The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-23
RIGA, RUSSIA'S SEA GATE, IS RISING FROM RUINS OF WAR
Carpenter Writes Of Gmpses Inside Great Factories De- stroyed By Czar And Tells Of Devastations Of Germans Witnesses Landing Of Shpload Of Goods For Soviet Government

and they chose Saint George as their patron saint. l am told that they stin have their festivals, the chief of which takes place upon the first Saturday before Shrove Tuesday, at which there is a great drinking bout.
 Trip Around The Harbor .. ....
 The chief asset of Riga Is its eX cellent harbor which is open most of the year round. The ships come into
 the gulf and up the Dvina river
 right into the city, and land their goods at the wharves. The surface 20O0 acres and it's quays are eight miles in length. The accomodations are such that 400 carloads of freight can be handled each day, and trains carrying goods of all kinds move back and forth between here and Russia.
 It was in company with one of the marine officers that l was taken around the harbor this afternoon. We had gasoline launch with the red and white striped flag of Latvia atits sterns and chugged along from quay to quay, stopping now and then to take photographs and a look at the factories.
 The Dvina is almost a mile wide where it runs through Riga. The railway trains come down to the ships, and goods are unloaded di- rectly from the ships to the cars. At one warf they were taking off one hundred locomotives for Sovi Rus sia, hoisting them by cranes from the ships deck to the cars on the railroad.
 The Provodnik Rubber Works.
 A little further on were large grain elevators, cold storage buildings, and the desolate factories which were in operation when Russia was a pros- porous empire.
 The most striking of these was the ProVodnik rubber plant, which was famous all over Europe. When the war began it had capital of nine million gold dollars and was making twenty-one million dollars worth of goods per annum. In 1914 it manu- fracture four million dollars worth of tires, twelve million goloshes, and quantities of linoleum, rubber belting, and everything that we make at Akron today. The factory had been extended when the war broke out and it was then employing many thou- sands of hands, Today half of it's windows are out, it's walls are falling into the river. Much of the ma chinery has. been removed and the rest is on a fast way to ruin. I un- derstand movement is on foot to repair it. but a vast sum will be re- quired to put it back to its former prosperity.
 Coming back to the city motored about through the st~1ets, which are lined with four or five story build- ings, shopped in Kalk Strasse, visited the University of Riga, went into some of the great churches, and on my way to the hotel went in the Louse market.
 The Louse Market.
 Yes, the Louse market! That is what everyone calls it. It makes me itch to think of it.. Whether I am inhabited or not l do not know. I have visited markets and bazars all over the world. I have ridden my donkey through the streets of Cairo and brushed the motly crowd in the bazars of Stamboul and Damascus. have shopped in the cave-like booths of Tunis and Tripoli,' and dick cred for silks and jewels with the in Delhi and the Burmese girls in Rangoon. I know well the Ginga of Tokio and the markets in the Chinese city of Peking. I have been in village crowds of the widest Africa. but nowhere have I felt in more danger than Tn the Louse mar ket of~Riga. It recalls the chaptel in Exodus where Aaron smote the dust of the earth and every grain sprouted forth legs and a mouth to soften the Pharaoh's heart and af- flict his people.
 I don't know where the name 'Louse market" came from. I sup pose it is from the poor peasants who infest the place, buying and selling secondhand goods. Its situation is not far from the walls and within a short walk of the principal hotel iy, acres, surrounded by a high board fence, are long rows of little booths facing streets which run lengthwise from one end of 1t to the other. The crowd not only fills the enclosure but it overflows the streets adjoin, ing, making a motley dirty throng such as you will find nowhere except in east Europe. 2t%.e
 It is a somber crowd. Most of the people wear black homespun, the women having short, dark. skirts and waists, with dark shawls as head gear. Some have on coats like the men, and some of the richer peas ant women have mems hats on their heads The men wear long coats and many have boots which reach then knees, into which their trousers are tucked. Every man wears a cap and not a few, overcoats. The faces of all are bronzed with out-of door work and their hands are red and rough.
 A mOng the PeddIers.
 As l move through the crowd l see hat everyone inside the market and put is carrying something, either an article which he has bought or, more often, something for -sale. Here a woman thrusts a worn pair of boots 1t me, there man holds up table cloth, while at my next step I am accosted by a peddler with antique iewelry or secondhand clothes. One woman followed me trying to sell pair of boys trousers-what could 1 1o with a pair of boys trousers?- and another begged be to buy a gold nlaid cigarette case which may have belonged to 8 Baltic baron whose estate is now farmed by these peas ants.
 I spent some time outside the mar ket, making my way through street one hundred feet wide and buyers and sellers. I could not make my way without showing, but I kept begging padon in my few words of Lettish and was greeted only with smiles. In the midst of the crowd were men, women, and children sit ing on the cobbles with their wares before them. Some of the articles were made in the homes of the sell CTS. I priced some black leather caps of the softest and shiniest kid such as would cost at least five dol
 lars in any United States store. The amount asked was eighty cents, and the man told me he made the caps
 in his home.
 Next to this peddler was one of the pioneer farmers who had come in from the country. He was sitting in the gutter with two poorly clad Httle girls of five or six years beside him. Each was putting on a new pair of shoes. I imagine the purchase was the event of their lives. I asked the man what the shoes cost. He re- piled: Eighty cents 6 pair" It is about one third what their price would be in our stores.