Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-06

rich they scatter their money around more
extravagantly than any other people on
earth. They want the best, and viii pay
big prices for it. The great market of the
future will be in their increased wealth and
increased wants. AS it is now, the aver
age Russian is not worth one-ffth as much
as the average American: There are vase
territories where the earnings Of the in
habtantS are not more than II cents a day,
and altogether the foreign trade is now
worth only five or six dollars per person.
The people live upon almost nothing, a
few cents a day supplying them with their
black bread and cabbage soup, and their
clothes being the cheapest of the cheap.
Most of these Russians are farmers, but
there are a million and a half who are now
working in the factories, and there are at
least four millions who carry village in
dustries in addition to tilling the soil. But
all this l shall describe as l go over the
country.
st. Petersburg in 1908.
In this letter l want to tell you some
thing about st. Petersburg, and how it
does business. / was here ten years ago,
but since that time an almost new capital
has sprung up on the banks of the Neva.
st. Petersburg is the same center of poll
tics and society as it was then, but it is
now great manufacturing center, ind 1t
OOeS an enormous business with All parts
of the world In riding out into the coun-
try on the railroads you go for miles past
towns built among smokestacks. There are
iron works machine works and mills of all
kinds. This is the chief sea gate for the
rest of Europe, and vast commerce floats
through it.
The town already has about fifteen hun
dred thousand people and new buildings
are going up in all parts of it. The build
ings large and modern. Some of them
are of five stories. Others are lower COW
ering vast space. The Nevsk Prospect
has perhaps the best houses and the largest
streets almost as good and find enormous
markets in out of the way parts of the
city.
The Bazaars of st. Petersburg.
So far l have not found a department
store here. l understand there is one in
Moscow, and it would seem to me that a
| good one would pay in st. Petersburg. The
business here is done somewhat like that
of a department store. / mean you can
buy almost everything under one roof but
every department has its individual owner
and there are a thousand merchants, each
| working for himself in the store. In other
words the business is done in bazaars
The biggest bazaar is that of the GoStnyi
Dvor, which is right in the heart of the
Nevski Prospect, the widest and best street
of St. Petersburg. This bazaar covers as
d
long low two-story building, composed of
one solid mass of booths stores opening
out upon a corridor, which is separated
from the street by line of pillars like the
cloisters of a monastery. The corridor is
about ten feet wide. 1t is painted white,
and is we'll lighted. AS you stand in 1t
you can see a moving mass of promenaders
and shoppers which so fills 1t that you
cannot see to the end of it. The stores are
each about fifteen feet square with plate
glass at the front reaching from floor to
roof The most of the goods are in the win
| dows and the wares are of the most gaudy
description. There are many 1eWelry
stores and brass and gold and silver wares
meet your eyes at every few steps.
Religious Merchandise.
A part of the bazaar is given up to icons
and religious merchandise. These Russians
are the most pious people on earth Ihey
are always praying and the priests have
made them believe they have to pay as
we'll as pray They buy brass and gold
! plated images of the Savior to hang up
! in the houses and churches. Every living
room has such an image and as rule a
| candle is kept burning below It, The race
| of the Madonna or saint is painted ana tne
| brass or gold SO cut out that 1t forms the
| clothing and frame of the image. Some OF
| these things cost enormous sums
| The jeWelry stores are especially nne, anc
| the fur stores are magnificent, for Russ a
| is the chief fur market of the world. The
| skins of tigers, wolves, jackals and foxes
| are beautifully mounted with the heads OF
| the animals intact, that they grin out
| at YOU as you walk along the corridor. &c
| within and you find shelves piled high will
| furs and upstairs bales and bags OF
them some of the skins being worth al
| most Their weight in gold
| Then there are dry goods stores and no
| ton stores and toy stores all in this same
| bazaar The toy bazaars sell babies II
| swaddlng clothes and little ladies in the
costume of the country. They sell all sorts
of toys, domestic and imported, and there
would be a good market here for the ma
chine toys of the United States.
In other parts of the bazaar are basket
stores, hardware stores and stores selling
| gents furnishing goods, including diclley.
or imitation shirts. Some of the stores have
even dickey vests which reach only to the
height of the chest, being merely white
| belt when the coat is off, but when on like
full white dress vest.
Russian Merchants.
| Our commercial travellers will have to sell
to the Russian merchants, and in order tc
| at least German. They ought to know
| something of the merchant class and how
| they do business. They must be careful
| not to offend them, and 1t will pay them t
| study their customs before they begin tt
| trade.
! The merchants as a rule are proud o.
| Their business They are essentially Rus
! sian and they do not put on foreign airs