The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-16
THE BIG FAIRS
 HI THE RUSSIAS
Mini Novsorod on the Volsa al o Market For American
 Goods. \

6copyrisht. isoe. by FranlxsG Carpenter3i
 NIJNI NOvGOROD.
 The great fair of Nijni Novgorod Is now at it's thiekest. 1t Is frequented daily by 9oo0O0 buyers and sellers from all parts of Russia and Western Asia. and It's ex- changes amount to $. .0eo.e0o every twenty four hours. They VIII aggregate two or three hundred millions during the time of the fair. and if our American export CTS had their goods here on sale our trade with Russia might be increased to an enormous extent.
 Russia's Big Fsi- Business.
 Indeed. the United States should study the fairs of Russia and iays out a trade route for the American invasion along the line of their meeting. This country does business after the style of the middle ages. It. has more than 1000 fairs to which the people come from all quarters to buy and sell, and if our American goods could be placed in them our faeto- ries should have to employ extra hands.
 I have the figures of the exchanges of these fairs before me. They are furnished by the Treasury Department of Russia and may be considered correct. Central Russia has 2,o00 fairs every year with ex- changes amounting to $2Oo0o0,0o0, which. If I remember correctly, is as great as the foreign trade of all China a few years ago. Eastern Russia has 3.00o fairs. with returns of $s5, ,00O.000, and Little Russia 2,O00 with a sale of more than $s0O00,00O worth of goods. In Southern Russia there are S25 fairs annually with $5o0Oo.0oo of exchanges; in Middle Russia. 22o0 with 35,000, 900, and in the Baltic region, 1,5oo fairs. with business of s50oo.0Oo.
 Away up along the Arctic Ocean there are 400 fairs, which do a business of more than q 100000 and in Siberia the fairs already number 800, with annual returns amounting to 900. In Central Asia the exact number of fairs is not known. but their sales amount to sao,OOOyeoc year, and, ip addition to this. there are 1.9oa' fairs fin Poland and some in other parts of the empire. Altogether s5oo0oo.0oo worth of business is annually done in the Russian fairs alone.
 Horse Fairs and F'-h Fairs.
 Many of these fairs have their special ties I describe those of Mini Novgorod the greatest of all farther on fin this let- ter. The faiy at Irbit in the government of Perm is held during the month of Feb ruary. It Is largely frequented by people from Siberia and China. It handles tea. s..ks, camers hair and goats wool from China and Central Asia and furs, hides, fish honey, butter and oil from Siberia as we'll as all kinds of wares from Russia in Europe. It's safes amount to $40, ,000, 600.
 There Is another fair in the same region of about the same character which sells over S2.0oO.OOO worth of goods, and one known as the fair of Karavan. not far from here, which deals almost exclusive ly in metals, especially as iron and cast iron. Its annual exchanges are about million dollars.
 There is big June fair not far from here which deals chiefly in timber, and there are fairs in the south devoted to live stock to which whole droves of horses are brought in from the plains for sale, There are vast number of agricultural fairs, where our farm implements could