EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IH 131 



it to tomorrow because we didn't have any buildings up." So he waited 

 around and the next day he attended the fair, at which, he said, there 

 were sixteen or eighteen people present. All the grains and vegetables 

 and other exhibits they had were placed in the bottom of a wagon box, 

 and the stock was in a rail pen. This was the first fair in Adair county. 

 In taking up various methods of building up a county fair, it is a 

 pretty hard proposition for me to get up and try to tell men of your 

 age and experience, who have had probably ten, fifteen, twenty-five, thirty 

 or forty years' experience, how to build up a county fair, and if I did know 

 how I probably wouldn't be here today; I probably would be up in Bremer 

 county. 



The first thing that I put down in my book is to keep down the ex- 

 pense. I am going to give you a topic and will want to hear discussion 

 on some such subject as this, "The length of a fair and how it is deter- 

 mined." As of course, it makes a lot of difference whether you are put- 

 ting on a three or a four-day fair, or a fair of any length. When I say 

 a two-day fair, I mean Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, because lues- 

 day is entry day; and a three-day fair is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 

 and, Friday. It makes a lot of difference whether you have a town of 

 3,000 population, or whether you have a town of ten or fifteen or twenty, 

 thirty, or forty thousand population. The length of the fair depends 

 upoji the number of people you can draw on, and you have got to 

 get the people there to make your fair a success. If yoii( have only 

 a limited number of people to begin with, and can get them there 

 in two days, it is to your advantage to make the fair short. In this day 

 and age of rapid transportation you have no difficulty in getting the peo- 

 ple in, and if you try to put on the same sort of program as would be 

 used in a large town, you are going to have your troubles. 



Along the same line of reasoning is the matter of special features. If 

 Mr. Brown goes today and enjoys the fair, when he returns home he 

 says to Mr. Jones, "Go tomorrow; they are putting on a good program." 

 A good first day Is good advertising, and if you can change your program 

 for tomorrow, you have an added advantage; but it's a pipe that if Brown 

 goes home on the first day and tells Jones, "Nothing doing; only a few 

 horse races," there is not much encouragement or inducement there for 

 Brown to go back, and no Incentive at all for Jones to go. If you have 

 a good thing, put it on the first day, and then Brown will tell Jones what 

 It was and they will both be there for the next day. 



Now, gentlemen, I will begin at the big gate and follow right through 

 to the end. I want to start this argument for you people to follow up, 

 beginning at the big gate. I don't care, gentlemen, if you have a $20,000 

 or a $100,000 gate, or if you have a two-day, a one-day or a four-day fair, 

 Vi^hen the gates are closed at night and you check up the money, that's 

 the proof of your success or failure.' If there is a leak in the bottom 

 somewhere your bank account is not going to fill up very fast. If you 

 have a leak at the big gate, I don't care how many boosters you have 

 got, there is something going wrong, and one of the greatest leaks to the 

 county fair is the pass-out ticket. 



This pass-out ticket is a ticket similar to that used in Savannah, 

 Clarinda, Burlington, Shenandoah, Greenfield, Maryville, and many other 



