EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART III 149 



miltee, and that included the procuring of circuses and such other enter- 

 tainments. Prior to that time we hadn't had a circus in town for years, 

 but I got busy and brought the Hagenbeck-Wallace show' to town, and I 

 got some otlier good shows, and they proved a wonderful thing for the 

 town. 



Another thing, if you don't have a good band of your own in town, or 

 in the country, make it an inducement to the farmers to organize a band 

 which can be used at various entertainments; get a circus one month and 

 a Chautauqua the next month, but gi've the people entertainment. I be- 

 lieve that you can't give them too much. Make out all these programs 

 so that it furthers the interest of your fair and advertises it. I believe 

 that the circus furthered the interest of the people of Delaware county 

 in our fair. 



And in this method of entertainment, I wanted to instill into the minds 

 of the newspaper men and the people generally that we were trying to get 

 our fair back on the map, but if I went to some of our little towns around 

 and asked for space in the paper, the first question asked was, "Who's 

 going to pay for it?" The old fair had so broken down public confidence 

 that the first year I couldn't get a free act and I couldn't get a band 

 anywhere. 



The business men wanted to take hold of the fair in 1915, and when 

 they came to me I said: "Gentlemen, I think the best thing is to bury 

 it deep and give it all the flowers and water than you can." But in 1916 

 they decided that they would put on a fair and called for the directors. 

 They had some time in getting the old committee together and getting 

 things started. When they went into the matter they found one of the 

 biggest detriments to be the fact that there were 125 life-membership 

 tickets and fifty 25-year membership tickets out, which had been given 

 out by the old management. I won't attempt to give the. number of five 

 and ten-year tickets, but there was a proportionate number of them. If 

 any one can tell me how a fair or theatrical business can exist on that 

 kind of paper, I want to hear something about it. If we talked about re- 

 juvenating the old fair, some of the older heads would get busy in order 

 to protect their tickets. 



The last year the old company operated I stood at the gate, and, gen- 

 tlemen, these passes you have talked about aren't in it with a 25-year 

 or a life-membership ticket. That's a fact. If you have a number of 

 25-year or life-membership tickets outstanding in your association, you 

 have a piece of crape hanging around your neck right now. I stood at 

 the gate in the year 1914 and looked after that matter. I had experi- 

 mented in the amusement business, and let me tell you if you have an 

 amusement business you are going to get skinned. I stood at the gate 

 and I counted one rig in particular, old Dobbin and the surrey, con- 

 taining the holder of a life-membership ticket, a young man driver and 

 some women folks. Understand, I had nothing to do with the fair other 

 than being an interested spectator at the gate. We were trying to fur- 

 ther some plans for the fair at that time and I was there to get data for 

 the use of the business men. Then came that life-membership pass, held 

 by a nice old man, and in the rig drawn by a poor old black horse was 



