The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-27
NIJNY-NovGoRoD.
What You See in Russia's Famous
Mart

1
which the Celestial was supposed to b.
! going to revenge himself upon the out
| er barbarian, to get Nijny into Lon
| don newspaper. The sight of the wore
| put me upon thoughts of the place.
place to see just once; a place ever
worth going to see. AT Nijny-Novgo
Iod--Nijny-N eW-toWn-from the middle
of July to the middle Of September, thu
| biggest and the oldest existing fair II
| all the west is in full swing. Its pop
ulation is considerably over half mil
lion in an average year, and something
like a milliard and a half of francs,
was told, change hands. Good bust
ness, one would think; but the British
trader seemed conspicuous by his abb
sence. Yet Moscow is not so far, now
adays; and from Moscow to Nijny the
train service is good enough.
Naturally, being Russian, it does not
land you at Nijny exactly, but mile
or two outside. However, you have
your choice of cab or electric tram. In
one of these you arrive at the great
bridge Of boats, thousand meters
wide, that spans the Volga. Before
you, then, on the sides and tops of q
line of hlilocks rises Nijny proper-an
ordinary Russian town of wide and
twisty streets, lined with low houses
set in Verdure, more or less, with poly
chrome converts, churches monuments
interspersed, and a black rooted krem-
lin to top all. From the krenlin you
get your birds eye view of the fair.
Below the Volga and the Okla inter-
Irvine, then spread into great glisten-
ing sheet, whipped and furroWeG by
steamer and sailer and row boat; COW
cred with RATS and Brobdignagian
house boats; alive with traffic. Be-
You'd, the larmarks-the great horse
shoe which is Nijny-Novgorod. 1t is
built, all Of wood, in some sixty great
blocks which contain, perhaps three
thousand shops. 1t is laid out in broad
straight streets that run parallel and
rectangularly, with sidewalks under
covered colonnades. A canal circum-
scribes the horseshoe, but the fair has
lately built itself a substantial succur-
sale on the far side of the old bounda-
ry. Without the horseshoe, though, as
within, each block of buildings is af-
fected altogether to one class Of goods.
Here all is cotton.
The next block deals in pelts. This
is liquor block; that jewelers. You
sample nothing but tea-the famous
"thes de CUR of Hankow, which this
year may not go off so well as usual,
perhaps-on this side of a street, while
the other side may be all leather and
prunella. There are silk blocks and
drug blocks and woodwork blocks; tool
and crockery shops; Russian iron in
pigs and Russian made agricultural i'm
plements; piles of niellowork, and sa-
and cutlery, and the most &C.
centric padlocks that you shall find.
Here a street is all China pagodas.
Turn this corner and you are in Persia
You have half a million icons, and
library of religious works, or, if you
prefer it, Of almanacs-you Russ is
much given to the Illuminated almanac
to choose from here, and bales of to-
bacco youder You can stroll through
q thoroughfare Of clocks or of dried
tchapdalla so appreciated by
the Muscovite palate-as the fancy
takes you You have your choice of eX-
otto vehicles, Of fur coats, of carpets, of
articles of personal adornment and of
patent medicines One think only you
have no choice about at all Out of
doors, in the streets of the fair, you
must not smoke. A careless light-up or
4 mishandled cigarette might mean a
There is no tobacco for
you in this wood, and that makes your
,nly woe
This rule obtains even on the eyot in
the middle of the Okla, which in sum-
mer time is formed there by the barred
sand drifts. On this spot are built
huge stOrehouses and warehouses,
wooden also These constitute the fish
market of the fair. The fish is all of
he dry order. 1t is stacked in piles
ike so much logwood, and to logWood
.hese piles bear a marked resemblance.
This particular article of merchandise
zones from Siberia. 1t comes sailed,
Tried, picked, smoked in boxes, in bar
els or in pyramids bound in bark that
oullS some six feet high. 1t is in more
senses than one, a very strong feature
If the fair. Another, not less strong at
lines, is the variegated, polyglot crowd
You see every type Of face, except the
Nnglo-SaXon; you behold every sort of
lress, and you acquire a notion of what
must have been like when
he Tower of Babel was under con-
tTuction. Announce yourself as a pur-
haser, however, and you have no diff
ulty in making your wants understood,
ven If you express them in your own
All day long, and every day for some /
iXty days, business Is carried on at
Ugh pressure. With evening comes re-
aXation, and when the Novgorodian
raider relaxes he lets co. altogether
lie dimes, and does himself we'll, ac-
ording to his knowledge or his means,
b the well appointed traktir where all
Ihite walters supply his needs, or at
of another character, where
he carte is less costly and more fan
astic. After dinner there are theaters,
oncerts, menageries and side shows of
II sorts. There are all the freaks
nd more, of a dime museum. There
re games of various degrees of inno-
ance. There is Montmartre without
rNn1iaa To-