The Black Swans 



flocks and herds. It was indeed a 

 far-cry from the little county fair of 

 long ago, when as a boy I helped 

 collect for it our best productions of 

 garden, orchard, pasture and paddock, 

 to the World's Columbian Exposition. 

 It was a long leap from my first Iowa 

 State Fair at Cedar Rapids to the 

 imposing demonstrations of the Ex- 

 position Universelle de Paris of 1900. 

 There was some contrast between the 

 first Fat Stock Show I reported on the 

 spot where the Chicago Art Institute 

 now stands and the Royal Agricultural 

 Shows of England I have since at- 

 tended. But, after all, the difference 

 is one of degree only. The funda- 

 mentals are the same, yesterday, to- 

 day, tomorrow and forever. It is only 

 the setting that is different. The aims, 

 the objects, the purposes, the inspira- 

 tions have not varied. Then, as now, 

 it was the setting up of standards by 

 which the year's attainments in the 

 primal arts of peace might be truly 

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