198 ANNUAL REPORT 



FAIR FAKIRS. 



By fakirs I mean those men who run fortune wheels, cane 

 racks, and gambling devices in general. They should be strict- 

 ly barred from the fair grounds, for they are but schools of vice. 

 I submit the following "points" bearing on this matter: 



1. The State legislates against gambling in winter, but ex- 

 pends its money in autumn to sustain the places where gambling 

 schools are held. The State pays a bounty for wolf scalps; let 

 it now go to raising wolves. 



2. The fair is now a bait that brings the farmer within the 

 reach of the net of the sharper; he then is made food of by fakir 

 sharks. 



3. Country folk, not worldly wise, are easiest caught; for this 

 reason the highest license is paid by fakirs for these fair-ground 

 permits. 



4. These grounds so occupied by games are doubly dangerous, 

 as respectability, like a cloth, covers the hidden trap. 



I rest the propositions with the question, "Should these things 

 be allowed!" 



GAMING. 



I have been compelled to see so much of this that the follow 

 ing short statements concerning it have come to mind and are 

 also submitted : 



1. Betting proposes to swap a useless opinion for another 

 man's money; a clear case of getting something for nothing. 



2. Betting is backing one's opinion with scrip instead of sense ; 

 a bankrupt head banking on the pocket. 



3. To "put up or shut up" is to close the mouth of the in- 

 telligent poor and open the mouth of the bawling rich. Wisdom 

 is gagged and folly excited to foolishness. 



4. Gambling is the action of the child man, the vice of the 

 savage, the foe of industry and the prolific mother of discontent. 

 Gambling has no defenders; society shrinks from it, laws brand 

 it, and its road leads to despair. Surely such a thing should not 

 have any place in the educational centres of a state. 



LIQUORS ON FAIR GROUNDS. 



Little need now be said here. Public opinion condemns it. 

 The outlook is that proper laws will be forthcoming withholding 

 state aid from fairs where its sale is permitted. 



