Griggs courier., 1890-02-21
GERMAN MARKET FAIRS.

The Ancient Teutonlc Custom 40 It St1ll
Flourlshes at Hanover.
This week there has been an oppor-
tunity to see q market fair in Hanover,
which occurs only thrice ayear and lasts
but two or three days, In fact am just
returning from wandering about town
in a drizzling rain, humping umbrellas
in the crowd of chaffering and chatter
ing Hanoverians, and receiving an occa.
sional curse from some booth-owner be-
cause Of the unintentional but none the
less wet stream of water which my um-
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
third, and SO on. To-day spent my
time in the old portion of the city. and
here in the center of hustle and in
terest 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-
fairs, built of boards with their tops
covered with canvas against the rain,
SO that they looked like row of Indian
wigwams. Every conceivable article,
and some inconceivable, were to he
purchased along these rows, behind
which stood men and women crying up
their wares or doling out small portions
to the peasant buyer. Before four
o'clock of this rainy afternoon the oil
lamps were lighted and fared 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. It
was scene for Dickens, and 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 bibulons notices in German script
and metal covers that were JOY to see
In some cases some magic signs like Aus
Italien 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 i'm.
provised counter being dark, sallow
and melancholy-eyed 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.
sively devoted to worsteds, would be
another where succulent sausage and
the malodorous, but beloved, limburger
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 a more
characteristic 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'
cruing from the open-mouthed country
pumpkins who Judge by outside show
and the only assurances of the proprie
tors.-Cor. Hartford Courant.