County Commissioners Forbid Carnival for Albemarle District Fair Midway, Sept. 5, 1919

From The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Sept. 5, 1919

Would Make Midway for Fair Impossibility. . . Pasquotank County Commissioners Order Sheriff to Refuse License to Carnival or Amusement Companies Anywhere in the County

There will be no side shows, museums, menageries, merry-go-rounds, ferris wheels and like amusement enterprises in connection with the Albemarle District Fair to be held at Elizabeth City November 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, if the County Commissioners can prevent it.

The Commissioners of Pasquotank invoked Chapter 164 of the Public Laws of North Carolina of 1919, which authorizes County Commissioners to refuse permission to carnivals and other shows to exhibit in such counties. The Commissioners had gotten wind of the coming of the Krause Shows, which expected to show here under the auspices of the Loyal Order of Moose. Before Krause’s advance agent could get to the sheriff’s office for a license the commissioners blocked the show by ordering the sheriff not to grant license to any carnival company to show anywhere in the county.

The resolution was promptly adopted and then some one thought of the fair. The Commissioners admitted that they hadn’t thought about the fair, but they were of the opinion that the fair should not receive any special favors. One commissioner said: “If they can’t get up a fair without such things, then we had better not have a fair.” To this remark others nodded approval.

Now a fair without a midway is like a clock without works, like bread without butter, or like a bride-groom without a bride. The crowds that come to a fair come to be amused. They want plenty of life, motion, music, noise, bustle and excitement. They want something to do every minute. The midway attractions for a fair can be secured in only one way, and that is by contract with some amusement organization. No fair association could attempt to set up a midway by contracting with every show required. The carnival company comes in and puts up all the shows, paying the fair association a stipulated sum or percentage for privileges.

And so, if the County Commissioners have their way, the Albemarle District Fair may be as flat as an unleavened pancake.

The Fair Association may find a way out. The Revenue act which prescribes the taxes to be imposed upon carnival companies expressly states that the act does not apply to amusement parks otherwise taxed. The Fair Association may find a way out, in spite of the commissioners. But in the meantime, the action of the commissioners is giving everybody something to talk about.