STATES & CITIES: Yeah, Folks!

STATES & CITIES

Up and down the land farmers and townsfolk were asking their neighbors, What about the Fair? What was it like?

Adjectives used with good reason to describe it were “raucous” (the loudspeakers, the barkers, the blatant souvenir-hawkers); “stupendous” (the vast buildings, the colored domes, the lighted causeways); ”bewildering” (the endless exhibits, the jostling crowds); “disorderly” (the hodge-podge of scientific displays and Coney Island peep-shows); “interesting & instructive” (the industrial exhibits, the historical displays; but, even more so, the naive, gum-chewing, beer-swigging crowds); “wearying” (the 82 miles of exhibits, the hard gravel walks, the heat); “exasperating” (the incessant cries of “‘Yeah, Folks!” “Step this way folks.” “Hot dawgs, hot dawgs!” “Mister, have you tried our health drink?”); “amusing” (the comments of the crowd); “salacious” (the sideshows of the Midway); “tame and unoriginal” (the same shows).