NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 579 
the historical building, Polk county's splendid new court house, the many 
new office buildings along the business thoroughfares, the fine department 
stores, and numerous others smaller, but equally complete in their respec- 
tive lines, were visited by throngs early and late, and the concessions 
made for the comfort of the fair visitors will be remembered with the 
beauty of the buildings, Ingersoll, our popuar amusement park, vied 
with the attractions at the fair grounds, and was crowded to its utmost 
capacity each afternoon and evening. With the state fair at the extreme 
eastern limits of the city, and Ingersoll park west of town, the city rail- 
way handled the traffic with remarkable ease, and without accident. 
Considering the jam at the gates each day the few minutes delay in load- 
ing a car was not worth mentioning, and the street car company deserves 
unstinted praise. 
Within the gates one passed between long rows of refreshment booths 
extending on either side of the wide brick walk, clear to the stock pa- 
vilion. If you turned off to the right, you entered the semi-circle of stock 
barns, where the aggregation of blooded and high grade animals, cattle 
and horses, has never been equalled at any fair in the world. 
Because this is from a woman's standpoint, I cannot particularize, but 
I want to mention in passing the splendid horses exhibited by the Ar- 
mour company, with heavily gold-plated harness and mammoth wagon, 
and the barn full of cunning little Shetland ponies, which every child 
wanted to see. 
If you turned to the left instead of to the right, you wandered along 
among the side shows, with their free exhibitions — mostly noise — every 
few minutes, to attract a crowd. Chief among these was the Igorrotte 
village, \^ere swarthy savages from the Philippine were on exhibition, 
portraying the customs and characteristics of their tribe. 
If you kept straight on up the walk — and in passing it might be noticed 
that there are walks of brick or cement now connecting most of the 
buildings, so that the weather is not at all the serious problem it Vvas a 
few years ago — you reached the fine stock pavilion, where the judging 
occupied all the middle hours of each day, and in all that vast building 
it was difficult at all times to obtain even standing room, for women as 
well as men, coming in just to look, became interested enough to stay 
for hours at a time. 
West of the stock pavilion has been erected this year an administration 
building that would be a credit anywhere. On the settees that lined the 
wide verandas encircling the building on all four sides, many hundreds 
of people daily found rest and a delightful place from which to view the 
grounds. Within, in addition to spacious private offices used by officers 
of the association, was a wide court, resembling a hotel lobby, with a 
fountain in the center, and opening off this court were writing and rest 
rooms. In numerous quarters provision was made for the comfort of 
visitors, and upon the hill beyond the exposition building, the large hall 
formerly devoted to horticulture was given over this year to rest rooms, 
a nursery, where babies could be checked in care of competent nurses, an 
emergency hospital and doctor's oflBce. 
