FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 185 



Mr. J. H. Hale: The majority of people want to f^o there 

 and gamble, and have a generally good time, and you have 

 got to go with the crowd. 



Mr. Fagan : I think the resolution is not necessary. I 

 think, gentlemen, that the present laws of the state of Con- 

 necticut are all right if they are enforced ; I think there are 

 laws enough to cover that, and if the gentlemen who favor 

 this will go to the fairs and see that the laws already on the 

 statute books are enforced, I think they can take care of all 

 the gambling. 



Mr. Hale: There is another side to this question. If that 

 resolution passes, we must either hold our exhibitions all alone 

 by ourselves, where there won't be anybod}' come and see it, 

 or else we must go to Orange, or this place in Fairfield 

 County, where it is said they have clean fairs. For a num- 

 ber of years this Society did get up a splendid fruit exhibi- 

 tion, and we held two or three splendid fruit exhibitions, and 

 nothing finer was ever done in New England. But, except 

 the members of our association and a very few people who 

 had business in the hall where it was held, we had a very 

 small attendance. Within the last few years our officers have 

 seen fit to carry our exhibition to some of the local fairs, 

 where they furnished us the opportunity and where they fur- 

 nished the crowd. We had it two years at Berlin, and there 

 were thousands of people there last year. We had it at 

 Rockville and there were thousands of people there, in fact, 

 the tent ^vas packed from morning to night, many stopping, 

 no doubt, on their way to gambling games, or on their way 

 back. W^hen they were busted they came to our exhibit, and 

 so an uplifting influence would be exerted on them. There is 

 no use of preaching to saints, they don't need saving; it 

 is the sinners you want to get at, and, according to some, 

 the agricultural saints are all in this Society. Now they 

 don't send missionaries to civilized countries — no, they send 

 them to those foreign countries that need their influence. 

 Why don't we send them there, and show them that there is 

 something worth seeing in Connecticut at a fair, besides being 

 skinned at a wheel game or some other gambling device. I 

 believe it would be a good thing for the society ; I believe 



