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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 1903)
Nijni Novgorod, the : i UR CAKI'UNTKK IN RKU BAZAAR, NIJNI. (Copyright, 19C8, by Prank O. Carpenter.) -SUNI NOVGOROD. Aug. S.-(Spe-jJ rial Correspondence of The Bee.) The great flr of Nljnl Novgo ): roil la. now at Ita thickest. It la mmmhw f rMiii,.nl nit flullt i.. vim llki l.itiri and Kellers from all parts of Russia and western Asia., and ita exerun'cea amount to 6,CO0.000 every twenty-four rr.u.-s. They will aggregate $yx.oo0,0iJO or J300,(M ) during the time of the fulr, anil If our American ex porters had thtlr goods her" on aale our trade with Russia might be Increased to an enormous extent. Indeed, tho' United State should study tho fairs of Rui.slu and l.iy nut a trade routa for tho American Invinlon along tho lines of their meeting. This country does business after the sty lo of tl o middle ages. It has more than 10.000 fairs to which the people come from nil quart em to tiny and eell. and If our A merlin n funds could he placed In them our factories should have to employ extra handH. I have tho figures of the ex"hungcs of these fairs before me. They urn furnished by tin Treasury department of Russia and may be considered correct. Central Russia baa 2.0CO fairs every year wllh exchanges amounting to $jno.000,0tx), which. If I re member correctly, is aa groat an the foreign trade of all China a few years i ' . Kast ern Run la has 3,000 fairs, with returns of (95,000.000, and I. It tie Russia, 2 wki, with a ale of more than 10.000,000 worth of goods. In southern Russia there are 8:5 fairs an nually, with JOO.OnO.iM) of exchanges; In mid dle Rust la, 2.:0. w ith JK, 000.(00. mid In the Baltic region, 1,600 fairs, with a business of ts.ooo.ooo. Away tip along the Arctic! ocran there are 400 fairs, which do a business of more than $7,000,000, and In Siberia the falra al ready number ftxl, with annual returns amounting to fiS.fliXi.OiX). In central Asia the exact number of fairs Is not known, but their sales amount to $JO,000,0(0 a year, and, In addition to this, there are 1,!0 fairs In Poland und some In other parts of the em pire. Altogether trioO.ouO.WX) worth of busi ness la annually dono in the Russian falra alone. Many of these fairs have their special ties,. I describe those of Nljnl Novgorod, the greatest of all, farther on In this letter. The, fair at Irhlt in the government of Term is held during the month of Febru ary.. It Is largely frequented by peoplo from Siberia and China. It handles tea, Ilka, camel's hair and goat'a wool from China and Central Asia, and furs, bides, fish, honey, butter and oil from Siberia, aa well aa all kinds of wares, from Russia In Europe. Its sales amount to Ito.WO.OOO. There la another fair in the same region Of about tho same character which se,lla orer $2,000,0c0 worth of goods, and one known aa the fair of Karuvan, not far Cross bare, which deala almost exclusively DROSUKY IN N1JNL In metals, especially Iron and castlron. Its annual exchanges are about $1,GC0,0C0. . There Is a big June fair not far from here which deal chiefly In timber, and thero are fairs In tho south devoted to live stork to which whole droves of horses are brought In from the plains for sile. There are a vast number of agricultural fairs, where our farm implements could be Bold in great quantities, and the northern fairs have large sales of fish and furs, codliver oil and such things. I desialr of giving you a vivid description of the fair of Nljnl Novgorod. It is one of tho wonders of the world nnd Is a greater wonder every year. It was predicted that the Transslberlan road would kill It, but It Im growing and Its exchanges are greater than ever. Think of a city with a population of 2O0.C00 merchants which does buslne.ss for only about a month every year, and that a business running Into tho hundreds of mil lions. Think of a city which has grown up to accommodate this business and which for one month is full of life and trade, but for the rest of the year is aa dead aa a graveyard, and you have somo idea of Nljnl Novgorod. The word "fair," however, gives you a o r Idea. It makes you think of tents and booths and ragged buildings with flags flying. You imagine circuses, fake shows, and merry-go-rounds. Nljnl Novgorod has all these, but they nro on tho outskirts. The real town la more like a substantial wholesale business center trading quietly and without noise. The fair city la located on a narrow tongue of land where the great rivers Volga and Oka Join. It la washed on each side by water, and the rivers for miles are filled with shipping, loading and discharging goods. There are something like ten miles .of wharves cov ered wllh merchandise of all kinds, and carts and wagons moving to and from thorn into the city. The fair Is a real city, not one of boards and canvass. It Is a city or" Btovie and mor tar, of 7,(xX) stores In pnoW business build ings. It has miles cf sxretis paved with cobblestones anil with sliiewalks of stono flagging. It haa street cars, electric lights, theaters and big hotels. It haa great golden domed churches full of treasure, presided over by long-haired priests In gowns of sold brocadeJt.has also a city hall and police to keep it In order. It bus Its Block exchange and its board of man agement nnd In fact everything that you will find In a great business center. Not withstanding this, the city Is alive only about one month of the year, and that month Is now. Suppose we go across trie Oka and look t it. We are now - tit Nljnl Novgorod proper, a town of about 100,000 people, a mile or more away