Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-01-20
THE OLD READFIELD FAIR.
Annual Rally Today With Election o
Officers.

Readfeld, Me-, Jan. 19.-(SpeciaD.
The second grand Rally Day of the
kennebec County Agricultural So
ciety will be held at Readfield
Grange Hall on Wednesday, Jan. 20,
1909. Messrs Brown, Norcross and
Peacock, the committee on the part of
the society who have had the matter in
charge, have labored diligently AMI
prepared the following program: The
business session will begin at ten
o'clock at which time the various re-
ports of the different officers will be
made, new business transacted, and
officers elected for another year. At
noon a picnic dinner will be served i'll
the banquet hall. Beans and brown
bread will be supplied by the local
members and all members and visitors
from a distance are requested to bring
some sort of pastry. After the dinner,
the gathering will return to the hall
| for a social hour. At one thirty
o'clock, Miss Maude Andrews, Au-
gusta's talented elocutionist, will read
| several selections after which L. c.,
| Bateman, agricultural editor of the
Lewiston Journal, will deliver one of
his intensely interesting, instructive
lectures we'll spiced with humorous
stories in the telling of which Mr..
Bateman has no peer. Special music
has been provided for the occasion and
will include a trombone solo by Mr..
Gordon of Mt Vernon who so recently
pleased and entertained a Readfiel1
audience. At 23o o'clock, G.. H!
Stevens, the treasurer of the society
will pay off all premiums awarded at
the fair of 1908. -
There is considerable speculation as
to who will be president of the society
another year as Hon F. I. Brown, who
has held the Office for two years and
according to the unwritten law of the
society is not eligible again, would not
accept a reelection if it were rendered
him. During Mr.. Browns tenure of
office, the Kennebec County Fair has
been run very successfully and many
friends of the Society would like to see
Mr.. Brown continue in office another
year at least, but Mr.. Brown fatty re-
fuses to again accept the position. E.
E. Peacock who has served the society
as secretary for, the past two years is
mot a candidate for reelection and 1t is
rumored that c. H. Stevens, who has
most faithfully and efficiently served
as treasurer of the society for a period
of nearly twenty years is not anxious
to become his own successor.
The Kennebec County Fair is the
oldest of it's kind in the State and IN
the United States. Located as 1t Is
without direct steam or electric rail-
road connection, it's supporters, at
times. have had hard work to make the
income equal the expenditures. Dur
ing the past few years, however, the
finances have made an increased show
ing in nearly all of the departments
but in one or two departments the ex-
penses have been increasing and the
receipts decreasing. The fair of 1905
was a success, financially, in all de-
partments excepting the horse de-
partment where there was a consider
able deficit This was due in part 70
the holding of races on all three days
of the fair Prior to this horse races
were held on the second and third Gays
only, and ais those We're the days Wnen
the greater number of people were IN
attendance the devotees of horse rae
ing argued that the horse races were
the chief drawing cards of the FAIR
and that racing on all three days would
draw a big crowd on the same days
Two good races were held on the first
day Of the last fair but the small at
tendance on that day conclusiveiy
demonstrated the fallacy of the argu-
ment that horse racing is all that the
people attend fair for. Everybody is
invited to- attend the Rally Day
exercises. Last year, about y l5t
I awaited themselves of this opportunity
i and the indications now point to a
4 much larger attendance on Wednesday
il --a....- an GA