PROCEEDINGS STATE AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION 121 



You may not believe me, Bill, but there wasn't any street car strike 

 in Des Moines this year. No, sir, we got pretty good service, and if a 

 man felt sorta luxurious he could get in an auto and ride in for a quarter. 



But it wouldn't be fair time if something didn't happen. So it rained 

 frequently and hard. Always, or most always, at night, though. Regular 

 washerwomen's weather. A little hard on the folks that was camping 

 out, I expect, but even if they did get damp most every night, they was 

 always some sunshine next day to dry out things. 



Folks are funny. Here we had almost seventy thousand people for 

 the train wreck day and less than forty thousand for the live stock 

 parade, the best feature of the fair. And it was a mighty fine parade, 

 too. That is, my oldest boy, Jim, who had a calf in it, tells me it was. 

 I thought I'd better be starting home about Wednesday night, and 

 missed it. 



Fairs ought to be educational, and this one certainly was for me. I 

 learned that I'm not near as good a horseshoe pitcher as I thought I was. 

 You know they always thought — leastways I did — up in our neighborhood, 

 that I was pretty fair. Beat most of the boys and pretty easy, too. 



Let me tell you something, Bill. As a horseshoe pitcher I'm not even 

 good enough to carry the shoes for Frank Jackson or Lundin or most 

 of those boys. Why, Bill, up our way if a man throws a ringer about 

 every third or fourth shoe, we thinks he's a wonder. When they get a 

 player like that in the tournament at the fair, though, everybody looks 

 like they wondered who left the gate open and what's this stray doin' 

 here? Ringers and double ringers don't mean nothing to those fellows. 

 Only time one looks pleased is when he piles up a double ringer on a 

 double ringer the other fellow has just thrown. Frank Lundin, of New 

 London, got both state and national championship. Frank Jackson was 

 runner up. 



There's lots of apples in Iowa this year, Bill. You should have seen 

 the bunch they had up in the agricultural building. I guess this will be 

 a good year to buy up several barrels and put them down cellar and 

 cheat old Doc Barnes out of some more money, eh, Bill? 



The county exhibits wasn't quite as strong as last year, but we still 

 worked up quite a little excitement over which was which and whether 

 the judge really knew his business. Polk county got first in the state 

 again, with Guthrie second, West Pottawattamie third, Carroll fourth 

 and Clarke fifth. Webster was first in the north central section, Osceola 

 first in the northern section, West Pottawattamie in the southern and 

 Polk in the south central section. 



On the individual farms E. M. Wilson of Panora, J. A. Mason of Car- 

 lisle, J. T. Wason of Panora, and John Justice of Ankeny, placed in that 

 order for the highest scoring exhibits. I sorta guess you would call these 

 fellows general purpose farmers. Me, I figure on letting the other 

 fellow do a little work. I don't want to raise everything on one farm. 

 I'll swap a pig or two for some fruit and not run around in circles quite 

 so much. 



Speaking of farmers, the state of Iowa isn't so slow. The exhibit of 

 the Board of Control over under the amphitheater was mighty fine. Good 

 looking handwork of all sorts and mighty good looking truck. 



