ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 39 



year. An unusually good collection of fowls, more than 

 five hundred, received much attention. The exhibits in 

 every department were large and fine. On the second day 

 of the Fair, the citizens of Peabody, Salem, and other 

 towns joined in a street parade, which included the horses 

 and cattle and extended over a mile in length. The 

 weather was favorable and great popular interest was 

 aroused. The delegate from the State Board remarked in 

 his report : "Without a horse trot or other outside attrac- 

 tions aside from a bicycle race and firemen's muster, the 

 attendance was very large, the entrance fees amounting 

 to over $4,000." It was estimated that ten thousand 

 people were on the grounds. 



Hon. George von L. Meyer in his Address in 1897, re- 

 marked upon two recent or recently improved inventions, 

 which were destined to work great changes in farm life, 

 as in society generally. 



Fifty years after the arrival of the first passenger 

 train, a thoroughly successful horseless carriage was run 

 through Salem over our Essex roads, and I venture to 

 predict that some of us who are here today will live to 

 see the time when it will be as rare to see carriages drawn 

 by horses as it is at present to see street cars drawn by 

 horses. I noticed in Paris last Winter the automobile 

 as it is there called is becoming quite a frequent sight. 

 . . . Bicycles are now so cheap that they are within 

 the reach of mechanics and farm laborers. 



In 1898 the new order had commended itself so well 

 that Gen. Francis H. Appleton declared, "We must have 

 more land for a grand stand that shall have seating 

 capacity to rest our visitors and patrons and from which 

 they can view a half-mile track to find entertainment." 

 The annual deficit had now been replaced by an annual 

 profit. 



But the exhibition of 1899 was visited with heavy rain 

 and consequent shrinkage in attendance and in revenue. 

 Rev. J. M. Pullman, D.D., of Lynn, delivered the Address 



