Chapter XVI: How to Get Up a Girls’ Fair

LET two or three young friends help you get up the fair. Tell them that this is not to be an ordinary fair, it will be more interesting and unique; that buyers will find things which cannot be purchased elsewhere for any amount of money, as all articles for sale and even the decorations will be made by the girls and boys themselves, and duplicates are not to be found in the stores. Inform the young people that a prize will be given to the girl and to the boy whose work is the best.

=Form a Managing Committee=

and talk over arrangements with them.

If the fair is to be large, you will need either one large room or several small ones.

When the question of place has been settled to the satisfaction of all, make out a list of the various girls and boys who will help with the entertainment, and divide the list into as many parts as there are young people on your managing committee, including yourself. Give each member of the committee his or her portion of the list, with instructions to see every person whose name is on the paper and find out what each particular one will promise to make for the fair. Do not confine the soliciting to young people of your own little circle, ask for contributions from all the girls and boys your managing committee are able to reach. Some may want to make several articles each, others may wish to do the decorating, and so on. Space must be provided on the list of names for writing down under each name the articles promised (Fig. 224).

Let each contributor understand that every article sent in must have the name, age, and address of the sender written in ink and fastened securely on each separate article, that every girl and boy may receive full credit for what she or he has made (Fig. 225).

In addition to the attractive booths you should have the ever popular grab-bag and the

“Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie”

will be just the thing.

Take an ordinary wooden tub (Fig. 226), cover the outside with gay tissue paper laid on in flat plaits from top to bottom. Paste the paper along the inside of the top edge, carry it over on the outside down under the bottom edge. Cover the handles with the same paper, and fasten ribbon bows on the outside of the handles (Fig. 227). If the tub is covered with pink tissue paper, tack pink ribbons on the handles; if red paper is used fasten green on the handles.

Fill the bottom of the tub with large, lightly crushed pieces of newspaper, cover these with a double layer of smooth paper, leaving sufficient space at the top for a layer of sawdust, bran or sand, deep enough to cover the different sized articles intended for the grab-bag. Each separate article must be wrapped in paper and tied with a string (Fig. 228).

Make as many

=Blackbirds=

as you can place conveniently, without too much crowding, on top of the pie.

Use medium stiff cardboard or smooth water color paper, not too limber, for the birds. Cut them from an enlarged pattern of Fig. 229, as the birds must be life-size. Paint or ink the bird black on both sides and, when it is dry, bend up the tail in a curve. Bend up the neck at dotted line of Fig. 229. Pinch together the beak and bend it downward, bringing the head forward at dotted line of Fig. 229. Turn up the wings according to dotted lines on Fig. 229, and curve them over and outward at the top (Fig. 230). Puncture two holes in the back of the bird at the dots A and B (Fig. 229).

There must be a handle for lifting the blackbirds; make it of a hairpin. Bend one end of a wire hairpin into a square hook (Fig. 231) and slide the longer end up through the foremost hole on the underside of the bird; tie the centre of a string, nine inches long, on the horizontal bend of the hooked end of the hairpin; then push the short end of the hook up through the other hole in the bird, bringing the string up close against the bird’s breast. Bend the short end of the hairpin down on the bird’s back and flatten it with a hammer. Curve the top of the hairpin into a handle (Fig. 232) and fasten the hooked end of the hairpin more securely to the breast and back of the bird by pasting a piece of paper over the short portion of the hairpin lying over the back (Fig. 233). Push the paper up tight around the edge of the wire. Paste another piece of paper over the short length of hairpin on the bird’s breast in the same manner (Fig. 234).

Set the blackbird away until next day, when it will be perfectly dry, and you will find the hairpin secure in its place, standing straight and steady.

Tie the two ends of the string together into a hard knot; then bend one half of another wire hairpin into a hook (Fig. 235) and fasten it securely on the string at the end of the loop; twist the long handle of the hairpin hook (Fig. 235) around and over the string, as shown in Fig. 236.

