The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-12-28
JSS|A AND HER FAIRS
onspicuous for Lack of I'M
provement in Novelties
MERICA A GOOD BUYER
issia's Trade and Commerce while
Crude In Methods are Well Estab-
nshed--Merchants OF the Fair
Widely Varied-How We Bargain
For Her Skins and Hides.

Widely Varied-How We Bargain
For Her Skins and Hides.
Mini Novgorod, literally and real
the New City," counts back
actically uninterrupted series OF
lnual fairs for upward Of six CEN
,ries. Mini, as II is familiarly
He'd, is logically and Topographic
lly the meeting place for all the
Issias.
The Fair city itself Is built upon
fats across the river, or, rather
yers, for 1t IL here thst the Volga
d its tributaries, the Kara and Okla,
set A pontoon bridge connecting
two towns is built every summer
ID taken down In the fall, so that
may not be injured by the winter
,ods
Nowhere on earth can be found
ore truly cosmopolitan crowd than
sembles every fall at the Mini
ir, and the jargons Of tongue
ould puzzle even expert interpret
$. The sounds OF English, French,
srman. Italian, Spanish. mix and
ingle with those OF Chinese. Indian
I'd Persian. When we consider the
lst volume OF the trade transacted
q these six weeks, and that traders
I'd workers not only do business
re, but here live and find their
nusements, we do not wonder at
10 general activity Of the fair IT.
H. The actual amount of business
1ring each fall fair amounts to
Fer two hundred million dollars,
rs not considering the contracts
" future delivery which would in
ease It vastly.
Russia lacks aggression CONNER
ally. Nations must go to her for
ares rather than that she present
sr goods for observation. 1t Is the
-ade that comes to her rather than
lat she reaches out to grasp that
institutes her commerce. BY far
le greater part Of the merchandise
,arketed at Mini Is brought to the
hr by water. For weeks before the
tir is opened the rivers are alive
ith every sort OF craft bringing in
s cargo, and for weeks after the
ose of the fair the rivers likewise
re the scene of active traffic. Mini
the terminus OF the railway from
Ioscow, and Is In communication
18th all the lines OF Russia and the
estern world. while the Volga and
8 tributaries connect It with the re-
ions of Central Asia and Siberia.
F. is a site unrivaled; being directly
n the chief route, all travel and
,affic from Siberia converge there.
The American leather-buyer is
realty in evidence at the Mini fair,
fact not so strange when we re-
lember that American shoes are
le finest in the world and every
here so acknowledEed-ev in
'aris. It Is the American shoe
manufacturer who has made shiny
aather shoes a thing of utility as
ell as beauty, and has called upon
lie Russian empire for the where
ithal to do It.
The original patent leather was
lost unsatisfactory from the point
service, but 1t held vogue because
its smart appearance. SO Ameri-
IN manufacturers set about produc-
aga shiny leather that would com
inc beauty and satisfactory SER
ice. Coarse grained boat or calf
Gather was used at first, and for this
ne first "daub," as ii is called, had
be unusually thick to fill in the
lequalities of the skin and make a
mooth surface, which, after much
andpapering, would take the final
oat of varnish that insured the de-
lred degree of shininess. The result,
goes without saying, was a thick,
nflexible leather that soon cracked,
he "daub" and varnish both, so that
ne leather gained an inevitable
equation for general unreliability.
'he experiments continued till at
asst skin was found that in itself
Fas sufficiently closegrained to Nd
'flling," giving a leather that was
beautifully shiny, but still flexible
md thin The coltskin filled all
hese requirements. 1t is flexible.
,minently so when compared with
ts congeners, and requires a very
hin "daub" to fll in the pores, so
hat It's good qualities are not lost In
transformation into the leather Of
commerce.
The question was to get a suffl-
cient supply OF these skins. The
markets Of the world were scanned,
consular reports consulted, and the
result is a close relationship be-
tween the manufacturing shoe CEN
ters of America and the vast and
Frozen steppes Of the Russian en-
pire. And to-day a goodly and grow
ing number of the population Of the
United States tread in shoe leather
grown in Siberia and marketed at
the Mini fair Leather buyers from
all over the world gather there, but
by far the greatest quantities of the
coltskin are bought for our New
England factories. Each year finds
the American purchac2 of skins
heavier than before. The qualities of
tbaoa okine and tho parfpotion of III a