ANNUAL EXHIBITION. 
127 
As the opening was neatly a day earlier than ever before, 
some anxiety was felt as to whether the different departments 
would be ready at the time appointed. The result proved the 
wisdom of the arrangement. The heavy machinery had mainly 
complied with the new rule and was in place and ready to 
move at the throb of the steam engine. The long avenues, so 
handsomely arranged by the superintendent of operative ma¬ 
chinery, were lined with attractive implements of nearly every 
conceivable sort. The horses, cattle, sheep, swine and poul¬ 
try, with the exception of some few animals that were unavoid¬ 
ably delayed in the starting or on the way, were in their stalls ; 
and more entries than ever before since the organization of the 
society were on the books of the secretary. 
The address concluded, the secretary called the roll of the 
judges who had been appointed to examine this multitude of 
exhibits and award the premiums. And now came the sore 
trial of the board. Not more than half of those who promised 
to perform this arduous but responsible and honorable service 
were there. As must always be the case, the president’s hands 
were more than full with gathering up the odds and ends in 
parts of the exhibition, and getting the whole machinery of this 
complex organism known as a state fair nicely in operation, 
each superintendent was in constant demand in his own de¬ 
partment, the treasurer was as busy as possible in arranging 
his large clerical force to meet the expected assault for tickets, 
and the secretary had need to be everywhere simultaneously, 
and to answer from ten to one hundred questions a minute. 
Not the most favorable conditions, certainly, for the import¬ 
ant judicial work of weighing the qualities and qualifications of 
men, and inducting them into the business of awarding com¬ 
mittees ! 
At length, however, the committees were filled, and the 
members thereof engaged zealously in their work—with vary¬ 
ing results of course, which, in some cases, left knotty ques¬ 
tions to be settled by the executive board, and yet in the main 
with very good satisfaction to the society and public. 
