Loads of hay, even, were sent in
from ten or a dozen miles out, and sold at once in the hay market.
On the roads entering the city were seen rickety and lumbering
wagons, made of poles, loaded with a mixed freight,--a few
cabbages, a bundle of socks, a coop of tame ducks, a few barrels of
turnips, a pot of butter, and a bag of beans,--with the proud and
humane farmer driving the team, his wife behind in charge of the
baby, while two or three little children contended with the boxes
and barrels and bundles for room to sit or lie. Such were the
evidences of devotion and self-sacrificing zeal the Northwestern
farmers gave, as, in their long trains of wagons, they trundled
into Chicago, from twenty and thirty miles' distance, and unloaded
their contents at the doors of the Northwestern Fair, for the
benefit of the United States Sanitary Commission. The mechanics and
artisans of the towns and cities were not behind the farmers. Each
manufacturer sent his best piano, plough, threshing machine, or
sewing machine. Every form of agricultural implement, and every
product of mechanical skill, was represented. From the watchmaker's
jewelry to horse shoes and harness; from lace, cloth, cotton, and
linen, to iron and steel; from wooden and waxen and earthen ware to
butter and cheese, bacon and beef;--nothing came amiss, and nothing
failed to come, and the ordering of all this was in the hands of
women.
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