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

| religious and they spend much money on
| bells. Every church has several and the
country all told has more to its population
perhaps than any other country of the
world. During recent visit to this baA
zaar saw group of long haired, long,
gowned priests making purchase. They
We're testing the bells, and as the men
struck them the sound went forth like
that of cannon. 1 asked the merchant
his prices and found that the bells were
sold by the pound, whereupon 1 bought
ten pounds or to ring for dinner on a
farm have in the country at a cost of 81.
A Dinner at Mini.
Speaking of dinner, L take mine here at
the restaurant Rossi rear the public gar
den in the Fair City. 1t costs me Just go
cents without drinks and a splendid or
chestra plays while 1 eat. There is a
| stage at the back of the dining room and
the concert is varied by vaudeville scenes
without extra charge. The course today
was vegetable soup. a slice of delicious
steret. the best of Volga fishes half a
spring chicken broiled on toast apple pie
and coffee. Everything was good from the
food to the music. and far better, venture,
than any dollar dinner you will get at the
st. Louis exposition. The walters were
dressed in white. They had white smocks
coming down to the thighs bound in at the
waist with red silk sashes and white cot
ton trousers. The most of them We're old
and all were bearded. My waiter was
about forty. He had a shiny bald head
and great red whiskers which covered his
chest like the beard of a patriarch. The
eating is good everywhere in Russia. and
have yet to stop at hotel where have
not been we'll served.
In the Retail Stores.
The part Of the fair I have already des-
cribed is mostly wholesale. Of the millions
of dollars worth of business uone 80 per
cent of 1t is in large quantities. The goods
a
by samples.
The retail stores are interesting. They
are largely in bazaars or passages, hun-
dreds of stores being under one roof. which
is lighted from above. They are more
like baZaars than our retail establishments,
being long lines of booths filled with goods
separated from one another by very thin
walls. The largest of these bazaars is the
Glaubni Dom. which is in the center Of
the fair. 1t covers several acres and has
passages through 1t this way and that.
There also smaller bazaars devoted to
Asia. South Russia and the states along
the Volga and about the Caspian sea.
A Headquarters for American Goods.
In going through the fair found but few
American articles. There is some of our
hardware, but the Germans have ten pack
ages to our one and the English surpass
us five fold. In cotton and wooden goods
the Germans English and French are fair
ly well represented. America has nothing
and this is so in nearly all branches Of
trade. 1t would pay the United States to
establish sample and sales room here to
be kept open while the fair lasts. There
is big opening for all kinds of tools and
especially for pumps, harvesters and heavy
farming machinery. l some graphic
phones and few Of our sewing machines,
but a rule American goods are almost
unknown. The great bulk of the products
are Russian, many of them being made in
the small factories and by the house in
dustries, which found In all parts Of
the empire. FRANK G. CARPENTER.