Instead of making one complete blackbird at a time, it will be much quicker and easier to make a pattern and cut out all your blackbirds first; then ink or paint them all, and continue working on them in this way until all are finished about the same time. It will not take long when once you have the pattern enlarged, and you can make the pattern the proper size by the system of squares, large and small, as explained in Chapter XIV.

When the birds are made and ready for the pie, hook

=A Package on Each Blackbird=

(Fig. 237), and hide the parcel and string down under the sawdust, resting the bird on top of the pie; then when any one wants to purchase a “grab” let him lift any bird he chooses from the pie by means of the hairpin in the bird’s back.

The girl or boy in charge must take the parcel from the hook, give it to the purchaser, quickly slide another package on the hook and sink it down in the pie in place of the first one. While the purchaser is left entirely free to choose, she should take care not to disarrange the packages in the pie.

Extra packages must be kept in a covered box or basket at one side, back of the “Blackbird Pie.”

Another original idea for your fair will be

=The Express Office=

At this table each article must be daintily tied up in white paper and the package labelled with the Christian name of one of the young people. Wrap up a number of articles that your friends may find parcels waiting for them when they call at the express office. The packages should also bear the name of the city from which they are supposed to have been sent. For instance, if you have a friend named Mary, and Mary happens to be acquainted with some young people in Cincinnati, mark the parcel for her with the name Mary and the place Cincinnati, Ohio. The addition of the name of some city will add greatly to the interest and excitement when the package is received.

Though a package may be intended for a certain person, any one with the same Christian name may purchase the article, but it cannot be sold to a buyer bearing another Christian name, and should some one come for an express package and the express agent be unable to find a parcel labelled with the purchaser’s name, the would-be buyer must leave the office empty-handed.

The uncertainty of finding a package at the express office lends a certain charm to this table, for every one will feel some curiosity to ascertain for a surety whether he or she is included with the fortunate ones whose names appear upon packages.

Arrange all your articles for the express office in alphabetical order, those on one side of the table for girls, and on the other side for boys; then the parcel bearing the name called for may be quickly handed out to the inquiring purchaser.

=Letters to Girls=

and letters to boys are easy to write. Ask as many friends as possible to write one or more letters to any companions they choose whom they think will attend the fair. The letters must be signed by fictitious names, never the writer’s own name or the name of any real person; then those receiving the missives will have the sport of trying to find out which of their friends actually wrote the letters.

Several days before the fair opens all the mail, after being addressed and sealed, should be sent under additional cover to you personally.

=The Post-office=

must be made very attractive, though it need not occupy much space. A mere corner of the room screened off with dividing drapery of turkey-red cotton cloth or any gay material will answer the purpose. Open the drapery at the centre division and make a three-cornered tent-like window in front between the two curtains with the aid of a chair. Place a box on the chair reaching to the top of the chair-back, set the chair between the two curtains, turn its back toward the people and cover it with the same material used for the curtains; then pin this drapery to the curtains on each side.

=The Decorations=

must be very simple and inexpensive; something which can be made easily and quickly, and when finished they should be bright and effective.

Have your decorating committee cut a number of flags from different colored tissue paper or low priced muslin varying in length, anywhere from ten to fifteen inches, and in width from five to nine inches (Fig. 238 and Fig. 239). If the ceiling is very high the flags may be larger.

Paste the straight dotted edge of each flag over a strong string long enough to extend in a graceful loop from the centre of the ceiling to the side wall (Fig. 240). Place the flags about twelve inches apart on the string and make four strings to reach to the four corners if the room is small, if large, a dozen or more flag-strings, according to the size of the room. Have a generous supply.

Tie one end of each of the flag-strings close to the ceiling on the chandelier or lamp hook. Wind an extra string tight around and over the string-knots on the chandelier to hold the strings in place and keep them from slipping down. Tie the free ends of the flag-strings to picture-hooks and fasten the hooks on the picture-moulding. In this way you can obtain good results without the slightest injury to the walls. Should there be no picture-moulding, fasten the strings to large, strong tacks or small wire nails driven in on the top ledge of the window and door frames where they will do no harm.

