216 ANNUAL REPORT 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. J. M. Smith said lie had been assisting in the manage- 

 ment of fairs for twenty-five years paist and would like to ask 

 Mr. Gregg a question about their management. He had spent 

 much time considering the matter of horse racing at fairs, 

 the awarding of premiums, etc. Teaching a horse to trot was no 

 worse than to teach him to draw a load and anyone would pre- 

 fer a fast horse to a slow one; some things incident to horse trot- 

 ting at fairs were to be deplored, but which seemed almost in- 

 separable to them. While managing a certain fair in Wiscon- 

 sin he had determined to have some honest horse trotting, and 

 he had informed a certain mau of his purj^ose in that regard, 

 asking him to take charge and give them some good, honest 

 trots. The gentleman looked at him in a calm way and said: 

 "Do you ever 'expect to have an honest horse trof?" There 

 was no such thing as honest horse trots, the drivers would 

 make up some scheme to have their own way about it. The 

 managers could not banish pool-selling entirely. Their Wiscon- 

 sin agricultural society received $4,000 a year from the State; 

 county societies two hundred dollars each, provided no games of 

 chance were allowed and certain other requirements complied 

 with; this was having a very wholesome effect upon the charac- 

 ter of their fairs. 



Mr. Gregg favored employing honest drivers at fairs instead 

 of jockies. He hated to see a horse brought upon the grounds 

 weighted and strapped criss-cross, with the whipping, swearing 

 and making things look "blue" generally. Sx3eed was depend- 

 ent upon form and not on strapping and rubbing. A. horse that 

 had been well bred loved to trot and to make his time as a bird 

 loved to fly, and he believed that honest drivers could be had; 

 let them be had, let them be paid, and let a premium be placed 

 on honest driving. , 



Mr. J. M. Smith thought the responsibility for all this gam- 

 bling and liquor selling on fair grounds should be taken from 

 the managers by being i)rohibited by law. 



Mr. Harris said he had been for several years past on the 

 board of managers of the State Agricultural Society. Six or 

 eight years ago the board was nearly a tie, but a majority were 

 in favor of abolishing liquors of all kinds from the grounds. 

 This last year the board took no action as a board, the matter of 

 privileges being left to a committee; the result was liquors were 

 sold at the state fair. 



