4 OBSERVATIONS ON EASTERN FARMERS AND EASTERN FAIRS. 



all Eastern fairs constitute an attractive feature. The merchant builds 

 his own booth or cases, many of which are very attractive, and these 

 are left in place ready for use from year to year as the seasons come 

 around. In some instances large merchants, and in many instances 

 manufacturers, have their own buildings, constructed and maintained 

 on the State Fair grounds as a concession from the directors. On the 

 Minnesota fair grounds the Minnesota pioneers, the Minnesota women, 

 and the Minnesota New Englanders have their respective buildings, and 

 almost every important paper in the State has its own small but gener- 

 ally artistic structure for the exclusive use of its correspondents and 

 other representatives. Other buildings on the Minnesota grounds are 

 the agricultural hall, the dairy hall, the fish and game building, the 

 poultry building, sheep barn, hog barn, machinery hall, manufacturers' 

 building, etc., in addition to the trotting stables, the horse and cattle 

 stables, the machinery sheds, the amphitheater, the grand stand, the 

 hotel, and the dwelling-house. This latter is a two-story brick structure, 

 which, besides providing the secretary with a comfortable home with all 

 modern conveniences, contains well-equipped permanent offices for the 

 secretary and a meeting place for the directors. The secretary, there- 

 fore, lives on the grounds, always in close touch with his work and the 

 interests in his charge, and besides a home he is provided a stable, 

 horses, carriages, and a man to care for them. Mr. E. W. Randall, who 

 extended us every possible courtesy, is the present efficient secretary. 



On the grounds they have a mile track and a half-mile track, the 

 shorter one inside of the other, but so arranged that its starting point 

 and home stretch are in front of the grand stand, but just inside of the 

 main track. Their principal purses are for trotters and pacers, though 

 they have at least one running race each day of the fair; but while 

 their stakes for harness horses are from $1,000 to $5,000, their stakes 

 for runners are from $200 to $500. 



This State has had experience at its fairs with pool-selling and book- 

 making, and without them, and the result is a condemnation of the 

 pool-selling privilege under State auspices. I have before me a state- 

 ment of their receipts for every year down to and including 1889. At 

 that time pools were sold on the State Fair grounds, the Society was 

 paid for the privilege, and the receipts from all sources aggregated 

 $62,000. The press of the State severely criticised the management for 

 permitting pool-selling, and the people, particularly the producers, 

 relaxed their interest in the annual fairs. In 1891 the total receipts 

 dropped to $48,000. The succeeding year they dropped to $42,000. In 

 1893 (Chicago World's Fair year) they had no fair, but in 1894 the 

 total .receipts of the Minnesota State Fair, from all sources, pools, 

 privileges, and admissions, with two big cities at the gates to draw from, 

 amounted to only $33,500. By this time the press had become rampant 



