The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1909-10-21
THE FAIR AND
THE FARMER
POINTS NOT USUALLY CONSiD-
Erred.
SUPT. A. E. CHAMBERLAIN
AN INTERESTING
ARTICLE ON FALL FAIRS.

Of this city, hands us the following
interesting article on the fair and the
farmer, covering some points Of these
fall expositions that are not usually
brought to light Mr.. Chamberlain
says:
Attendance at our state fair and
some of the county fairs held in the
state during the past month has
prompted me to ask your indulgence
to- the extent of little space in your
valuable paper. Conditions, the at
tendance and the interest displayed
by the farming public in these fairs
has prompted me to short discussion
of this subject
Unfortunately, and without reason
the agricultural fair is considered by
too many people as an enterprise in
behalf of the town in which it is held.
This is very unfortunate, and those
who view it from this standpoint are
making serious mistake. The agri-
cultural fair when properly conducted
is nothing more nor less than an ed
ucational institution, generally con-
Quoted and maintained at a large sac
terment of agricultural conditions in
the county or locality in which it is
held. Any fair conducted on any other
than these lines, is not an agricul
tural fair in the true sense of the
word. The townspeople are as much
interested in it's success as the farm
ers, because their success in business
or any enterprise they may be en-
gagged in, depends, in South Dakota
with the exception possibly of one or
two cities in the state, entirely and alb
solutely upon the success of the farm
ers in the immediate territory. Should
the crops fail in South Dakota for
three years, the grass would gl ow in
the streets of every town in the state
with possibly two or three exceptions
in the Black Hills. For this reason
the agricultural fair is something in
which everybody is interested. And
the interest OF everybody should be
in it's educational features and it's
value to the community from an edu-
cational standpoint. This being the
case, it should be clean. BY that l
mean it should be free from every
thing which tends to introduce, by
demonstration or otherwise, anything
not desirable in the boy or the girl, the
stances that the writer knows of in
this state this fall gambling has been
allowed upon the streets of the town
during fair time. Boys and young
men, and sometimes old men, have
been introduced to the game Of chance.
Fortunately, most of them were
plucked of their pocket money. But
unfortunately, occasionally one wins,
and Immediately the desire to procure
something for nothing receives an i'm
pulse which is entirely undesirable
and which it may take years for the
individual to overcome. This is the
wrong kind of education. A town or
city that will tolerate gambling In any
form upon it's streets during the hold
ing of an agricultural fair, or in fact
at any other time, is not entitled to
the patronage of the people of the COM
munity, and ought not to receive it..
This is putting the matter pretty
strongly, but not without considera
ton. One Of the worst vices of the
American people today is the gambl-
ing habit and gambling spirit-the
desire to procure something for moth
ing-that so largely prevails. 1t will
receive encouragement enough without
protecting and harboring it under the
guise of an agricultural fair"
We may be little foggish in our
ideas, but we think too that the wild
West Show" "Broncho Busting" and
some other features that are tolerated
upon the grounds might well be dis.
pensed with. The first thing peces-
sary to make a fair a success has al
ways been, and we hope always will
be, that Objectionable features shall
not only be excluded from the grounds
but from the entire vicinity in which
the fair is to be held.
These Objectionable features that
we have referred to are partially tc
be blamed to the lack of interest in
the enterprise, which the farmers dis
play. Very many of our county fairs
are almost entirely officered and sup
ported, and the work almost exclu
sively done by men engaged in bust
ness in town. This Is all wrong. The
townsmen should do their part. bu
the farmer ought to realize it's impor