The St. Johns herald., 1890-03-27
niln.I:.hoplosop-s 5 FAR.
4 Sure Barometer of the Commercial
 p.osuerft- cs Russia,

7 Su-e keroz.fct3r Of the Com mmerc1al
 Prosperity os Russia.
 The fair has just begun. According to the traditional usage, the flags that announce the opening k&Ta been
 hoisted on their poles and blessed with grand ceremonies. A naval officer
 presides over this ceremony; it is a solemn moment. According to the ! hereditary superstition of the Nijnii merchants. If the flags mount without
 hitch and float at once bravely in i the breeze the success of the fair is
 certain; but if they get entangled in the cords it is useless to hope to do good business. The level of the waters of the Volga is also anxiously consulted. When the waters are too low in consequence of the excessive heat the heavy boats laden with metal, stuff5 and cereals run aground on the sand-banks in the river and can not get up to the fair,
 which is limited to the triangle of al- Volga and Oka rivers. On this sandy plain, bare and marshy in spring-time, large city rises for the space of two months, with its wooden houses, it's long streets with names established by ancient custom, its Chinese quarter with pagoda roofs bristling with dragons and bells. The municipalities of our proudest West ern capitals might learn much by studying the problems which have had to be resolved in order to insure the administrative service of this ephe- neral town, and it's provisioning in food and in water Two things are particularly worthy of attention; the system of sewers and the organization of the fire-brigade. Fire is the great enemy of the fair; every year it de- stroys shops to the value of a consider able sum. Everywhere there are towers for watchmen, and stations where powerful engines are always ready under steam with horses stand ing beside them. The fremen of Nijnii surpas5 all their European col leagues in skill and rapldity. General Ignatief, the Governor of the town in 1881, left here traces of his activity. and marked his passage by useful re- forms. To him is due the foundation of night refuges, immense dormitorles which give shelter to a floating pOpu- lation of sweepers and dock laborers who formerly slept in the doorways of inns, and did not contribute much to the security ofthis vast agglomeration.
 The population of Nijnii is formed of types of the whole universe. You see there all the costumes of Asia, and hear all its tongues. The Chinaman from Pekin rubs elbows with the Mus sulman from Constantinople. Khivans and Bokharians and Persians have ar rived in company on the Caspian steamboats; the German fur-trader from Leipsic bargains for sables with the trapper from the borders of the Lena. It would require correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette to trace the realistic pictures which may be seen in Nijnii in all their patriarchal candor. You may study here the most abject misery and vice. and at the same time the most incred- ible follies of wealth. There in few weeks Russian merchant will drink more champagne than whole provin- cial town in France consumes in a year, and spends a fortune such as Paris rare ly sees squandered within the same lapse of time. These great business op- orators seem to be seized with vertigo; in good years every thing is out of all proportion--their profits, their liber- ality and also their pompous piety. Some of them ruin themselves by ded- icating a church to St. Macaire, the patron of the fair. The total amount of business transacted at Niinii is the surest barometer of the public fortune and commercial vigo of Russia. The Vicomte Eugene Mel chior de Vogue, in Harper's Magazine.