Booth

“ Great is the fascination to the children in all these things, and the little feet are never weary until the last booth is passed, and the quiet of neighboring streets, lighted only by wandering lanterns, strikes the home-returning party by its contrast with the light and noise of the festival. ”

“ The grandest and most numerously frequented booth in the whole fair however is "The Crown and Anchor," a temporary ballroom—we forget how many feet long—the price of admission to which is one shilling.... The dancing itself beggars description—every figure lasts about an hour, and the ladies bounce up and down the middle with a degree of spirit which is quite indescribable. ”

“ Downs. The white booths, following the direction of the course in their sinuous lines, looked like stately white marble streets and crescents in the dim, uncertain light of that hour which, between May 31 and June 1, is neither day nor night. Under the stands and around the booths, tabernacling beneath costermongers' barrows, and even lying out openly sub dio, were still the hundreds of human beings. In one small drinking booth was a sight the policeman said he had never seen equalled in his twenty years' experience. ”

“ When he entered the club-house his host was alone.
“You wanted to telephone,” he said to Mr. Wellaway. “There’s the booth. It’s a money-in-the-slot machine. I’ll get a greens-ticket and a bag of clubs for you while you are in there, and we will not lose any time. When you come out, come up to the locker-room.”
Mr. Wellaway entered the booth and closed the door. He called for his number and waited while the connection was made. It was hot in the booth with the door closed, but not for the world would Mr. Wellaway have opened it. ”

“ These booths are built at the outer edge of the sidewalk, upon the roadway, leaving the passageway of the sidewalk at one side and the middle of the street at the other side. Most booths face the street, although often they are arranged to face both the street and the sidewalk. Each merchant builds his booth before his own store, making a display of merchandise in the booth, but selling goods only from his regular stock. ”

“ In the front of almost every hut was a booth—a booth piled with grains or fruits or any of a hundred other articles of diet, all equally unknown to us. Potatoes and bananas were the only things I recognised. Oh yes! and pumpkins. In each booth sat a salesman or woman. Sometimes it was a nearly naked coolie—as often it was a carefully dressed Cingalese woman. In every instance there was a pair of primitive scales, and, usually, a customer or two. Farther out, the streets grew more sylvan. There were more cocoanut trees and fewer houses. There were no more shops. ”

“ This booth is also decorated with flowers, and hence the fair has derived the appellation of “The Greenhill Bower.” On arriving at this booth, the gates of the enclosed park are opened and the procession enters. The different little machines are placed around the enclosure, and then put in motion by the separate “operatives,” in the presence of the higher portion of the corporation, who award which of the machines presents the greatest ingenuity, and prizes are distributed accordingly. ”

“ Each purchaser pulls up any flower he chooses.
Although brown seems a sombre color for a fair booth, it may really be used most effectively. Have the booth made oblong with a counter across the front and have each end covered with brown crepe paper with frilled edges; have also a brown curtain below the counter hanging to the floor. Have the roof, and the posts supporting it, covered with the russet leaves of the chestnut-tree, while around the roof a fringe of chestnut burrs is hung. At one end of the booth serve hot chocolate with whipped cream; at the other have all kinds of nuts on sale ”

“ Before each one stood a crowd of lookers-on, from which two or three peasants would every now and then emerge and enter the booth to see the spectacle. I never have seen gentler or simpler mannered people, or more easy to amuse. ”

“ In order that such a fair as this shall be a success and not wear every one out, you must divide yourselves into groups, with an older lady or ladies to direct your work. If you belong to the broom booth, do not change your mind and try to be a flower-girl at the last moment. If you are lucky enough to have given you, or to make something suitable for the needle-work table, turn it over to that group, and do not dictate how it shall be placed. Give your attention to making your own booth a success. It is wise to ask some one who is older to take charge of the fitting up of the booths. ”

“ One booth would be devoted to the sale of homemade candy, which the mothers of the Lookouts had agreed to contribute. Another would offer hand-painted postcards, pledged by the artistic element of the club. There was also to be a gypsy fortune-teller, a fish pond, a lemonade stand, an ice cream and cake booth, fruit and flower booth, a huge pumpkin on which guesses were to be sold regarding 166 the exact number of seeds it contained, and various other artful attractions which would cost little and yield much profit. ”

“ At first a cart or table is said to have served as a stage for the actor, a booth being provided at a later time as a background and dressing-room, with some kind of platform for a stage, in the neighbourhood of a spot suitable for dancing and overlooked by a rising ground from which the spectators might be able to hear and see what was going on. ”

“ The inevitable booth soon appears, with the usual accompaniment of cards and dice, and probably a third of your men are thenceforth without a dime and utterly unfit for work on Mondays, if you are lucky enough to escape dangerous rows amongst the drinkers. ”

“ The machines remain, and are put in motion and exhibited by their owners until the evening. The booth itself is filled with refreshments; and men being stationed at the gates to prevent the entrance of the disorderlies, every well-dressed person is admitted at once, and some cakes, &c. are given gratuitously away; the corporation I believe being at this expense. ”

“ The wide space in front of the old market-place was filled up with swinging boats and merry-go-rounds, and rows of booths ran down each side of the wide street next the pavement. A field between the street and the river was occupied by shows—a wild-beast show, a theatre, a shooting-gallery, and all the various amusements that attracted the country people who stood staring in groups, or wandered slowly in and out of one tent or another. Every hour the crowd went on slowly increasing, the noise and life of the fair strengthening. ”

“ See T.F. Coates, The Life Story of General Booth (2nd ed., London, 1906) , and bibliography under Salvation Army.
BOOTH (connected with a Teutonic root meaning to dwell, whence also “bower”) , primarily a temporary dwelling of boughs or other slight materials. Later the word gained the special meaning of a market stall or any non-permanent erection, such as a tent at a fair, where goods were on sale. Later still it was applied to the temporary structure where votes were registered, viz. polling-booth. Temporary booths erected for the weekly markets naturally tended to become permanent shops. ”

