SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART IX. 449 



the officials could worry along a year or two longer in the old and 

 undignified shack which constitutes their headquarters, if the comfort, 

 the convenience and the safety of the exhibits and the fair-goers could 

 be conserved by the erection of the new structures mentioned. Un- 

 doubtedly new buildings will greet the eye of the visitor next year. A 

 handsome surplus from the profits of the preceding fairs will go far 

 toward this work, but very liberal appropriations from the legislature 

 are needed. About eight acres of ground lying between the entrance 

 gates and the Rock Island Fair Ground station are under option and 

 that option is almost certain to be closed and this level bit of ground 

 made into a swine department, thus allowing room for the much 

 needed expansion of the horse department. 



Iowa farmers do not need a stone house to fall on them to carry 

 conviction of a situation. It is most singular that in this "granger" 

 state, as the easterners call it, with farmers most assuredly in the 

 saddle in halls of legislation, money should longer be denied for the 

 upbuilding of this great exhibit of things agricultural that attracts the 

 attention of farming and commercial America. The present situation 

 is not in consonance with the progressive spirit of Hawkeye farmers. 

 It does not read like a page from the book of their achievements. The 

 State Fair Ground equipment — barring the substantial new buildings — 

 is a libel on the known temper and intelligence of the Iowa farmer. 

 And he can wipe out this reproach if he will. 



The Rock Island Railroad maintained its- excellent fair ground serv- 

 ice, running trains at frequent intervals that handled hundreds at a 

 trip. There is no happy solution of getting 50,000 people away from 

 a fair ground all in the same half hour, but this steam road meets its 

 obligations in good fashion. The trolley does as well as its natural limita- 

 tions will permit. It is at best a makeshift in times of great con- 

 gestion, and is to be avoided when steam cars are available. 



The Highland bag pipers made one of the hits of the week. They 

 were enthusiastically received wherever they made their appearance and 

 gave great eclat to the processions of prize-winning horses and ponies 

 that daily filed up the main avenue and down past the grandstand. 

 Liberati's band gave concerts that held the close attention of all 

 the hundreds who could get within hearing out under the shade of the 

 beautiful trees, while in the live stock pavilion the wind had been tem- 

 pered to the shorn lamb — or the volume of sound from the bandstand 

 had been reduced to the agreeable strains of an orchestra that did not 

 try to oppress with their volume of its music — ^"enough and not too 

 much," as the Latin had it of old. 



The new rest room for women and the emergency hospital up on 

 the hill are notable additions to the highly appreciated equipment of 

 these beautiful grounds. Back over the hills 5,000 people were en- 

 camped the week long in tents, and the hillsides were black — or white 

 — with humanity at nearly all hours of the day. 



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