Fasten extra strings from top of window and door frames, and draw them taut along the walls, then tie the intervening flag-strings on these and the effect will be much the same as with picture-moulding, almost like a tent of small flags.

Hang a long, gay tassel on the wall at the end of each flag-string. Make the tassels of bright tissue paper. Take the once folded sheets of the variously-colored tissue paper as they come from the store, and cut them into long fringe, lengthwise of the folded sheets (Fig. 241), making each separate strand of fringe not less than one inch wide. Pinch the twenty-inch-length fringe together at the top, wind and tie it with a string (Fig. 242), allowing one end of the string to extend out at the top; wind farther down and tie again to form the head of the tassel four and one-half inches from the extreme top (Fig. 243).

These large tassels tied to picture-hooks by eight or twelve inch lengths of string wound with gay paper and attached to the picture-moulding at the end of each line of flags make a fine finish and form a decoration for the walls.

Let your tables be of different sizes, and cover them with white cotton sheets folded in such a way that the sheet will fall within one inch of the floor at the front and at the two sides.

Decorate the white covering in various ways, making the tables gay with inexpensive colored cambric, or crimped tissue paper. The plain tissue paper will not be strong enough to use for this purpose.

The first covering of white gives value to the colors, causing them to appear even more brilliant than they are in reality, and it also renders it possible to use much less colored material than would otherwise be required, in this way lessening the outlay for decorations. But in order not to tear the muslin sheets while fastening on the decorations, paste must be used in place of tacks or pins.

Make the colored material into wide strips cut into points or fanciful designs and paste the strips at their upper edges along the top of front and sides of the white covered tables, allowing the lower edge to hang entirely free, except where pendant portions are inclined to stand out; these may be fastened in place with a little paste.

Cut some of the strips about fourteen inches wide; others wider, a few narrower; and make each strip long enough to reach around the front and two sides of one table. Lay a brilliant red strip eighteen inches wide down on a flat surface and fold crosswise through the centre; fold again and again until the piece is of the desired width, about two and one-half inches; then cut according to dotted lines (Fig. 244). Open out and cut off every other lower ornament and you will have Fig. 245. Attached to a table this decoration gives the effect seen in the first illustration.

Fold and cut a green strip fourteen inches wide like Fig. 246. Open and it will be Fig. 247. Another design of orange color is given in Fig. 248 and Fig. 249.

You can devise many other decorative designs fully as attractive as these, and it is well to experiment with pieces of old newspaper, cutting them into various designs until you find just what you think will make good patterns. In this way your originality is brought out and in a measure your artistic sense developed.

Select a cheery, happy girl for

=Postmaster=

—one who cannot help giving a bright smile with every letter, and try to induce her to make some pleasant appropriate remark when handing out the mail, as this will add much to the enjoyment of the occasion.

More important though than anything else will be the large, the small, the useful, the beautiful and the odd articles for sale made by the girls and boys. There should be a lot of original valentines, May baskets, Easter-egg novelties, paper fireworks, Hallowe’en games, funny and instructive toys, tiny log cabins, scenes from Japan, Russia, the Philippines, and many other interesting things, not forgetting the Punch and Judy shows, the circus, the seven wonders of the world, and the home-made rugs, candles and candlesticks.

The post-office entails little or no extra expense and money taken in for letters will be almost clear gain. Expense incurred by the entire fair need be but slight and all the proceeds might be devoted to some charitable purpose.

One of the best of objects for the money obtained by your fair is the “Fresh Air Fund,” which helps the poor little suffering city children to a breath of pure fresh air and saves the lives of many frail girls and boys. Think how glad you can make some of these young people; then, of all the enjoyment your own companions will have in getting up the fair, and how proud and happy your parents and teachers will feel when they see the result of your work. If a “Fresh Air Fund” does not exist in your locality there are other methods of using your profits to good ends. Really there is no telling how much good your fair may accomplish in many ways.