“ The Tulip booth may be the gayest of the gay, and there the children should find Easter eggs in all colors of the rainbow. The booth should be lighted with gay lanterns. Those in charge should appear in Oriental costumes.
The choice of decorations for the Pansy booth is a wide one. Light green would make a good background to set off the bowls of different colored blossoms adorning the table. At this booth flower seeds, bulbs and plants of all kinds might be on sale. Seedlings are always ready sellers. ”

“ Those who traffic in the stalls find many eager customers to buy their costly wares. I have seen one of these little booths, no better than that of some London costermonger, laden with over a thousand taels worth of jewels. The booths attract the attention of pedestrians. ”

“ The covering of the booth is made of paper. The tables may be of different shapes in different stalls. In the cloth merchant's stall, rolls of coloured paper are piled up to represent bales of cloth. To the pole is tied a sheep cut out of cardboard. An apothecary's booth with its red and white pole can be made. [Pg 189] Shelves of cardboard, supported on little pieces of wood glued to the posts of the tent, may be fastened round three sides of the booth; cardboard bottles are cut out, painted and fastened to the shelves by paper hinges, or bottles can be made of plasticine.
Fig. ”

“ Little merry-go-rounds buzzed like tops in cramped corners between pine lemonade stands and cheap shooting-galleries. Looking eastward, the eye rests with satisfaction upon the gilded satin of the Administration dome, and then it may take an observation to the westward of a flaunting placard:
Back of the sandwich counters and fortune-telling booths are stored the World's Fair hotels, looking like overgrown store boxes, with holes punched in them. ”

“ I’ve been at some fairs when we have done our performances eighteen times a-day, and I’ve been at some where I’ve only done it four or six, for it always depends upon what business is being done. That’s the truth. When the booth is full, then the inside performance begins, and until it is, the parade work is done. There are generally persons engaged expressly to do the parade business. ”

“ The master of the booth could not endure to see the departure of the most brilliant part of his spectators, and made an harangue, promising the company, at large, if they would submit to postponing the Consort, in order to oblige his friends the Quality, they should have it, with the newest squalls in taste, afterwards. ”

“ At fair times may be seen crowds of booths reaching from the “Rutland Arms”, to the post office—booths where are sold gaudy pots from Staffordshire, gingerbread flat and curly, fried fish, and the sticky sweetmeats beloved by children of country and of town. In the marketplace are galloping horses, swings, shooting galleries, and everything that from long usage appeals to the innocent rustic mind. ”

“ At the bottom of the hill there was a large and busy crowd at that time in the morning although but a few visitors had arrived. The Grand Stand was there and the Enclosure, although very much smaller than at present. Tents and booths covered the ground extending at least one-third of the extent of the course, with the signs of well-known London taverns, long booths, fitted as stables with livery stable-keepers with familiar names attached. Boxing booths, single-stick and quarter-staff and wrestling booths. ”

“ The locality is charming, the open booths round the garden exhibiting every variety of merchandise, and the numerous tables in the open air round which little parties are sitting, talking, drinking, eating, and smoking, while others are parading up and down, present a scene of remarkable gaiety, and when the concert began all the world flocked into the magnificent rooms, where everybody ranges about from high to low without paying anything. ”

“ I had just gotten inside the telephone booth and was ringing up the number when there was a commotion in the upper end of the waiting room and a large party of people entered, men and women and soldiers and young girls, laughing and shrieking and pelting somebody with rice and old shoes. ”

“ The booths should, of course, be draped in orange color, relieved by touches of white, the attendants' costumes being of the same shade. Orange blossoms, made of tissue paper, will add daintiness to the decorations.
An unoccupied house is a most convenient place to hold a fair. Each room may be devoted to some special attraction; one for the supper, one for the evening's entertainment, one for the fortune-teller, and so on. This idea is admirable for an affair of the nations, devoting one room to each country and its characteristics. ”

“ Once more in the open street, we pass up the crowded way into the market-place. A succession of wooden booths lines the road; and many of the houses have an overhanging floor resting on sturdy posts, which makes the footpath a rude colonnade. Here are piled rolls and bales of cloth, while the booths are crammed with a heterogeneous collection of articles of use and ornament diversified beyond description. A strange knot of gentlemen arrests our attention for a moment. They are clad in long gowns of black serge, and wear highly-polished boots reaching to the knee. ”

“ The booths leaned side by side, and stood so close together that in the summer time a sail was often stretched from one booth to its opposite neighbour, on which occasion [186] the fragrance of pepper, saffron, and ginger became doubly powerful. Behind the counters young men were seldom seen. The clerks were generally old boys; but they did not look like what we should fancy them, namely, with wig, and nightcap, and plush small-clothes, and with waistcoat and coat buttoned up to the chin. ”

“ Long rows of booths, brilliant with tinsel and gauds, exposed to view clusters of balls, masks strung by the eyes, tin toys, trains, carts, mechanical horses, carriages, steam-engines with diminutive boilers, Lilliputian tableware of porcelain, pine Nativities, dolls both foreign and domestic, the former red and smiling, the latter sad and pensive like little ladies beside gigantic children. ”

“ Some merchants, having the space, erect attractive booths, designed somewhat like the familiar food-show booths, directly in front of the door, after the fashion of department stores when holding a special sale on a certain article. ”

“ Build up their booths, and buy and sell in play;
But homeward hungering must at eve repair,
And standing leave their booths with all their ware:
So the world’s children, when their night is come,
With empty satchels turn them sadly home. ”