The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-16

is the longest river in Europe and with it's tributaries it has almost 1000 miles of navigable waterways, all of which con- tribute to this great Niini fair. You can see something of the shipping by the boats in the Oka They are of all kfnds and they come from all parts of the em- pire, from St. Petersburg to the Caspian Sea. The Volga is connected with St. Petersburg by canal and above Nunt alone 1t has 14,000 boats, employing SO0.OOO men, while from here to the Caspian there are, 1t is estimated, 5000 more manned by 100000 sailors and boatmen.
 Over there on the banks you can see them unloading the steamers. The goods are taken off on rude wheelbarrows by shaggy haired peasants in long boots and clothes of red cotton. They wear caps or go bareheaded and also barefooted; they look dirty and savage. Here they carry great boxes and bales on saddles on their backs, like the porters of Constantinople. and there they drag along iron rails or roll boxes over and over. The banks are filled with mountains of cotton and wool. There are iron and steel yards and great pens filled with all sorts of goods.
 In the Fair.
 But here we are in the city. There are carts and wagons moving this way and that. The carriages are as thick as they were on the bridge and foot passen- gers throng the sidewalks and streets. The most of the people are Russians, but we now and then see Persians, Armeni- ans, Turks and Chinese. There is one street devoted to the stores of the Orient, where are rugs, perfumes and all sorts of Turkish goods. There is another devoted 10 Persian wares and another where the things are altogether Chinese.
 The streets are wide. They are lined with two-story brick buildings with win dows of glass and shops fitted up like our stores at home. Many Of them have porches at front so that you can walk from store to store, keeping out Of the sun.
 Nearly every business has It's own sec tion.A the right as we leave the bridge are long streets devoted to metals and hardware. Great piles of iron. lead, cop per and other things lie out on the side walks. Most of the business is wholesale, and single transactions often amount to thousands of dollars. Here are great piles of chains of all sizes. sheets of lead and copper as biz as a tablecloth, iron bars and leaden pigs piled up like cord wood. This street runs along the Oka and the stores upon 1t are filled to overhowing. The Russians make excellent iron, and they can do anything in metal. Last year the empirf soduced about 100000 tons of pig iron md I.5O0,000 tons of rolled steel of varioay kinds.
 Russian Tools and Hardware.
 This same section Is devoted to hard ware In some blocks we find cutlery stores containing Knives as fine as any made in Sheffield, as well as excellent razors, scissors and all sorts of tools. There are great steel mills not far from Mini, and there are works making farm tools in many parts of the empire. We sell the Russians some agricultural ma chinery, but they make more at home. Their output of farm tools last year amounted to s5.O0O.OO0; they manufacture shoveIs spades. rakes and all sorts of scales, as we'll as larger machines of va rious kinds. The Germans are more im- portant as competitors than we are. and we find their goods mixed in almost every store None of the tools are as we'll fin- ished as ours. and every kind of our im- proved farm machinery could be sold here at a profit.
 Bells at Wholesale.
 Passing aro1snd the cathedral. which is