[A MOTHER GOOSE FAIR.]
BY AGNES BAILEY ORMSBEE.
Here is a new idea for a fair in costume for the Fresh Air Fund or some other charity, and one not too hard to get up. Did you ever hear of an evening with Mother Goose and her friends? Well, the idea is to have the attendants of the booths and tables appear in characters taken from Mother Goose's immortal jingles, with the dear kindly old face of Mother Goose welcoming all. To give such a fair the air of a social gathering, it is a good plan to have Mother Goose, the old woman with rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, the old man clad all in leather, and poor old Robinson Crusoe receive the guests, being introduced by little Tommy Trot, after Solomon Grundy has taken the tickets as each one enters.
This reception committee should be impersonated by some of your mothers and fathers, who would be willing to lend themselves for the interest they naturally take in the object of your efforts. Or else the older young people might enjoy the ceremony. The costumes would not be hard to make. Mother Goose should wear a short dark red, blue, or brown plain gown, a black apron, a white or gay-colored kerchief, and a white cap with a wide frill. The costume of the musical old woman should be similar, except her cap should be a high conical colored one trimmed with tiny bells. Bells should border her dress and be sewed to her shoe-tops, and her hair should be powdered. A cape, also bell-trimmed, might be substituted for the kerchief. The leather man should wear a coat and hat covered with the heavy paper which imitates alligator-skin, wear high-topped boots, and carry an umbrella in one hand and a cane in the other.
The next question to settle is about the booths. These should be rather small, so that there can be quite a number of them, and so that the articles for sale could in a measure be also in character. The slight wooden frame of the booths and their counters or tables should be hidden under drapings of cheese-cloth, cotton crépon, silkolene, or tissue-paper, each one being of single or harmonizing colors, pale lemon color and heliotrope, pink and blue, orange and black, being especially showy by electric or gas light. For the special decoration there should be placed high on the front of each booth a placard, being a characteristic quotation descriptive of the booth and its contents. This is an excellent chance for a handy boy or girl to do some fancy lettering. Supposing the central booth should have this rhyme:
"There was an old woman tossed up in a basket
Ninety times as high as the moon;
And where she was going I couldn't but ask her,
For in her hand she carried a broom.
"'Old woman, old woman, old woman,' quoth I,
'Whither, O whither, O whither so high?'
'To sweep the cobwebs off the sky!'
'Shall I go with you?' 'Aye, buy-and-buy.'"
I am sure your friends will excuse the pun in the last line, and, what's more to the purpose, will take the hint. Trimming the booth and displayed on its counter you must have brooms of all sizes.
You see there is a multitude of simple things you can make yourselves that will be appropriate for this booth, and much that will be contributed easily and willingly, and, best of all, they will be articles that every one will be glad to buy. I think the secret of success in such a fair is not to have too costly articles for sale. It is astonishing how quickly dollars grow from dimes, quarters, and halves, and how easily these small coins slip out of friendly purses. The chief young lady in charge of this broom booth should be dressed to represent the famous old woman, and each of her helpers should wear miniature brooms made of a few broom-splints and a toothpick for badges.
Another booth should be decorated with pictures of our tabby friends, corresponding to the jingle, "I love little pussy, her coat is so warm," while its contents should entice buyers with a display of animal toys of every kind—cotton flannel elephants dear to childish hearts, dogs, pussies, a whole flock of Mary's lambs, horses, and mechanical bears, if you should be so fortunate as to have the latter donated.
A third booth should be devoted to dolls dressed in every style and paper dolls, both of which are always saleable. Who ever found a little girl's heart so full that it would not admit one more doll-child to the play-house family? This booth could be draped with butterflies and festoons of the stars and stripes, and have for its motto,