'60 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



When the arrangements were all completed and the Fair form- 

 ally opened, the spectacle presented was picturesque and striking. 

 Booths and tents were spread out in every direction to supply 

 the wants of guests; and as a multitude of people cannot be col- 

 lected even for the purposes of trade, without having some leisure 

 time to amuse themselves, every attraction of that nature was held 

 forth, to induce their coming and prolong their stay. Our old lit- 

 erature is full of allusions to the various amusements that delighted 

 the eyes, excited the wonder, and charmed the senses of the admir- 

 ing crowds. The rope dancer, the tumbler, the contortionist, the 

 gymnast, the walker upon stilts, the singer of ballads, and the for- 

 tune teller, drew together their respective crowds. Harlequin, 

 the Clown, and the Pantaloon, went through those feats and drol- 

 leries, which for so many ages have been the delight of the multi- 

 tude. The exhibitor of that unfailing source of mirth, the Pup- 

 pets, divided attention with the dancing bear and the mock doctor, 

 whilst everywdiere the gambler was to be seen busily engaged in 

 the practice of those deceptive arts, which have their success in 

 the mingled cupidity and credulity of the victim. In fact, these 

 gaming arts are very old. There is a drawing in Wilkinson from 

 one of the earliest of the Egyptian monuments, representing two 

 figures, one of whom is the proprietor of four small cups, upon 

 one of which the other, with confident eagerness, is laying his 

 finger, showing nothing less than that game of deception which on 

 the Long Island race-course is known as the Little Joker, and which 

 the English call Thimble Rig. In that crystalised civilization of 

 India, there is not, at the present day, a Fair, nor any considerable 

 gathering of people, at which the adroit practitioner of this decep- 

 tion may not be seen, diflFering only from the Long Island swindler by 

 the peculiarity of his shaved head. There were also athletic sports 

 of different kinds, races, stage plays, and many other entertainments, 

 which furnished together an endless round of amusement. 



With the advance of civilization and the growth of commercial 

 cities and towns, which are in fact but permanent Fairs, the neces- 

 sity for these institutions ceased, They became, at last, little else 

 than places to which people resorted merely for amusement; and 

 so far from promoting industry, or serving the purposes of com- 

 merce, they but drew together the idle, the dissolute, and the profli- 

 gate, leading to such scenes of debauchery, vice and intemperance, 

 as to make their general suppression, in many countries, an act of 

 public necessity. 



They continued to be very numerous, however, in Europe, even 

 to the close of the last century, and are still continued in the more 



