334 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



1st. As to the qualifications, fees, duration and privileges of membership. 



2d. Exhibitors, their fees, prerogatives and privileges defined ; shall they 

 be considered, or required to become members. 



3d. Time of closing entries ; a rigid or lax enforcement of the rule ; punc- 

 tuality secured. 



4th. Kefusal to receive animals or articles for exhibition, that have been 

 withheld until the books are closed and the fair opened. 



5th. Kequiring all animals and articles entered to be on the ground and in 

 position, at the latest, on the evening of the first day. 



6th. A full descriptive tag, for the information of the public, to be con- 

 spicuously attached to all animals and articles entered. 



7th. Au equitable schedule of prizes to be oifered, without discrimination 

 or bias in favor of any department. 



8th. Selection of intelligent, uninterested judges, whose award shall be 

 final. 



9th. Not permitting the removal of animals or articles from the ground 

 until the actual close of the fair on the afternoon of the last day. 



10th. No special privileges or guarantees to any; equal and impartial treat- 

 ment of all classes of people. 



11th. An immediate and full report of the doings of the fair to be made 

 and published by the officers. A copy of same to be sent to the State Board 

 of Agriculture. 



Then there is the question of renting space, and licensing to come upon 

 the grounds a miscellaneous horde of showmen, gamblers, bawds, thieves, and 

 rumsellers, to prey upon the young, the innocent, and the unsuspecting. 

 Besides, there are noted bandits, atheists, preachers, assassins, and politicians, 

 ready, for a consideration, to "lecture" the hardy sons of toil, mainly "to 

 draw a crowd.' How is agriculture prompted in the slightest degree by baloon 

 ascensions, negro minstrels, harlequin shows, and mountebank performances? 



We are free to say, that agricultural societies do not exist for the purpose of 

 furnishing employment and salaries to officers and employes; or to increase 

 the trade of railroads, merchants, hotel-keepers, saloons, boarding-houses; 

 or to grant facilities for foreign and promiscuous shows. Should any society 

 in this State that has been organized for any good purpose allow itself to be, 

 in any measure, controlled by such influences? 



Certain philosophers claim that the character of a people may be estimated 

 by their national amusements. Amusements are a matter of taste; and nature 

 and habit have much to do in fixing their quality. 'Thus it is said that the 

 native Englishman, whether peer, peasant, or laborer, will always sacrifice 

 a day for a horse race or a prize fight. The Frenchman delights in the 

 gayeties of the ball room ; the Spaniard in a bull fight ; and the Italian in a 

 hand-organ and puppet show. An American woman said "that her husband 

 would sit on a barbed wire fence all the afternoon, and never flinch or move 

 a muscle, to see a base-ball match, or an agricultural 'boss trot,' but when he 

 went with her to church, he couldn't sit still in a soft cushioned pew fifteen 

 minutes without wriggling and squirming all over the seat." It may be as 

 difficult to explain the phenomenon of this as it was in the case of the boy 

 who asked his father why certain widows were called "grass widows." " That 

 is something I cannot explain to you very well, my son." "Father," said 

 the bo}', "I think I know; I guess its a woman whose husband died of the 

 hay fever." The character of the side attractions and amusements that are 

 allowed upon the fair grounds should receive careful attention. An agricultu- 



