The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1912-09-13
What's the Usep

fair. But the first matter to be dis
posed of is the failure of Mr.. Benoist's
aeroplane and the obligation and re.
w sponsibility of the Obion County fair
association. Who is to blame? The
fault lies somewhere, but it looks like
the irony of fate more than anything
else. The uses of adversely have been
very exacting and severe with our fair
association. One year the fairgrounds
were covered all fair week with a pond
OF water, and the gates were not opened
Another year Mr.. 'Humpback" was
engaged with his dirigible balloon, COM
monty known as an airship. The fail
ure of this attraction is celebrated all
over the county. Nearly every year
except this one the county exhibits of
live stock and produce have been ex-
ceptionally fine. This year these things
were not to be had in this county, and
the management sought to add to the
races with the demonstrations of an
aeroplane in order to fill the gap. The
feature was advertised almost to the ex-
clusion of every other in twenty different
county papers for three weeks, besides
the billing and herald work. The con-
! tract was made with man of national
reputation. Twice the price was guar
anteed that less noted aviator would |
cost in order to avoid the misfortune of
failure. Fulton secured the same at
traction with five successful flights,
probably at less money The bunders
began with the failure of the aviator to
come at once to Union City as soon
as his contract was completed at Full
ton and get everything ready for his
demonstrations here, but, in common
with the men Of his guild, he was
bound to be obstinate, and remained
there until Tuesday evening in order to
satisfy little inordinate whim or ca
price in flying over to Union City The
president OF our fair, Mr.. Farris, pro-
tested. The secretary, Mr.. Woosley,
protested, but Mr.. Collins ram" was !
immovable and fly he would. But the
machine was of the single-pilot type
and not built for additional weight,
and to add to the foolhardiness of the
scheme he started with companion {
for Union City. The rest is public his
tory. They rose few feet in the air
and dropped outside of the Fulton linn
its total wreck. No lives lost, but the t
fortunes of county fair staring the t
face of ruin-a county fair association 5
trying to recuperate and build up its
reputation made the victim of head {
strong, crazy aviator, who valued his :
senseless stunts more than the reputa-
ton of his employer or the interests of {
the association he was to aid with his $
demonstrations. i
All this is indeed misfortune, but :
there is something else affecting our fair
more than all these things have affected
dt. The association has just begun to {
realize what this trouble is; we discov- |
cred it some years ago. The people OF ,
Union City do not attend the fair. The !
statement means, OF course, that rep !
resentative number OF Union City citi-
Gems do not go to the fair, and that {
amounts to the same thing. Union s
City does not patronize the county fair {
located right at its doors, and therefore !
refuses to contribute to the success of
one of the greatest, if not the greatest,
public enterprises we have. We do not
exactly agree with the officers OF the ,
fair that the merchants should close
their places of business every afternoon {
of the fair, but every merchant in town
should close at least one afternoon of
the fair so that the clerks and sales [
people can attend the fair. Yet this /
is not the heart Of the trouble. OIL
itself it is small matter. If the feel !