The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-09-05
THE OLD COUNTY FAIR.
Changed by the Coming Of the
Automobile.

Do you remember how along about
this time of year we used to nave the
county fair? OF course you do. Don t
90 putting on airs and letting on you
don Il know what l mean. You know
YOU were there and about the greenest,
pawkiest one on the grounds. | guess
YOU remember the time you climbed
clear to the top of the ladder to see
those cred bats and came down look
ing mighty sheepish. That WASH t very
long ago. either, and here you are now
sitting around in white pants trying to
act as if you had been born at Bar
Harbor Nv land! How some folks
do put on airs and try to let on they
don t know what longneck gourd is
But times have changed now :.
Things are not the way they used to be.
The old county fair is about gone. why,
it 5 getting so now that man who
comes in and ties his horses so they can
eat out of the back end of the wagon Is
laughed at9 You. never see anybody
anv more out by the side OF the road
! throwing stones to make the dog go
back. There isn't anybody any more
| who has to stop and get the colt out
| from under the traces because he thinks
! it is mealtime. You never see buggies
backed up any more with their tongues
over each other and their numbers
ehalked on the dashboard. It's getting
| so that YOU wouldn't know the county
| fair if it wasn't for the biggest pump
| kin: There -aten Y prize celts, Cal the
| fair these days, and the man with a
pair of matched Clydesdalcs would at
| tract more attention than Bella Kun
| It's all because of the automobile.
1t used to be that man who came to
fair with an automobile didn t have
a friend in the county They d talk
about him worse than Coxey's Army
and some lady was sure to have brok-
en- leg before night, but now man who
comes to the fair driving a~team is
looked on as a public nuisance. He I
considered as holding up traffic ano
would vote in favor of free silver. 1or
never hear horse squeal any more
and see two men streaking it off down
town behind the creamery to stop then
teams fighting. There hasn't been ;
good kicking match at a county fan
in six years The only time you eve
see two men streaking it off by them
selves now is when. one of them want
to buy a second hand Ford. 1t uset
to be when you passed anybody yol
looked to see if they had a colt fol
lowing-now you look to see if one o
the boys is coming on motorcycle.
1t used TO be when a parade cam
e down the street with Nick BEETLE an
S Judd Lewis pounding an anvil and To1
: Daily playing flute, everybody had t
n grab their horses by the, bit and elm
4 on for dear life, but now Pa sits bac
d in the Ford with his knees crossed, ca
ing an ice cream cone while Ma look
up from reading how Norma Talmadg
was poor girl before she started
the movies A few years ago the on|
Talmadge Ma ever heard of was Pre-
byterian.
The chicken show doesn't draw
crowd any more. Pa and Doug Ma
ZACH and the rest of them aren t int
ested. in the chickens any more. Thu
got some other place to go-they
down at the moving picture theat
looking at Mack Sennett's bathil
girls.
1t used to be the biggest time W
after supper with everybody standil
around and visiting and saying he
Strickland was growing like we
and Newt was the picture of his mot
er, but they don t any more. Inste
they re all down at the Jewell waite
ing some bride about to be disil
sioned.-Leslie s.