from tho fair. We nro an a high bill separated from the fair city by the wide and fast flowing river. This World's Biggest Fair UNLOADING or part of Nljnl Is the government of the province and has a large trade. We stroll down to the bridge of boats, which connects this city with the fair proper, and make cur way in and out through the endless caravan of goods and people which ia always passing to and fro on it. There aro hundreds of Russian wag ons pulled by shaggy horses with high yoke over tbelr necks and driven by shaggy Russian peasants tn red shirts and trousers and yellow straw shoes. Their wagons are loaded with all sorts of goods. There at our right Is a caravan of hides, the horses tied to the wngons In front and their drivers asleep on the skins, Hehlnil comes a train of wagons contain ing hogsheads of wine from south Russia, and here at the left Is on of great plates of steel. See those carts going by now. They are filled with skin covered boxen marked with characters In Chinese. They contain tea, andhave come here on camels from China via Klahkta and Hankow. Then there are great loads of cotton, of wool, hardware and tools of all kinds. This stream of wagons flows on from daybreak until late in the evening all the fair through. Watch out for those droschkies! The borses are on the dead run and the fat droschky drivers clad In blue broadcloth stretch out their arms as though to push on the reins and make them go faster. Some of the carriages contain Russian officials and we smaller men should keep out of the way. Stop here In the middle of the bridge and look at the river. We are crossing the Oka. The Volga you can Bee further down where the Oka flows In and the two go on to gether. Thla river Is but a branch of the main stream, but it Is a mile wide at this point. It has a vast trade and la navigable for hundreds of miles. The Volga Is 2,300 miles long. It Is the longest river In Kurope and with Its tributaries It has almost 7.000 miles of nuvlgabln waterways, all of which contribute to this great Nljnl fair. You can seo something of tho shipping by the boats In the Oka. They are of all kinds and they come from all parts of the empire, from St. Petersburg to the Caspian sea. The Volga is connected with St. Petersburg by car.nl and above Nljnl alone It baa 14.C00 boats, employing 300,000 men, while from here to the Caspian there are. It la esti mated, 81 mure manned by 00,000 sailors and boatmen. Over thera on the banks you can see them unloading the steamers. The goods are taken oft on rude wheelbarrows by shaggy haired peasants In long boots and clothes of red cotton. They wear caps or go bare beaded and also barefooted; they look dirty and savage. Hero they carry great boxes and bales on saddles on their backs, like the porters of Constantinople, and there they drag along Iron rails cr roll boxes over and over. The banks are filled with mountainj GOODS AT NIJNI. 4 SoTTS, nijni TATK of cotton and wool. There are Iron and steel yards and great pens filled with all sorts of goods. But here we are in the city. There are carts and wagons moving this way and that. The carriages are as thick as they were on the bridge and foot passengers throng the sidewalks and streets. The most of the people are Russians, but we now and then see Persians, Armenians, Turks and Chinese. There is one street devoted to the stores of the Orient, where are rugs, per fumes and all aorta of Turkish goods. There la another devoted to Persian wares and an other where the things are altogether Chinese. The streets are wide. They are lined with two-Btory brick buildings, with win dows of glass and shops fitted up like our stores at home. Many of them have porches in front so that you can walk from store to store, keeping out of the sun. Nearly every business has Ita own sec tion. At the right as we leave the bridge are long streets devoted to metala and hardware. Great piles of iron, lead, cop per and other things lie out on the side walks. Most of the business is wholesale and single transactions often amount to thousands of dollars. Here are great piles of chains of all sizes, sheets of lead and copper as big as a table cloth, iron bars and leaden pigs piled up like cord wood. This street runs along the Oka and the Btores upon it are filled to overflowing. Tho Russians make excellent Iron and they can do anything in metal. I-ast year the empire produced about 3,000,000 tons of pig iron nnd 1,500.000 tons of rolled steel of various kinds. This same section is devoted to hard ware. In some blocks we find cutlery stores containing knives aa lino as any made in Sheffield, aa well as excellent razors, scissors and all sorts of tools. There are great steel mills not far from Nljnl, and there are works making farm tools in many parts of the empire. We sell the Russians some agricultural machinery, but they make more at home. Their output of farm tools last year amounted to $5,000,OCO; they manufacture Bhovels, spades, rakes and all sorts of scales, as well as larger machines of various kinds. The Germans are more important as competitors than we are, and we And their goods mixed in almost every store. None of the tools are as well finished as ours, and every kind of our improved farm machinery could be sold here at a profit. Passing around the cathedral, which Is near the hardware section, we come to the bell baxaar. This is a section which sella bells of all kinds, from a farm dinner bell to some almost as big aa a haystack. The bells shine like silver, They are made of bronco and white metal, the larger ones costing thousands of del , .. (Contiaued on Page Flfteeav) IJJJJ