einster every three years during the
first week of August held the 'Fair of Carman.' Great ceremony and
formality attended this event, the King of Leinster and his court
officiating. Music formed a prominent part of the amusement. One day
was set apart for recitation of poems and romantic tales, another for
horse and chariot racing. In another part of the Fair people indulged
in uproarious fun, crowded around showmen, jugglers, clowns with
painted faces or hideously grotesqued masks. Prizes publicly presented
by King or dignitary were given to winners of various contests.
Needlework was represented by 'the slope of the embroidering women,'
where women actually did their work in the presence of spectators."

A very important factor in the recent revival of interest in quilts
has been the springing up of impromptu exhibits as "benefits" for
worthy causes, the raising of funds for which is a matter of popular
interest. Does a church need a new roof, a hospital some more
furnishings, or a college a new building? And have all the usual
methods of raising money become hackneyed and uninspiring to those
interested in furthering the project? To those confronted with such a
money-raising problem the quilt exhibition offers a most welcome
solution. For not only does such an exhibition offer a new form of
entertainment, but it also has sources of interesting material from
which to draw that are far richer than commonly supposed.

Not so very long ago "The Country Contributor" undertook the task of
giving a quilt show, and her description of it is distinctly worth
while:

"My ideas were a bit vague. I had a mental picture of some beautiful
quilts I knew of hung against a wall somewhere for people to come and
look at and wonder over. So we announced the quilt show and then went
on our way rejoicing. A good-natured school board allowed us to have
the auditorium at the high school building for the display and the
quilt agitation began.

[Illustration: AS GOLDEN BUTTERFLIES AND PANSIES

Are so often playmates of little ones in the garden, and
beloved by them, they were chosen for the motifs of this
child's quilt]

"A day or two before the show, which was to be on a Saturday, it began
to dawn upon me that I might be buried under an avalanche of quilts.
The old ones were terribly large. They were made to cover a fat
feather bed or two and to hang down to hide the trundle bed
underneath, and, though the interlining