Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-07-14
TREASURES OF OLD RUSSIA
Riqa Now Market for Rich Relics OF
Other Days.

Olner bayS.
In the old days, Riga, capital of the
Baltic provinces Of the Russian En-
pire, was called "the Pearl Of Russia.
Today, writes a correspondent from
that place, Riga, capital of the Repub-
lie Of Latvia, acts as Russia's second
hand shop-RuSsias old clothes man.
There is an old clothes store, a
second hand shop, to almost every
block in the "Stadt," or old part OF
the city. American visitors here find
them the most fascinating second hand
shops Of Europe. For behind their
cluttered windows and on their heap
ed, jumbled counters lie the loot and
treasure of an empire, the mute SYM
bols Of Russia's one time greatness.
and Russia's tragedy of today.
Will the American visitor come in?
The proprietor, smiling in the door
way, will be pleased to show the lttl"
curioSties, and can tell something Of
their stories. Here is n tapestry from
with dyes that have kept their colors
two hundred years. Once on a time,
so runs the story, it hung in the home
of q Russian millionaire in the Crimea.
And when they killed him, they
wrapped his headless body in this
tapestry and threw it into the street.
A soldier passing, put the tapestry in
his KNAPP sack, and sold it to a trader,
who smuggled it out to Riga across the
guarded frontiers. Here is pendant,
diamonds and rubies, set in the form
of a burning heart. A refugee princess
sold it here a year ago, getting the
money to travel to Paris.
Offer Geme Cor Sale.
Perhaps the stories the second hand
dealers tell are true; probably they
are not. But their windows tell their
own stories. Every. part Of Russia,
every phase of Russian life, is repre-
senied in these crowded windows. Here
is a huge polar bear skin rug, ten feet
long, six feet wide, all very worn and
burnt here and there with the cigarette
marks of long forgotten evenings.
Scattered upon the rug are glittering
trinkets, filgree silver brooches and
bracelets, delicate cobwcb things
that have come from Tiflis and the
villages of the Caucasians. Here Is
necklace of amber from the Bal
tic, each bead an inch and a half in
diameter. Here are half dozen ikons,
the sacred pictures of the Russian
church. Some are brass base-reliefs,
enclosed in deep frames, and covered
by a glass. Others are small fiat
pieces of brass, the base relief worn so
that it is hardly distinguishable, the
whole not more than two inches long
by an inch and a half wide.
These fill the front Of the second
hand shop window. In the back Of
the window hang racks Of clothes.
There are rare and wonderful furs.
Sable, ermine and otter predomi-
nate. But the cut of the woman's
fur coats is that of n decade ago,
the Innings are worn and ragged.
Even more worn and aged are the
evening gowns that hang beside the
furs, the lace and velvet creations of
Petrograd's drcssmakers in 1914
the curiously embroidered silk dressing
gowns and queer cloth of gold boudoir
caps that hang limp in the dusty
windows.
Somewhere in the wings Of the
window will be found two or three
huge battered silver or copper sam
ovars. In another corner there IS
sure. to be a pile Of field glasses in
well-wOrn leather cases. Three