TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK -PART V l(il 



iut'ormation necessary at the fair, the man who uiakos himself valuable as 

 a secretary, or In any official position, must have a full knowledge of the 

 business Mith which he is entrusted. 



As a general rule, exhibitors and patrons will readily recognize ability 

 and actual worth in the official, even though he may lose his genial dis- 

 position during the heavy stress of labor, at the time of the exposition, but 

 no amount of "good fellowship" will avail an incompetent in office, in 

 this age it is necessary to "make good" in any position or step aside for 

 another. 



Among the most important officers connected with the Fair is the de- 

 partment superintendent. Here in Iowa you may be blessed with the 

 happy selection of a "live wire" as superintendent of the departments 

 of your Fair, but from experience when we find one who is alive to the 

 necessities of his department, we have another who never bothers about 

 the success of his department until he comes upon the Fair ground, and 

 then he wonders why his department is so lamentably weak in comparison 

 with that of the superintendent who has been working to secure a meri- 

 torious exhibit. As a usual thing these non-working superintendents come 

 to the conclusion that the secretary has not assisted to work up his de- 

 partment in the same energetic manner in which he has the department 

 with outstanding merit; and it is true that he has not, foi- a secretary 

 who is urged along some particular line by a working superintendent un- 

 consciously does a great deal more for that department than even he 

 himself knows. 



"When thinking of this we are reminded of the preacher's baby which 

 happened along some six or seven years after the family had been 

 blessed with their first-born, whose companions one day asked him "now 

 the baby got what she wanted when she could not talk?" The little boy 

 answered that it wasn't necessary for the baby to talk ; all she had to do 

 was "just holler and she gets anything she wants in our home." 



So it is with the department superintendent; he will get pretty nearly 

 anything he wants from the officers if he will "just holler." And if this 

 is true, why is the reverse not true? Therefore, Mr. Secretary, let me 

 urge upon you the necessity of securing the earnest working co-operation 

 of your superintendents, not by writing them one letter with the i^iforma- 

 tion of their appointment, but by systematically urging them each week, 

 of the necessity of the success of their particular department. My ex- 

 perience has led me to believe that many men throw away, or mislay, the 

 first letter with very little thought on the subject matter, but when tliey 

 receive the second, third or fourth, they begin to take notice and if there 

 is the usual amount of energy which is in so many men who are selected, 

 they will begin to work, if they have the proper amount of sand, and if 

 they have not, they had better draw a lesson from the bright saying of 

 the Council Bluffs girl, who was out walking with her best fellow one 

 Sunday afternoon. Coming to a secluded nook, he conceived the idea 

 that he would like to kiss her, so, puckering up his lips, he leaned to- 

 ward her; but his heart failed him and he straightened up without the 

 coveted luxury. Seeing a small cloud come over her face, he put up his 

 hand and began fumbling at his lower lip, when the girl asked him, what 

 11 



