The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1907-01-10
THE WORLDS GREATEST
MARKET.
MIMI NovcoRoD RUSSIA FAIR IN
ITS OLD GLORY.

hhO QtkdIS-EtOW 0SNtC9 Nt0 NHSA~
Fair Grounds In a Mud Flat
Along the voIga-Picturesque Dress
Of Attendants.
During the last two and a half years
neither the German comercial travel
ler 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
bf life is Increasingly regarded, nor
10 forward goods for which there is
, very p~roblematic prospect of pay
ment. Accordingly, Mahomet has had
30 come to the mountain, and this
season writes Foster Fraser in the
Landau Standard, Mini Novgorod is
basking in it's old glory.
The fair has provided opportunity
for a 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
4 la Franchise and imperials, dark
gray lounge jackets and patent leather
boots, might easily be mistaken for
P~arisians; 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 cleverest mer-
1hants 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
China, but which has been sent around
by ship to Odessa and trained to Nj
lni-or in making a fuss with precious
Stones which he hints have been stolen
from the mines, and therefore are to
be obtained as a bargain, but which
Are imitation, made in a Partisan fac
Tory, the Tartar scores.
He stands by his shed or stall, look
ng cold and grimy, his fur cap down
bver his ears and his hands hid in the
lleeves of his skin coat, which is badly
aimed and most unappetizing in odor.
He has wondrOus stacks Of skins, from
Glver fox down TO rat. You cen walk
he better part of e mile past shops
PROVIDED with SKINS most requiring to
>e cured For a year Siberia is hunt
ID for skins to supply the Mini Nov
Gorod mart The tribes of the north
stalk in the winter; colonies of polit-
cal exiles have sometimes little other
Means of winning a livelihood than by
getting skins.
Over hundreds of miles of trackless
now the skins are hauled till a river
s reached. Then by boat they are
brought to some place where the ST.
berian railway can be touched or are
taken to some affluent of the Volga.
The Tartar merchant has his buyers
everywhere. In his slothful but still
methodical way he meets the skins at
pertain 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
Is much as a thing is worth, aware all
the time that you know he is asking
double what he will accept. You
pffer half what the thing is worth,
lwa1e that he knows that you intend
10 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
Jou both know to be about right.
There are splashes of the pictur-
ssque about the people who attend tina
Fair. They have come from all points
Of the compass, by the slow and dirty
Russian trains, by the huge, commodi.
Dus, shallow draughted, naptha driven
Nolga boats-quite as big as the motor
Ous floating towns on American
streams-and by caravan Russians
from the towns are dressed in the
European style, on the German model;
Russians from the country are in wide
trousers and top boots, tapping red
Shirts and thick belts; they are bearded
while the hair is cropped short ard the
back of the neck shaved; their women
are plain, stout, figurless, and have
)hawls tied about their heads.
There are the brown cloaked, sheep
kin hated Persians from below the
Caucasus mountains; there are al
hond eyed Mongols, shrivel faced and
Kisp whiskered; there are tawny Blu
RATS and gay robed men from Box
lara; 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 a mud fat lying
cross the Voiga from Mini Novgorod
proper. There are rows upon rows
of cheap brick sheds, n story high,
yellow ochred, with a pavement OF
sorts. The roadway, once cobbled, is
a mass of disgusting mire. Peasant
carriers, in charge of i~nconsequent
teams hauling miscellaneous merchan-
Use, yell and bawl. A jolting drosky
attempting to dash by splashes the
Uniform of a Russian officer with f1th