VERMONT AGRICULTURAL, REPORT. 



that the lower element should be catered to, and the better class 

 let severely alone. This was precisely what the management 

 proceeded not to do. The best people in the community, the 

 pastors of the churches, and the "four hundred" were asked for 

 their help and suggestions. The sabbath schools were offered 

 free use of the grounds and buildings for their annual picnics. 

 The grounds were kept neat and tidy at all times, and flower 

 beds were planted and kept in order, a handsomely constructed 

 driveway encircling the grounds was kept open for public use, 

 but the race track and athletic grounds were kept closed on 

 Sunday, and although a little kick was made at the start, the 

 act was fully approved of, especially by the hard working horse- 

 men. All these overtures were met in the most cordial manner, 

 and all the best and highest interests of the community were 

 thoroughly aroused as the word was given out that the new 

 fair was to be clean and healthy from core to circumference. 



So thoroughly were the ladies interested that the local 

 Woman's Clubs offered their services in taking charge of an Arts 

 and Crafts and kindergarten exhibit in the big coliseum, which 

 by the way, is the largest exhibition building of its kind in New 

 England, being 175 by 100 feet in size. Of course their services 

 were heartily accepted, and then and there the future destiny 

 of this fair was settled and determined. The idle drivel about 

 petticoat sovereignty and Sunday School horse trots was drowned 

 out by the onward and upward progress of the fair. A clean 

 fair was the watchword, and even the men who formerly had 

 made a business of polluting fairs, caught up the refrain, and 

 sang it to the echo. It sounded good on the air, and was refresh- 

 ing and cheering to all. 



If it was to be a clean fair, all connected with it must be 

 clean. The cattle exhibit, the races, the men who cared for 

 the stock, the entertainments, and even the so-called fakirs. Here 

 came the rub. The wise ones said it was easy to talk, but when 

 the fair opened it would the old, old story, and the Central Maine 

 would be like all the rest. We had at our exhibition in 1905, 

 30,000 people present on Governor's Day, and among our honored 

 guests was our own chief executive, also the executives from 

 the good States of North Carolina and Vermont. Both of these 

 distinguished visitors expressed their great surprise at what 

 they beheld, for although the grounds were thronged with pleas- 

 ure seeking people, not an arrest was made all day, nor during 

 the night, when the grounds and track, brilliantly lighted, held a 

 large concourse of delighted people, far into the night. Not even 

 the slightest accident, not a loud, profane, vulgar, or insinuating 

 remark from all the fakirs, assembled from the four quarters of 



