FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



migratory principle. Years afterwards, the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England had the value of 

 this principle forcibly brought home to it. It 

 was a curious fact that more Oxford residents 

 took the trouble to travel to Witney to see the 

 show than ever visited it when it was at their own 

 doors, and this experience was repeated in after- 

 years. 



The question of supplementary attractions not 

 strictly agricultural at shows was for long a subject 

 of acute controversy in agricultural circles, but the 

 logic of facts has practically settled the matter, for 

 it is now generally admitted that the turnstiles 

 would never click fast enough to pay expenses if 

 such attractions were not forthcoming, nor would 

 societies be able without such assistance, owing 

 to lack of funds, to help agriculture to the extent 

 they do now. So, as the old saying has it, " You 

 must go for the bridge that carries you over." 

 You not only want the shillings of the agricultural 

 expert but those of his women folk also and of 

 the man in the street as well. We live in an age 

 of competition, and many rival attractions have 

 sprung up in recent times to tempt the ordinary 

 pleasure-seeker. It is an age, too, that pays little 

 deference to mere tradition, and, consequently, 

 no institution can permanently live upon memories 

 of the past. Whether it be a business or a society, 

 it must nowadays possess the power of adapting 

 itself to modern conditions if it is to hold its own. 

 The old show programme, which took cognizance 

 only of the tastes of the agricultural section of 

 the community, is too restricted for to-day, and 

 a wider circle has now to be appealed to. How 



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