FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 257 



In regard to the horses, there are only so many of them. The 

 fairs all come in the month of September. There are ninety fairs 

 in Iowa and eighty of them are in September. The horses can't 

 live on air during the summer. There is only one race a week in 

 Iowa during the summer, and then in September come eighty 

 races. You can't make any horses for that week. You might en- 

 courage them to train more horses for the rest of the time if the 

 entrance was not so heavy. And you want them as an attraction 

 feature. They will not disappoint you as much as the aeroplane 

 men. Heretofore you have got them here, five $300 classes, $1,500. 

 $1,500! A few of the board of directors have fainted. Suppose 

 you take $600 off of that, and that leaves $900. Now then you 

 bought three or four vaudeville acts and paid $1,200 or $1,500 for 

 vaudeville acts, and the racing cost you $900. You are looking at 

 it wrong. These men that race horses do not come there to sell 

 the horses. They are not stallion men, they have no calves or 

 pigs to sell. You must realize the difference. They are for enter- 

 taining. It is a business with them, the same as vaudeville is 

 business with the vaudeville people. You have to think along that 

 line. 



Vaudeville Man from Chicago : The only instance I have known 

 in a life time in this show business where a count was put on this 

 thing was at an exposition in Canada. The question arose as to 

 whether or not they should cut out the vaudeville, races and the 

 foolery. The Canadians are a serious minded people. I think it 

 wa.s in the House of Parliament. Anyway, the thing degenerated 

 to a one-horse circus. It was started to be an educational propo- 

 sition. It was a very bitter discussion, about equally divided. 

 They finally determined not to take the matter up, but to put a 

 count without telling the show men or the horsemen or anybody. 

 They put a counting machine in the pocket and the man pressed 

 it on every person. Anybody that entered they counted one. Any- 

 body that left the building was counted out. Now, for every person 

 that entered the educational part there were nine went into the 

 field. They had to go around to the front of the grand stand 

 where the horses and vaudeville and fire works were held. Back 

 of the grandstand there was the educational part. There was 

 nothing in front but the horses, fireworks and vaudeville. At the 

 end of a week the count averaged nine to one. 

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