The Elk Mountain pilot., 1919-09-18
lts Growth.

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prepared by the United States Depart
ment of-Agriculture.)
The fair.
What does 1t mean to your
"Fair" is a very old noun. With va
riations in spelling 1t exists in many
languages.
"Fair" Is akin to the ancient "fes-
tus" and therefore cousin in some de-
gree Of the more modern "feast" and
FESTIVAL" and the like. ,-i
Always and everywhere 1t has car
ried the away-from-wOrk idea. It has
always been pretty much what we
mean nowadays by holiday" though
not what that word meant originally.
"Holiday" was "holy day" and sacred.
Fair" has always been secular
wholly human sort of thing.
Fair time is playtime. That 1t al
ways was, that it always meant to
most people, that 1t always will be.
But for every play there must be play
ers, and two kinds of them. too-play-
ers who play playfully and players
who play laboriously. more or less, for
the entertainment of the others.
And 1.-THE fair" has a very different
meaning for the two classes. The big
bunch goes to have a good time. to be
carefree. to drink red lemonade and
throw confetti and toOt tinsel horns {:
to get the CLINT Of twinkling horse
heels on q saffron track; to see the
broad-backed cattle. the prettily packed
jellies and jams, the big pumpkins, the
intricate needlework. the FULFILLED
ears Of corn and to mill around, going
nowhere In particular and not caring
especially II they never get there.
But with 1t all they are getting a
sugar-coated education. The fair il q
university in which the festive stu-
dents soak up science unawares.
Then there must be the other kind
of players-the ones who put on the
ahow"-the professors and instructors
and tutors In this most accommodating
of academies. And there has to be
somewhere a sort Of teachers college
for those people. There are. in fact
lots Of normal schools for fair profess
sors, but the United States department
of agriculture is the graduate college.
And one of the queer things is that
any boy or girl still in the grammar
grades Of the public school may be
doing postgraduate work in getting
things ready for the fair.
Much In Getting Ready.
Too many people, the department
experts say, do not know how much
depends on preparing exhibits in the
right way. on getting the pig or calf or
corn or canned stuff in just the right
shape to show to the best advantage.
One of the boys club workers tells a
story in point.
"One of our club boys in Mlssisslp-
pi," he says. grew an acre Of mighty
good corn and entered an exhibit in
the county fair. There were four
prizes, but he couldn't even get the
fourth one. The Judge simply tied on
the ribbons and made no explanations.
The boy was disappointed-not rebel
lious, but he wanted to know why his
good corn couldn't get a prize. went
over 1t with him, showed him that
some of his biggest ears had crooked
rows and how others had other de-
fects. Picking out the best ear said,
If you had ten like this you could
win prize
SWELL that boy went back home and
carefully examined every ear Of his
corn. He found only nine that he
thought were as good as the one had
pointed out. He went back through
the whole pile again and finally found
the tenth ear. He sent those ten ears
to the state fair-and won first prize.
Do you see? Knowing a little Of how
to prepare the exhibit made a state
winner out of corn crop that was an
also ram at the county fair"
Manicuring the Pig.
Now the boy who is preparing a pig
: or a calf for the fair has more COM
plicated task than the one who enters
some corn. With the corn boy the
whole problem is selecting the right
ears. With the others 1t Is not only
selecting the right individual but do
ing \ great many things to put that