Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-15

| you will find in great business center.
Notwithstanding this, the city is alive only
about one month of the year, and that
month is now.
A Walk Through Mini Novgorod.
Suppose we go across the Okla and look
at it. We are now in Mini Novgorod
proper, a town of about 100, 900 people, a
mile or more away from the fair. We are
| on high hill, separated from the fair city
| by the wide and fast flowing river. This
part of Mini is the government of the
province and has large trade.
We stroll down to the Bridge of Boats,
which connects this city with the fair
proper, and make our way in and out
through the endless caravan of goods and
| people which is always passing to and fro
| on 1t. There are hundreds of Russian wag-
ons pulled by shaggy horses with high
yokes over their necks and driven by shay
| gy Russian peasants in red shirts and trou-
sers and yellow straw shoes. Their wag-
ons are loaded with all sorts of goods
There at our right is a caravan of hides
the horses tied to the wagons in
front and their drivers asleep on the SKINS
Behind comes a train of wagons contain
Ing hogsheads of wine from south Russia,
and here at the left is one of great plates
Of steel.
See those carts going by now. They are
AiACd WILL Shll-CONeTeO boxes marked with
characters in Chinese. They contain tea,
and have come here camels from China
via Kiahkta and Hankow. Then there are
great loads of cotton. Of wool, hardware
and tools Of all kinds. This stream of
wagons flows on from daybreak until late
in the evening all the fair through
Watch out for those droschkies! The
horses are on the dead run and the fat
stretch out their arms as though to push
on the reins and make them go faster
Some of the carriages contain Russian
officials and we smaller men should keep
out of the way.
The Volga and the Okla.
Stop here In the middle of the bridge and
look at the river. We are crossing the
Okla. The Volga you can see further
down where the Okla flows in and the two
go on together. This river is but branch
of the main stream but 1t is a mile wide
at this point. 1t has vast trade and is
navigable for hundreds of miles. The
Volga is 2,300 miles long. 1t Is the long
est river in Europe and with its tributaries
it has almost 1900 miles Of navigable
waterways, all of which contribute to this
great Mini fair. You can see something
of the shipping by the boats in the Okla
They are of all kinds and they come from
all parts of the empire. from St; Peters
connected with st. Petersburg by canal
and above Mini alone it has 1900 boats,
employing 100000 men, while from here
to the Caspian there are, it 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
and clothes Of red cotton. They wear
caps or go bareheaded, and also bare
footed; they look dirty and savage.
Here they carry great boxes and bales on
d61eS their ha re ila ~
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
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 passengers
throng the sidewalks and streets The
most of the people are Russians, but we
now and then see Persians, Armenians,
Turks and Chinese. There is one street
devoted to the stores of the orient, where
are rugs, perfumes and all sorts of Turk
ish goods. There is another devoted to
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 in front so that you can walk
from store to store keeping out of the
sun.
Nearly every business has it's own sec
ton. At the right 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 whole
sale, and single transactions often amount
fn thnn ar16G Of oil Inrn
piles of chains of all sizes, sheets of lead
apd copper as big as tablecloth, iron bars
and leaden pigs piled up like cord wood.
This street runs along the Okla and the
stores upon 1T are filled to overlooking.
The Russians make excellent iron, and
they can do anything In metal Last year
the empire produced about three million
tons of pig iron and million and half
tons of rolled steel of various 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 ra-
zors, 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 machinery but
they make more at home. Their output of
farm tools last year amounted to five mil
lion dollars; they manufacture shovels.
spades, rakes and all sorts of scales, as
well as larger machines of various kinds.
The Germans are more important as COM
petitors than we are, and we find their
goods mixed in almost every store None
of the tools are as well finished as ours,
and every kind of our improved farm ma
chinery could be sold here at profit.
Bells at Wholesale.
Passing around the cathedral, which is
near the hardware section. we come to the
bell bazaar. This is section which sells
church bells of all kinds. from a farm
dinner bell to some almost as big
haystack. The bells shine like silver.
They are made of bronze and white metal,
the larger ones costing thousands of dol
lars. There ara more than dozen great
stores of this kind the merchants of which
are here to do business with the repre-
sentatives of churches and chapels all
over the empire. The Russians are very