Wichita eagle., 1888-05-27
RUSSIA'S FAIR CITY,
GEORGE KEENAN, GIVES A DEScRlP-
TON OF NIZHNt NOVGOROD.

A City Utterly Deserted at One Season
of the Year and syparming With Busy
MuItitudes at Another Time-Curious
Contrasts.
To traveller visiting Mimi Norgorod for
the first time there is something surprising,
and almost startling, in the appearance of
what he suppcses TO be the city, and in the
scene presented to him as be eInerges from
the railway station and walks away from
the low bank of the Okla river IN the direc-
ton of the Volga. The clean, well paved
streets: the long rows of substantial build
ngs; the spacious boulevard, shaded
DIV leafy birches and poplars; the
canal, spanned at intervals by graceful
bridges: the picturesque tower of the water
works: the enormous cathedral OF Alexander
Nevski; the bourse; the theatres; the hotels;
the market places-an seem to indicate
great populous center OF life and commercial
activity: but of living inhabitants there Is
not a sign. Grass and weeds are growing In
the middle of the empty streets and in the
chinlls OF the travel-worn sidewalks; birds
are singing fearlessIy in the trees that shade
the lonely and defaced boulevard; the count
less shops and warehouses are al closed,
barred, and padlocked; the bells are silent
in the gilded belfries of the churches, and
the astonished stranger may perhaps wander
for mile between solid blocks OF buildings
without seeing an open door, vehicle, or a
single human being The city seems to have
been stricken by pestilence and deserted.
If the newcomer remembers for what
&c alalAf- tod ha tS not
long, of course, in coming to the conclusion
that he is on the site of the famous fair; but
the first realization of the fact that the fair
is in itself separate and independent city,
and city which during nine months OF every
year stands empty and deserted, comes TO
him with the shock or a great surprise. The
fair city OF Mimi Noygorod is situated on
low peninsula between the rivers Okla and
Volga, just above their junction, very much
as New York city is situated on Manhattan
Island, between East River and the Hudson.
In geographical position it bears the same
relation TO the old town of Mimi Novgorod
that New York would bear to Jersey City if
the latter were elevated on a steep terraced
bluff 200 feet above the level of the Hudson.
AN EPKEMERAL LIFE.
The Russian fair city, however, differs
from New York city in that it is a mere
temporary market-a huge commercial cara
yansary where 500, goo traders assemble every
year to buy and sell commodities. In Sep
teraber it has frequently population OF
more than 100G00 souls. and contains mer-
chandise valued at $4,000. 600; while III
January, February or March all of its in
habitants might be fed and sheltered in the
smallest of its hotels, and all of its goods
might be put into single one of It's in
Vulnerable shops Its life, therefore, is a sort
OF Intermittent commercial fever, in which
an annual paroxysm of intense and unnatural
activity is followed by a long interval of
torpor and stagnation.
1t seems almost incredible at first that q
CITY of such magnitude-a city which con-
tains churches, mosques, theatres, markets.
banks, hotels, a merchants exchange and
nearly Z GOO shops and inhabitabe buildings
should have SO ephemeral a life, and
should be so completely abandoned every
year after it has served the purpose for
which it was created. When I saw this
UNIQUE city for the first time, on clear
frosty night in January, 1868 it presented
an extraordinary picture of loneliness and
desolatiOn The moonlight streamed down
into its long empty streets where the I'M
broken snow lay two feet deep upon the side
walks; it touched with silver the white walls
and swelling domes of the Ole fair cathedral
from whose towers there car he no clangor OF
bells: it sparkled on great snowdrifts heaped
I'D against the doors of the empty houses,
and poured food of pale light over thou
sands of snow covered roofs; but it did not
reveal anywhere sign of a human being
The CITY seemed to be not only uuinhabited,
but wholly abandoned to the arctic spirits of
solitude and frost.
BUSY MULTITUDE.
When I saw it next at the height or the
annual fair in the autumn Of 1870, it was so
changed as 10 be almost unrecogniZable. It
was then surrounded by great forest of
shipping; It's hot, dusty atmosphere thrilled
with the incessant whistling Of steamers;
merchandise 10 the value of l25, 900, 600 rubles
Law on its shores or was packed into its 5000
shops: every building within its limits was
crowded; $1,000 people were crossing every
day the pontoon bridge which connected it
with the old town; military band wa.
playing airs from Offenbachs operas on the
great boulevard in front of the governors
house. and through all the streets of the re-
l-or,a I ritx