NINETEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 105 



Mr. Earl Ferris, Franklin County : Gentlemen, we have put 

 on a fruit show down at the Coliseum, which is one of the best 

 exhibitions of the kind ever pulled off in the State of Iowa. We 

 want to make this fruit exhibit an annual affair, and something^ 

 that Iowa may be proud of. We who have charge of this exhi- 

 bition feel we cannot make it an annual affair unless all the men 

 like you in the State of Iowa are interested in it. I have been 

 sent up here to invite you to come down, and as soon as this 

 meeting is over we want you to visit our fruit show. My in- 

 structions are that if you don't come on invitation I must use 

 either chloroform or a gun. 



Mr. E. M. Reeves, Bremer County : I make a motion that at 

 the conclusi-on of this meeting those present go in a body over to 

 the Coliseum and visit the fruit show on the invitation extended 

 by Mr. Ferris. 



Mr. E. T. Austin, Marshall County : I second the motion. 



The President : You have heard the motion and the second. 

 All those in favor of the motion say Aye. Unanimously carried. 



The President : We have with us today, gentlemen, a man 

 whom I have personally known for the past twelve or fifteen 

 years; a man of whom I can say, without fear of contradiction, 

 that he has been one of the most untiring workers in state fair 

 work in the United States. He has been president of the Amer- 

 ican Association of Fairs and Expositions for the last two years. 

 He is now secretary of the state fair of the great State of Kansas, 

 and I want to introduce to you, Mr. A. L. Sponsler, who will 

 speak to you on the subject of "Fairs, Their Opportunities and 

 Management." 



FAIRS, THEIR OPPORTUNITIES AND MANAGEMENT 



By Mr. A. L. Sponsler (Hutchinson, Kansas). 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention: In an unguarded 

 moment a few days ago I answered an invitation, hastily, that I received 

 from your secretary to address you here today. After thinking about it, 

 it struck me that my reply really should have been similar to that of the 

 colored man who was asked to change a twenty-dollar bill, I should have 

 refused with "thanks for the compliment"; consequently I appear before 

 you today with an apology and with due humility, because I do not assume 

 to come here to teach you men of Iowa how to run a fair. Out in the states, 

 generally, we look to Iowa as affording the sample fair of the United States. 

 You have developed here one of the greatest plants in America, and you 



