i6th February, A. D. 1899. 



ESSAY 



BY 



Mrs. a. E. WHITAKER, 



Editor of Woman's Interest, New England Fakmer and 

 Grange Homes. 



Theme: — Antiquated Premium Listfi. 



The annual visit to the cattle show on Old Sturbridge Common 

 is one of the earliest memories of my childhood. Although 

 mine was a village home, its productive garden and the house- 

 wifely skill of my mother and grandmother were nearly always 

 represented in the hall. This early gave me a vital interest in 

 the exhibition. 



The anticipation and realization of the annual fair have lost 

 nothing by the flight of years, but there has come to me the 

 experience to form a more intelligent criticism and a better sense 

 of values. The development of the primitive village cattle show 

 of my childhood's rememl)rance into the grand jumble of fakirs, 

 sideshows, races, vaudeville exhibits, midways, balloon ascen- 

 sions, base-ball games, firemen's })arades and gambling, along 

 with grange speakers, governors, dairy cows of national fame, 

 birds of proud plumage and a hundred other attractions of the 

 up-to-date fair, in some respects has been abnormal. Some great 

 advances have been made, but not all of the transformation has 

 been progress. Much thought has been given to the modern 

 cattle show by the best friends of agriculture, while columns of 

 newspaper literature have been printed about it. 



My own thought has been directed towards that department 

 usually given to comprehensive name of woman's work. Here 

 the progressive spirit of the age has failed to make its full 



