Bisbee daily review., 1915-06-02
RIGA, WESTERN CITY OF MUSC0VITES, IS
 NEAR BATTLE LINES
New York and Hamburg of Rus Sia Faces Possible Entry at the Hands of the Germans; Fighting Is Near.

WASHINGTON,-Riga the most Iultra.Western town in the whole Muc- covite Empire, a city of merchant princes. of busting warehouses and miles of crowded dockins of vigorous Teutonic architecture and cosmopoli- Iun organization, with a hurrying, Itense business life that finds its coun-I | terpart in New York and HambWg. lies near the bed of the uuir or Riga, few miles northeast Of Mitau, or l just back of the struggling Russo. | German lines in the Baltic Provinces. Riga is a great commercial city. It stands third among Russias seaports, | and second among all the ports upon l the Baltic Sea, where commercial cities have been growing and building ! for centuries The city is 363 miles southwest of Petrograd and is filled with the spirit of modern business. | lt is a main gateway into vast Rus sian hinterlands and is prooably, the most up-to-date city to be found from | Valdivostok Co Libau.'
 So begins the National Geographic ] NONltlN 0 AtEAl lNAIhAi Al NlAN Ni vat AANlH sian port that has sprung Into prom thence with the most recent German campaign that whose direction lies | through the Baltic Provinces. The war primer continues.
 Riga is second only to Petrograd in population and industry. German merchants of the thirteenth century llaid the foundations of its commercial renown. It was founded in I2O1, and many German colonists soon found their way to the new city, attracted thither by the many commercial priv ! ieges by its founder Riga became a powerful. nourishing member of the ! Henseatic League, the great merchant trust of the Middle Ages. With Ham burg. Bremen. Luebeck, Stralsund and scores Of it's fellow-banded cities, Riga grew in wealth and trade connections; boats from all parts of the world ran
 in and out Of it's river harbor, and l it enjoyed the proud developmen Of Ia German free city
 Near the middle of the sixteenth century. Riga passed into the power of the King of Paland. The headlong ! Gustavus Adolphos. of Sweden,
 brought up in his course of conquest with a shock before it's walls in 1601, and, only after a long hard siege, was he able to take the, city. Riga passed
 to the controH of the Russian in 171O
 and has since played an important part in the development or the mighty northern empire.
 Riga has the appearance Of Ger man port. It has none of the happy. golucky Slavonic air about it, and,
 SO. for the tourist. it ifs disappointing. Before the war, German was the lin.
 guage of it's business, and German
 was the idiom of its streets and
 homes Official Riga was Russian
 and, as Riga is the seat Of the Gov
 ernor-General of Che Baltic Provinces,
 this official element was or much sig nificance.
 For the most part Riga is a very
 modern city. Its older buildings have
 been torn down to make way for
 structures more upto-date, more suit NA Nb lllt HAhH lIhI ny hN tA bNA'lAA'.''
 city. It is situated on me fiiver De
 una, ten miles above the mouth Of
 the Gulf of Riga. and it is bound tC
 the Baltic by canals Riga has princes , of finance and trade, and they have
 lined many of its avenues with mod en villas and palaces. As an exam
 pie of the citys growth, it may be mentioned that Riga erected more than fifteen hundred new business , and apartment buildings during a re cent year and that most of these
 buildings were equipped with elevat , ors, open plumbing vacuum cleaning [ central refrigerating and steam heat } ing plants.
 "A strong and varied industry hal , grown up in the port ci,y Machin ? cry, railway cars, lumber, leather ] candles. tiles, glass, tobacco and oth , CT products are turned out in it's nun erous factories The annual value O
 the articles manufactured in Riga eX
 ceeds S3O.OOOO OOO As an industria center. it has been becoming moro and more prominent year by year
 and its future seems to be one of ar , almost unlimited promise.
 "The average value of Riga's eN |, ports is well over S35,OOO,OO0. Its i'm
 ports total about $3OOUU,voO eacl year. The exports include cereals 70 flax, nax-seed, eggs, lumber and but |, ter. Its chief imports are machinery
 cotton, coal and groceries. lt hal II thrifty, well-to-do population of mor'
 than O0000."