The Redwood gazette., 1919-09-24

livestock and household and imple-
ment displays, of pattering trotters
and PAGERS and running horses, of
buzzing grandstand, of golden sun
shine and yellow dust-clouds. Yes, and
tired feet and Whimpering babies with
heat-rash and smart alexis here and
therefor we haven't reached the
land of perfection yet.
Now let's peel the surface off the
situation and see what's inside This
years fair is going to be a pretty
fine advertisement for our whole COM
munity-the surrounding farm lands
and farmers, the town and its enter
prising, public-spirited merchants.
And really that is the rock-bottom
purpose of holding a fair-advertis-
ing. 1t is a community aim and eff
fort to show its people how much
they amount to, and to show outsiders
that this is mighty good place to
live in-prosperous, progressive coun-
try and neighborly people. A man
looking for place in which to settle
down couldn't reasonably ask for any
thing more or better.
i Courtesy to Visitors.
The folks of this community un-
derstand one another. Our farmers
know the town business men with
whom they deal Our business men
are pretty well acquainted with most
of the people who come into their
stores. Now we want to shoW-all
of us-our spirit of kindness and
intelligence to the strangers within
our gates during the festival season.
It is the best sort of advertising we
can put forth.
1t is inestimably worth while to us
if visitors go home and say: Il always
like to attend their fair. The whole
town seems to wiggle its latchstring
at me. And they're the 'whitest' peo-
ple!-go out of their way to be polite
ready to give information or do a
little favor-I'm certainly going back
oftener and get acquainted with some
of them"
In order further to answer the ques-
tion which introduces this article, we
take down our handy reference book
"a large red volume-and turn to
page 426. Therein we learn that the
word fair" is derived from the Old
French "feire," the modern French
''foire," the italian "fiera," the Latin
'feria," meaning holiday, and that
this is connected with the Latin 'fes-
tus," meaning feast.
In the United States there are no
fairs of the kind that have been COM
mon in the Old World. The term here
is applied to variety of exhibitions,
such as church, charity and agricul-
tural exhibitions, and local, state, ma
tional, or international expositions or
fairs. The fact is, the term is applied
to all exhibitions where people are ex-
pected to bestow patronage or make
purchases.
Bits of Fair History.
The most common kind are agricul-
tural fairs-county and state, as you
know This kind got their start as
regular thing in America in 1919.
At Albany, N. Y, there was pros
porous merchant, Elkanah Watson,
who believed that such an enterprise
would encourage farming and manu-
| featuring and help business. He used
{ his influence with the state legisla-
! ture, and that body appropriated $10,-
900 yearly, for six years, for premi-
ums on agricultural products and fam
lily manufactures.
Since then annual county, district
/
held The district and county fairs
the sale of goods, but for advertis-
ing purposes we have said. City
street fairs, where amusements of
various kinds are furnished, are in
tended to promote the welfare of the
city by attracting traders to them.
The same goes for worlds fairs which
are held in this country While COM
modities are sold, the primary object
is to advertise.
In the Old World the fair or bazaar
is an ancient institution. If we could
find files of the daily papers and coun-
try weeklies when old Mr.. Pharoah
was Ringing for living, when Pro-
| fessor Plato was discoursing on pure
democracy and the what and how of
republic, when the thousand and one
events of the Arabian Nights Enter
tainments were being worked out, we
should probably find articles like this
one-an editors write-up of the an
nual fair in his town.
Barter and Exchange Places.
People throughout Europe look up
on the fair as a meeting held for the
purpose of exhibiting and selling
goods. Originally fairs were held at
stated times and places, some for the
sale of a particular class of merchan-
disc, others for the sale of goods OF
general character. People resorted
to them to exchange goods and to
collect their stores to last for several
months. Princes and the magistrates
of cities encouraged them and some
of the privileges granted long ago
still remain in force.
Such fairs as these flourish today
on the outskirts of civilization, as in
Siberia, Manchuria, Asiatic Turkey,
where people live isolated for long
stretches of time and do their buying
no oftener than once or twice a year.
They originated In the church festl-
walls, which were found to afford the
best opportunity for commercial trans
actions. the concourse of people be-
IN. c,,ch nc took nIace lIDOn no 9TH