Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1916-10-26
Offhe County
Fair Discussed by One
of The Superintendent

1t further provides fine OF not less
f.. than $50 or more than 500 for each
| offense for any officer to make or file
/ any false or fraudulent statement
The State Fair
You will note from the letter from
! the Zano company that Baraboo is
not alone in her campaign against
immoral shows and gambling devices
| but it is state wide. Much criticism
has been made of the state fair; so
much so that last year several socie.
| ties of Milwaukee appointed commit.
/ tees to visit the fair to ascertain the
true situation. Among these commit
| tees was a committee of five appoint.
! ed by the Commercial Travellers as.
ISOLATION (not the Gideons). I am
} personally acquainted with a mem.
Der of that committee, who told me
they found shows for men only that
were disgrace to civilization. They
reported the condition to the officials
and the next day several shows were
elected from the grounds, and this
year, according to our own people
who attended, and according to The
Wisconsin Agriculturist, the state fail
\ cleaned up greatly. I quote from ar
article from said paper, September
ri issue:
"The grounds were we'll cover
| ed with lemonade stands, eating
| houses, etc., and they were clean
and neat in appearance, an i'm
| prOvement over former state fairs
/ in this respect. We noted a good
many games of chance, such as
ringing canes, knives, rag doll
babies, etc. They are not bad
games by any means, and have
always been tolerated, and no
doubt always should be. But these
games are mot good thing on the
state fair grounds during chill
dren's day. They always have
| been tolerated heretofore on that
day and we presume they always
will be in the future, as they pay
a concession to the fair manage
ment which is quite an object.
They are not really gambling de-
vices in the true sense of the
term-just games Of chance. How
ever, we believe that they are
bad for children, for we noted
thousands of children around
& these stands, spending what little
they had in throwing balls at mig
! ger babies, etc. If possible in the
future we would like to see some
change made in this respect, for
the fair should teach moral les
sons as we'll as Others"
The Moral of It
contend that the amount of mon
ey received by the society from shows
ought never to have a place in ou]
thought. For any city or association
who for, money consideration, per
mlts a thing they know to be wrong
becomes a silent partner in the bus
mess or game, sharing the profits
with the wrong-doer and are account
able with the wrong-doer for the
wrong done. Tell me how any CITY
association or, even church, that al
lows spindle wheels, lottery tickets
raft1es, etc., to take place within its
jurisdiction can stand at the bar o.
justice and plead mot guilty.?
A Look Backward
The Sank County fair, I believe
has made for itself name as beine
one of the best county fairs in the
state. It's true we were short in
some lines of exhibit this year, owine
to the frost, which necessitated the
farmers cutting their corn and thus
could not bring stock, although stalls
had been engaged. But in spite oil
this fact, our Thursdays attendance
was nearly $500 in gate receipts 1arg
er than 1915, and 1915 saw the larg
est attendance ever known at the fail
grounds up to that time, and the com
pliment we have received relative tt
, having a clean, wholesome entertain
, ment far outweighs the criticism We
have received. In the last five years
there have been built one new COW
barn, three new horse barns. besides
the sheds, new we'll at the soutf
end, an addition to the grand stand
two new toilets, new woven wire
! fence, steel ceiling in the agriculture,
hall, new chicken house, ETC., and still
the society has gone in debt very
little to do this. Last year we paid
9 nearly thousand dollars on old in.