FAIRIES 



2129 



FAIR OAKS 



tion; that they are the natural mental food 

 of children or of older people in an earlier 

 stage of development is shown by the way 

 they have been built up. 



Many of them are not artificial products, 

 invented and written out at a sitting, but 

 gradual growths which have been handed down 

 for centuries by word of mouth. It seems as 

 if people had the feeling that a certain ele- 

 ment of wonder was necessary in the world, 

 and knew no other way to introduce it. A 

 message must be carried instantaneously from 

 one kingdom to another; a prince must arrive 

 at his realm, many miles away, before an 

 hour has passed or he will lose his sovereignty 

 and how could these things be accomplished 

 except through the aid of fairies? To-day 

 the message could be sent by wireless telegra- 

 phy or by the telephone; the prince could 

 board an express train or soar through the 

 air in an aeroplane almost as swiftly as ever 

 a fairy could carry him. Far more marvelous 

 things than the most ingenious fairy chronicler 

 ever conceived of happen every day, and are 

 scarcely thought of; and a present-day num- 

 ber of a journal of science or invention would 

 have seemed more fantastic to the reader of 

 a century ago than do the tales of Grimm 

 or of Andersen to-day. 



The "Grown-up" Phase of Fairy Lore. Time 

 was when sedate grown people believed in the 

 "little folk," as the fairies were affectionately 

 called, for without them they could not account 

 for much that they saw in the world. Know- 

 ing little of science or of the laws of nature, 

 they had to introduce supernatural agencies. 

 If the cream turned sour over night, or if 

 the butter would not "come," the housewife 

 had offended the fairies, and they were taking 

 their revenge; if a child sickened suddenly 

 and died, the evil fairies were to blame. Grad- 

 ually, as education spread, these beliefs passed 

 away, but the delight of children in fairy tales 

 had become evident, and people continued to 

 tell them and to write them for that reason. 

 Some of those which are read and loved to- 

 day, as Cinderella, for instance, were written 

 far back in the time when a belief in fairies 

 .was widespread. 



Even to-day in most countries there are 

 those among the peasant classes who cling to 

 their belief in fairies or kindred beings. For 

 the fairies are not the only class of sprites 

 that figure in folklore. There are the dwarfs, 

 or gnomes, clever, malicious little creatures 

 that live underground and guard the jewels 

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and metals there hidden; there are the trolls, 

 little old men who live in the hills and steal 

 forth to carry away children and valuable prop- 

 erty; and the nixies, or water-sprites, who love 

 to entice men into their caves in the sea. The 

 famous Lorelei (which see) was one of these. 

 Nations differ, too, in their ideas concerning 

 fairies, those of Russia, for instance, being very 

 different from the English fairies. Of these lat- 

 ter Shakespeare gives most charming pictures 

 in his Midsummer Night's Dream. F.J.C. 



FAIR' MONT, W. VA., noted as a coal-min- 

 ing center, is the county seat of Marion 

 County. It is situated in the northern part of 

 the state, at the head of navigation on the 

 Monongahela River. Morgantown is twenty- 

 five miles northeast, and Wheeling is eighty 

 miles northwest. The Baltimore & Ohio Rail- 

 way, constructed to the city in 1852, and the 

 Monongahela Railway, built to this point in 

 1915, afford railroad transportation, and inter- 

 urban lines connect with cities north, west and 

 south. The city's population, largely American, 

 was estimated to be 15,506 in 1916, by Federal 

 estimate; the census for 1910 gave a popula- 

 tion of 9,711. 



Fairmont occupies both banks of the river, 

 the opposite sections being connected by a steel 

 suspension bridge. The coal industry leads in 

 its commercial activities, but the trade in glass 

 products is also important and foundries, plan- 

 ing mills, machine shops, flour mills, cigar fac- 

 tories and pottery works are included in the 

 city's industrial plants. 



The most notable buildings are the Federal 

 building, erected in 1914 at a cost of $125,000; 

 the Marion County courthouse, erected in 1895 

 at a cost exceeding $350,000; the $350,000 Wat- 

 son building, erected in 1910, and the high 

 school building. Fairmont is the seat of the 

 state normal school, which, with a business 

 college and public library, supplements the 

 public school system. The city has two hos- 

 pitals; one, exclusively for miners, is main- 

 tained by the state. 



In 1819 the site of Fairmont was laid out 

 as Middletown, and in 1842 Middletown be- 

 came the county seat of the newly-established 

 Marion County. Two years later its name was 

 changed to Fairmont. 



FAIR OAKS, BATTLE OF, also known as the 

 BATTLE OF SEVEN PINES, was an engagement of 

 the War of Secession, fought during McClel- 

 lan's Peninsular Campaign on May 31 and 

 June 1, 1862. Fair Oaks was a station on the 

 Richmond & York Railroad, seven miles east 



