Morning journal and courier., 1893-12-07
AT THE DRESDEN FAIR

The great fair which is held annually in
 Dresden is very interesting event, and
 can be traced to period of remote anti
 Russia and Germany as long ago as the middle ages, when intercommunication ! was very rare between the different na-
 tions of Europe, and journey from France
 through Germany to Russia was a great
 event, and the bold knight who dared to
 man, and on his return sang many songs | of the dangers he had encountered, and
 in such dark days, when travel was a rare
 thing, these great fairs did very much to | bring different countries into a closer communication, and by an interchange of various commodities nations came to know each other, and consequently these fairs were events of great national impor- ! tance.
 At the present day fairs have lost their importance as related to the welfare of ns- tions, but they still possess their curious | and singular peculisrities; halo of anti quity seems to hover about them, and ss one passes snd repssses through the mar row streets formed by the erection of their quaint booths the whole effect Is "sui gen eris," and we seem to be living far back in l history, until emerging from the dark re- cesses of these narrow lanes we enter the bright sunlight of the nineteenth century. On October 23d hundreds of little booths | of quaint appearance, just like one sees in Bernado Boletta, old paintings in the Ores l den gallery, and probably some of those l very booths were erected in the principal public squares of Dresden.
 The little old fashioned shops were very close together. and being opposite one an- other, there were many narrow streets consequently formed, and sellers of all sorts of wares were to be seen crying out the merits of their goods and anxiously looking for customers, and there were very many customers too. and goods were being disposed of very rapidly. As the fair lasts only four days the buyers are promptly on hand ready for bargains. Many booths were doing very good business on Sun day afternoon, and continued (to use 8 Chicago expression) "wide open" until Wednesday night. By Thursday morning the little boxes of shops were all taken to pieces, and booths, their contents, as well as the sellers themselves, had, so to speak, ''folded their tents like Arabs, and as gently stolen away" Dresden was minus large amount of money, but & good equivalent remained behind. I was forci- bly, reminded of the visitation of the cir GUS to an American city and It's sudden de- parture with a goodly amount of ready cash, only in the case of the circus a mi nus quantity actually is left behind; Nov a word ss to the nature of the articles sold at the fair. There were booths innumera- ble crowded with tin ware, hollow ware, iron-wsre, kitchen-ware of every descrip- ton; streets and streets Of it, the over production of many a German factory. Booths innumerable were filled with cloth of all sorts, with hats, boots and shoes enough for all the feet of Dresden. The foot wear appeared to me to be of 8 style as old as Germany itself. In many streets purchasers, while in other thoroughfsres knives, dsggers and war-like implements dazzled our eyes with their brilliancy.
 A huge Turk walked to and fro, his swsrthy head wreathed in an immense turban, and as he walked up and down, attired in the singular and romantic dress of his native land, with wide girdle studded with oriental knives, daggers, dirks and cutlasses innumerable, he seemed to me to be as encountered ss the heroes of Merralaus before the walls of Troy. He sold his war-like armor pretty quickly and could be seen next day with 8 fresh sup ply of dangerous weapons for sale. But to me the ''creme de la creme" of all the articles at the fair was to be found in the booths in the Alt market, the great square on Praoer Strasse, the main artery of the city; there in the miserable little boxes of shops, ten feet by eight, might be found in abundance that famous Nielsen and Dresden china, renowned throughout the world. What rare shapes, what quaint designs, what rich coloring and decors tions; how the crowds pressed and crowd ed around to buy the pretty wares. for you must know that the prices at the fair are below the prices in the city shops, and consequently buyers attend in large num- bers.
 I think if many of your New Haven readers had been with me there they would have bought enough to have loaded a slip, l for "the prices were so very cheap" ss | compared to the prices in the States. Of course few American buyers think of ! the cost of freight and heavy duty in the | States, but as most of the purchasers are | ladies, and as the old gentleman at home | pays the duty and charges, the cost of the | articles seem ridiculously cheap; for to the ladies the duties and charges represent an | unknown quantity. The china-wsre went | of like hot cakes, and the shelves were | filled again and again from large crates
 close by.
 These china sellers did large trade in \ Dresden while the fair continued, and
 their patrons were chiefly English and American ladies. Another articles which
 was abundantly offered in the Alt market | was the beautiful glassware made in Be-
 hemis. These booths of glassware were crammed with buyers, mostly of the gen. tier sex, and could not blame them, for the temptation to buy was too great to be resisted. Such beautiful glass and of such
 lovely design! The workmanship with its
 enamel and curiously cunning art beggars
 any attempt at description.
 And such pricesi It seems @ sin to sell | such lovely glass at such very low prices.
 Surely skilled labor must be at low water
 mark in Germany to warrant such down. | right slaughter of such beautiful pro- ducts. The sellers were of course pleased
 with the sale of their goods, for they
 smiled and smiled again as they kept ill-
 ing their emptied shelves with fresh sup
 plies of the lovely wares- These little
 booths reminded me of the wondrous bag
 of the magician of my boyhood's days;
 the supply seemed never to be exhausted.
 While strolling leisurely along one of the
 crowded streets of the fair saw something
 which greatly interested me far more than
 such transitory things as glassware and
 china, which perish so easily at the hands
 of our Milesisu impedimsnts at home. l As I saw in the distance & lot of "old
 books, seemed to smell the battle from
 sfsr, and upon arriving at the first shop I
 saw 8 table standing righ. out in the rain
 literally covered and grooming with books.
 There were no buyers here; the glitter
 ing array of china and glass attracted the
 intelligent CD buyers, while the common
 buyers were dealing in coarser goods.
 There were the books neglected in the
 rain. asked for old books, yes and these
 old, very, very old books too. of you re-
 quire anything very old Germany can in-
 stantly supply it.) Here were books
 printed at 8 period when books were rare;
 "Exemple GrAtia,n "Misinise fllustrandas, prodreunius," :" in black letter, 1692. "hs
 dulla 0ratoris," vellum, 1856; 'Entropiz
 Historie, Jesss, vellum, 1898; "J. Cesar | Scaolteriusu 1904. Esnufa 0nara ~ ~