ASSOCIATION OF FAIR MANAGERS. 2l5 



peteut. A man of this kind will probably tliink he knows more about 

 fairs than he really does, and so there is trouble right from the start. 

 Every board of fair managers should, upon their election, take the re- 

 ceipts of the preceding- year and then fix their expense accounts in accord- 

 ance with the minimum receipts of the previous fair. If they do that 

 they will never be out of pocket, and they will often have money left to 

 repair the buildings and decorate the grounds. Often uien are made man- 

 agers of fairs who never give a thought to that business until the time 

 conies to begin operations, and they never once think then of there being 

 a bottom to the basket. They spend right and left, and when they come to 

 count up after the fair is over they find their accounts several thousand 

 dollars on the wrong side of the ledger. 



It is also a mistake for the fair management to get too far away from 

 the original agricultural idea. A fair that devotes all its time to the race- 

 course is not an agricultural fair; and a fair that has receipts of seven- 

 teen hundred dollars and gives premiums to the amount of twenty-eiglit 

 hundred dollars will be in a bad condition. As the gentleman who pre- 

 ceded me said, the premiums offered in the agricultural department are 

 not as large as they should be. It is a mistake for anj^ fair management 

 to neglect the agricultural interests. I believe the largest premiums 

 should be offered in the department of farm work. If you do that you 

 will interest a larger class of men, you will extend the interest over a 

 larger territory, and the result will be you will have more interest in 

 the fair. 



It is a mistake for managements to countenance any exhibition on 

 the ground that is of a questionable character. It Is a mistake to allow^ 

 upon any fair ground any apparatus for the purpose of gambling; I have 

 heard managers say, "Why, hieronymus will pay us eighteen hundred 

 dollars a year!" What if it does? It is a mistake to allow anything of 

 that kind, on the grounds. All such things should be discouraged. I 

 know that if you are looking at the fair through financial spectacles you 

 will consider that these things bring greater revenue than anything else, 

 but you will be making a mistake if j'ou allow them to run. 



It is a mistake for a management to offer sectional prizes or prizes 

 for the people of any particular community. ' There are not many fairs 

 than can offer two lines of awards, one for the foreign exhibitors and one 

 for the home exhibitors. They usually have not the financial ability to 

 do it. Even the State Fair, I think, should not attempt that. But I 

 would open the exhibits for everj'body; I would open them to the world. 

 What difference does it make to the persons who go to the fair to look 

 at the exhibits? What the people want to see is the best that can be 

 produced. There are not many counties in this State in which people 

 are not living who can be encouraged by coming in competition with the 

 people from the outside. 



