Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1890-03-22
eERMAn MARKeT FAIRS.
The Ancient Teutonic Custom as IL stu
FIourishes at Hanover.

The Ancient Teutonic Custom as IL StiII
FIourishes at Hanover.
This week there has been an oppor-
tunity to see market fair in Hanover,
which occurs only thrice year and lasts
but two or three days, In Fact / am lust
returning from wandering about town
in a drizzling rain. bumping umbrellas
in the crowd of chatrering and chatter
ing Hanoverian5, and receiving an occa-
sionaf curse from some booth-owner be-
cause of the unintentional but none the
less wet stream of water which my UNI
brella tip pumped down upon her cakes
Of candy. The stalls and booths for the
display of wares were to be found in
various parts of the town, according TO
the nature of the sales; thus live
stock was to be had in one section.
books in another, motions" in the
bird, and SO on. To-day | spent nv
time in the old portion of the city. and
here in the center of hustle and in
5erest was the ancient Market church.
From the square upon which this
church stands the lines of booths
stretched up the the streets. radiating
right and left from the Market square.
These booths were hastily rugged af-
lairs, built of boards with their tons
covered with canvas against the rain.
so that they looked like a row of Indian
wigwams. Every conceivable article.
and some inconceivable, were to be
purchased along these rows, behind
which stood men and women crying up
their wares or doing out small portions
to the peasant buyer. Before four
o'clock of this rainy afternoon the oil
lamps were lighted and flared pictur-
esquely in the wind. Through the mid
die of the streets surged the crowd of
buyers many of them country folk who
had come in solely for the fair. They
clattered over the cobblestOnes in their
sabots, and beat down prices with high
heart and volubility. Above rose the
gray old houses, and high over all the
venerable and massive church. under
whose walls for five centuries humanity
was bought and sold, lived and died 1t
was scene for Dickens. and l sighed
for his insight and his graphic power of
description. At some of the booths a
foreigner was especially tempted to rid
himself of few pennies or marks. For
example, here hung by the score those
long pOrcelain-bowled pipes which are
so typical of this country and hard
by were all manner of blue earthen-
ware drinking jugs, mugs and tankards,
with bibulous notices in German script
and metal covers that were Joy to see
In some cases some magic signs like Aus
Ttalien were hung in front of the booth,
and there you were sure to find cheap
jewelry, tawdry paintings or bizarre
house ornaments, those behind the inn
provised counter being dark, sallow
and acknowledgement and wearing large
rings in their ears. after the manner of
their race. There seemed to be no con
gruity here in the arrangement of the
successive stands; besides one exclu-
sivelv devoted to worstcds, would be
another where succulcnt sausage and
the malodOrous, but beloved. limbHrger
reigned supreme; and little further on
the toys of childhood hob-nobbed with a
murderous array of knives, big and
little ranging from the tiny nail-trim-
mer to the long. keen blade of the hog
killer The motley sales and sights
only made the scene richer and more
picture of foreign street
life | am told that the articles to be
bought at these fairs. though cheap, are
shoddy and unreliable and are avoided
by the willy citizen, the chief profit ac-
.ruing from the open-mouthed coantry
who judge by outside show
and the only assurances of the proprie-
tors.-Cor Hartford Courant.