The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1919-09-19

thoroughly iSPiSai fNInSIlSdh DoJ
It's Gi
prepared by the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture)
The fair.
What does 1t mean to your
Fair" Is very old noun. With va
riations in spelling it 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.
Always and everywhere it has car
ried the awayfrom-work idea. It has
always been pretty much what we
mean nowadays by holiday" though
Holiday" was "holy day." and sacred.
"Fair" has always been secular-a
wholly human sort of thing.
Fair time is playtime. That it al
ways was, that 1t 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 laborlously, more or less, for
the entertainment of the others.
And "the fair" has very different
meaning for the two classes. The big
bunch goes to have good time, to be
carefree, to drink red lemonade and
throw confetti and foot tinsel horns;
to get the CLINT Of twlnkling horse
heels on a saffron track; to see the
11lhssoad-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 If they never get there.
But with 1t all they are getting a
sugar-coated education. The fair is a
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
show"--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 mucl
depends on preparing exhibits in thu
right way, on getting the pig or calf Of
corn or canned stuff in just the RICH
shape to show to the best advantage
One OF the boys club workers tells /
story in point.
some of our club boys in Mississir
pi," he says, 'grew an acre of might,
good corn and entered an exhibit Il
the county fair. There We're fou
prizes, but he couldn't even get TIL
fourth one. The judge simply tied o
the ribbons and made no explanations
The boy was disappointed-not rebe
llous, but he wanted to know why hi
good corn couldn't get prize. wer
over 1t with him, showed him ths
some of his biggest ears had crooke
rows and how others had other d,
fects. Picking out the best ear sai,
IF you had ten like this you coul
win a prize.
swell, that boy went back home an
carefully examined every ear of h
corn. He found only nine that
J thought were as good as the one h,
pointed out. He went back throui
the whole pile again and finally fouI
the tenth ear. He sent those ten en-
to the state fair-and won first pril
Do you see? Knowing a little Of he
TO prepare the exhibit made sta
winner out of corn crop that was
also ran at the county fair"
Manleuring the Pig.
Now the boy who is preparing I
or calf for the fair has more co
plicated task than the one who ent'
some corn. With the corn boy
whole problem is selecting the Ri
ears. With the others Il Is not OF
selecting the right individual but
ing great many things to put 4