar one |
rear and over. The Rutherford County r
air paid $500 for pace and so for
he best Berkshire boar. Bedford Coun- ,
y paid $500 each for pace and trot ,
md only So for the best Berkshire boar
humboldt and Dyersburg, both with {
lew associations, offered the smallest :
purses, 500 and $50 for ring events, !
nut neither as much as the fair at Union {
lily for the best Berkshire boar. The 9
premium here for the best Berkshire ,
oar was 5000 with a chance also at
n additional premium of s. as the d
hampton boar. The best speed-ring 7
urses offered here were $500, so it can
e readily seen that the relative proper
ion here compared with other fairs Il
lentioned is somewhat in favor of our v
wine exhibit c
There is one other point that has not d
ften been raised and we suggest that r.
ow to those who feel that the fair is Il
ltering to the owners of race horses. q
Ie make the statement and challenge Il
Iccessful contradiction. Take our 1909 n
dialogue, and there is not fair in the V
-ata outside of Nashville or NIpmDbiS .