The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-02

although other texts may be added if the storelkeeper desire. In addition every store has It's picture on the out side wall schowing the goods sold within. If the store sells butter or milk, 1t may have a COW with a girl doing the milking. Or perhaps a cows head and a roll of butter and cheese. On my way to the hotel I saw the signs of barbers at work shaving and bleeding their patients, of typewriters and adding machines, Of ploughs and cream separators, and of household goods of every descrip- ton. such as beds, tables, tools and candlesticks all painted on the walls of the stores.
 600 Years Older Than Washington.
 Leaving my baggage at the hotel I strolled about the narrow streets, trying to realize that l was in the new capital of one Of the baby re- publics. Reval Is 500 years older than Washington. It had an existence in the twelfth gentry. and belonged to the Hanseatic league 200 years before Columbus discovered Amer ica It was converted to protestant Christianity before the Mayflower Pilgrims established their first church at Plymouth and was a live, working municipality before Phil adelphia or New York had a white settler.
 The city is in two sections, one down near the harbor and the other on Castle Hill in the rear. Castle Hill was fertilization in the Middle Ages, and many of it's stone walls still stand. This hill Is now the fashionable residence part of the city and the government center. Here the President and the other officials of the republic have their offices and here the new Parliament build ing has been constructed.
 In the Market.
 I find the lower city interesting. The stores are quaint and the com mon people look like a slice out of old Europe. Much of the buying and selling Is done in a market, not far from the harbor. Here there is a square of several acres filled with market women with their wares spread out before them on low ta- b1es. The women are mostly peas ants who have brought vegetables, grain, fowls and other produce in from the country. They are short and stocky and show the wear and tear of their hard out-Cf-door work In the fields. They are dressed for the most part in homespun of their own manufacture, wearing short dark colored skirts and waists with shawls wrapped around their shoul- ders Nearly all have handkerchiefs or small shawls around their heads.
 The citizens of Reval dress about the same as our people at home, save that the poorer women often have their heads covered with colored cloths, and the laboring men wear caps. An odd sight on the streets is the shopping bags which the women carry. These are long cylinders of bright yellow birch about as big q a cfY n like 8 satchel. The wood is light and the boxes take the place Of satchels and baskets.
 The market shows the poverty of the country. Eggs are sold by the piece and fruit is ladled out in tin cups holding a pint or quart. The stock of some of the market women consist of only bushel or SC of ap ples or plums or a few eggs and a chicken or two, the whole represent ing not over $2 or $3 In value. Work and Wages.
 Wages are low, although higher than in Germany. The women street cleaners get 200 marks or about 60 cents per day. HOusemaids get SC a month with one day of the week free, and cooks are paid more. The ordinary laborer receives $1 a day and mechanics get up to $3, Men on the farms are paid SIP month and board, but the women farm laborers receive less and work quite as hard.
 Before the war much of the farm population worked by the year for the Baltic Barons. These men re- ceived almost nothing, and labored from sun-up to sunset. Many of them lived on the estates having a small amount of potato land as a garden, and a certain allowance of food. In some cases the wife Of the man was expected to give 70 days work per annum in addition.
 o O O
 EsthOnian Money.
 As I travel about my pockets are bulging with Esthonian money. It Is tho same here as In Finland and Germany. The currency is so low that one has to have all his pockets filled with bank notes to pay his running expenses. Before the war the Esthonian mark was worth 20 cents and it now takes more than