Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1907-01-11
THE WORLDS GREATEST
MARKET.
MUM NovcoRoD RUSSIA FAIR IN
ITS OLD GLORY.

OF Russian Empire-onTeWoHS VI
the Tartars-How Scales Are Made
Fair Grounds in Mud Flat
Along the Voga-Picturesqu Dress
of Attendants.
During the last two and half years
neither the German comercial travel
Ter nor his wares have had much
chance to get along the Siberian rail-
road Now that the twin line of
steel, running for six thousand miles
from Moscow to Valdivostok, is free
from the conveyance of troops, the
Siberian towns, which have been starv-
ing for goods, are demanding large
supplies and speedy deliveries. In the
disturbed condition of the country,
however, German firms have shown
no eagerness to risk the lives of their
travellers in a region where the value
OF life is Increasingly regarded, nor
to forward goods for which there is
very problematic prospect of pay
ment. Accordingly, Mahomet has had
to come to the mountain, and this
Il
Landau Standard, Mini Novgorod is
basking in its old glory.
The fair has provided opportunity
for remarkable gatherings con-
gress representing twenty million Mus
sulmans in the Russian Empire-Mos-
lens from south Russia, men who have
taken to the garb and customs of the
West, and who, with their hair cropped
a la Franchise and imperials, dark
gray lounge jackets and patent leather
boots, might easily be mistaken for
Parisians; Moslems from Mongolia and
Bokhara, men slim and sallow and
sedate, with shaver heads and henna
dyed boards; men in long flowing and
embroidered sheepskin coats, boots of
red and turbans of green, who, for
sitting, find the floor more comfortable
than chairs.
The Tartars are the c1everest mer-
chants who come to Mini Novgorod.
Whether it. be in the selling of over
land" tea-believed by the Muscovite
to have been brought by caravan from
by ship to Odessa and trained to = /
jni-or in making a fuss with preci61s
stones which he hints have been stolen
from the mines, and therefore are to
be obtained as bargain, but which
are imitation, made in Partisan fac
tory, the Tartar scores.
He stands by his shed or stall, look
ing cold and grimy, his fur cap down
over his ears and his hands hid in the
sleeves of his skin coat, which is badly
tanned and most unappetizing in odor.
He has wondrous stacks of skins, from
silver fox down to rat. You can walk
the better part of mile past shops
crowded with skins, most requiring to
be cured. For year Siberia is hunt
ed for skins to supply the Mini Nov
gOrod mart. The tribes of the north
stalk in the winter; colonies of polit-
ical exiles have sometimes little other
means of winning livelihood than by
getting skins.
Over hundreds of miles of trackless
snow the skins are hauled till river
Is reached. Then by boat they are
brought to some place where the ST.
berian railway can be touched or are
taken to some aff1uent of the Volga
The Tartar merchant has his buyers
everywhere. In his slothful but still
methodical way he meets the skins at
certain points and arrives at Mini
Novgorod with perhaps a couple of
thousand pounds worth of goods
The market is conducted on strictly
Eastern principles. There is no fixed
price. Everything is worth what it
will fetch. The Tartar asks twice
as much as thing is worth, aware all
the time that you know he is asking
double what he will accept. You
offer half what the thing is worth,
aware that he knows that you intend
to increase the offer. So, much time
is wasted by him regretfully lowering
his price and you grudgingly raising
your offer, until at the end you come
very near if not actually to the price
you both know to be about right
There are splashes of the p1ctur-
esque about the people who attend tie
of the compass, by the slow and dirty
Russian trains, by the huge, commodi-
Gus, shallow draughted, naptha driven
Volga boats-quite as big as the motor
ious floating towns on American
streams by caravan. Russians
from the towns are dressed in the
European style, on the German model;
Russians from the country are in vide
trousers and top boots, Tapping 7oS
shirts and thick belts; they are bearded
while the hair is cropped short and the
back of the neck shaved; their women
are plain, stout, figurless, and have
shawls tied about their heads. ef-
There are the brown cloaked, sheep
skin hated Persians from below the
Caucasus mountains; there are al
mond eyed Mongols, shrivel faced and
wisp whiskered; there are tawny Blu
rats and gay robed men from Box
hara; there are innumerable Tartars.
some accompanied by their women
folks; fat, swaddled, wearing collar
box hats of velvet decorated with
pearls.
The fair grounds is mud fiat lying
across the Volga from Mini Novgcrod
proper There are rows upon rows
of cheap brick sheds, one story high,
yellow ochred with a pavement of
Sorts The roadway, once cobbled, is
a mass of disgusting mire. Peasant
carriers, in charge of inconsequent
teams hauling miscellaneous merchan-
disc, yell and bawl. A jolting drosky
attempting to dash by splashes the
uniform of a Russian officer with filth
and as the Russian language is well
stored with expletives there is violent
cursing. Russian soldiers, unwashed
and in unkempt clothing, trudge sui
lenly in the gutter, carrying big loaves
of black bread under their oxters.
A cadaverous, long haired, black
gowned priest goes hurrying by. Old
women cross themselves and young