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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 19, 1903)
RAPID TRANSIT IN (Copyright, 1903, by Frank O. Carpenter.) kOSCUW, July o. special vorre M spondence of The lieo.) The hig hest store In the world under ono Lv5U roof la In Moscow. It is aituateu V close to the Kremlin, under the Shadow of some of the oldest and holiest churches of this holy city. It Is a great tone building with roofs of iron and gin Ha, covering at least twenty acres, and em bracing 1,000 different business establish dents. I have called it a store. It Is rather a. collection of stores, for each establish ment hus its Individual owner, who rents Of tho syndicate which constructed tho building. It is a gigantic department store, or bazar, under a thousand dlfteicnt heads, selling all kinds of goods and carrying on very kind of business. I have seen the bnzars of Cairo, Calcutta and Constantinople. Tho most of them are rude sheds, or caves In the walls of narrow streets, roofed with matting. This bazar Is In ono of the finest buildings of the world. It baa been erected within the last few years, and with the ground upon which it Stands has cost the enormous sum of 38, 000,000. This Is one-third more than our National Library building at Washington, and many times moro than any business establishment of the United States. I have spent daya In wandering through this mighty bazar. The twenty acres repre sent only the ground floor. The building is Of three stories. It Is divided up Into treeta, crossing one another at right angles, with mighty arches of glass above thorn. Along the streets are booths with plate-glass windows, and over them two galleries, representing the second and third stories, each llnod with stores. The base ment la a vast catacomb of stores, and the Whole might be compared to a beehive, each cell filled with the treasures of Europe! Russia and the Far East. The stores are not the little cave-like holes In the wall which form the. Oriental bazars. Many of them would be respectable In the great Cities of the United States, and were they situated on Broadway or Twenty-third Street, New York, they would catch the at tention of the passarsby for their costly foods and fine window dressing. I wish I could take you inside this bazar With my Interpreter and show you street after atreet of the great treasure house. Tou would lose the Idea that the Russians re a poor nation and sea something of this normous market for our American goods. The merchandise offered Is worth many, many times the cost of the building. It amounts to tens of millions of dollars, and a vast part of It is made up of goods' from Europe. The Germans, the French and the English have contributed to fill It, and it la only now and then that you aee anything from America. I should like to show you the prices. They are fur above those of our country or the other countries of Christen dom, and the goods are of the ooatllest de Script Ion. Indeed, one of the best openings for American capital la In founding department stores in Europe. I understand that John Wanamaker. Slegel, Cooper ft Co., and others ars thinking of establishing them In London, but they would pay almost equally well In all the European capitals. Paris Is the only one that has any to spenk of. It baa the Bon Marc he, the Louvre and Au Prlnlemps. together with some amaller es tablishments, all of which are making money. I have written of the two Berlin department stores, Werthelm'a and Tletz's, both of which are doing an enormous busi ness, but there Is room for more. Russia la peculiarly well fitted for auch stores. Ita people are rather oriental thsn occidental. They are used to the great ba ara, and a department store Is only a baaar under one head. They are also ao eustomed to do business by bargaining, and they would jump at marked goods and fixed prtoes. As It Is here, you dicker for everything, from a ault of clothes to a Ever pill. It Is bow much will you gtrsT and bow much will you takat not only la The World's MOSCXW. 1 V'i ..k'TT'. - rt MOSCOW'S tho great establishments, but also In tho petty markets found all over the city. This bazar was filled with shoppers when I visited It. Crowds of men In caps, overcoats and top boots, of poorly dressed peasant women In gowns and head shawls and of tho well-clad, substantial merchant class, moved to and fro. There were many well-dressed men, women and chil dren going from store to store, and also many people resting and chatting on tho scats which line the streets of the bazar. This bazar Is only one of a half dozen or more In Moscow. The others are Bmaller, but some of them would bo con sidered large anywhere. Moscow is the commercial capital of Russia. Its business Is scattered, and I have walked myself tired In going from one commercial quar ter to another. Many new stores are going up, and In some American elevators and others of our Inventions are being Intro duced. There Is one store hero which sells noth ing but American goods, and, strange to say. It belongs to an Englishman, who has made a fortune In dealing in our special- ties. His name Is Block, and he has been doing business in Russia for the last twenty years. He started as an agent of tho Fair banks scales, and pushed them so that the government adopted them and made them tho standard scales of Russia. Block then took tho agency for other American goods, and continued Increasing his business until now ho handles American typewriters, furniture from Cincinnati and Orand Rapids, office desks and files, unit book eases, cameras, bicycles, stoves, and, In deed, everything American. He has big establishments In St. Petersburg and In other of the larger Russian cities. His sales amount to tens of millions of dollars a year, and the profits are so great that he has, I am told, become a millionaire. It U a pity he Is an Englishman. Some of the biggest openings hero are In the electrical field. Bt. Petersburg has about 1,500,000 people and it Is still run by horse cars. Moscow has 1,200,000 and has gained almost 500,000 within the last ten years. It likewise has horse cars, and poor ones at that. Warsaw and other cities are little better off, so that electric railway concessions would be of enormous value. There are several American parties who are trying to get such concessions. Includ ing 'the Westinghouso company and Mr. Murray A. Verner of Pittsburg. A story that Is going the rounds la that the Pitts burg man has tho Inside track and that owing to tho influence of an sx-aweetheart of the czar. This story Is fishy at best and I do not believe It, but It shows the kind of gossip ono hoars at these European courts. According to It the esar had an actress sweetheart to whom bo was da Biggest Store A 4 LVft'if Ml - IN TUB OPEN i J $8,000,000 BAZAR. voted while ho was crown prince, but whom ho dismissed when ho ascended the throne. She then became the sweetheart of one of the grand dukes, who In time became in terested In the electrio railway concession and In connection with her procured the czar's favor. I asked Mr. Verner about this matter. Ho replied: "There Is nothing in any of the stories about concessions being granted to myself or to any other American through such In fluence. I have been in Russia for several years devoting my time to this matter and I do not know the name of the man or woman alleged to be Interested In this case. Besides the Russians do not do business that way. They -know all about street railways and wl.at they are making in other parts of tho world. They understand what it costs to build and operate them and what the probable profits will be. If they give a concession It will bo on business principles and In a business way. My proposition Is that of a plain, business Amerloan. It Is lor tho exclusive right to build and operate electric roads In St. Petersburg, the concession to run for 100 years. The csar has ordered a commission of his ministers to pass upon the proposi tion. I hope that we may get the conces sion." Americana who are coming to Russia to engnge In business should look into the trade laws and taxes. These are peculiar to the country. Any one can open a store or factory with the exception of a priest or Protestant minister who has a charge, or a foreign Jew. persons employed In trade or Industry have to pay a special profes sional tax and all commercial undertak ings are subject to tsx. The different branches of trade are divided Into twenty sections, each of which haa Ita own tax or llcnnso, ranging from V)0 down. Every trading establishment of the first section pays I3C0 and every store about IIS. In dustrial enterprises pay more. ' There Is a tax on capital amounting to 8 per cent of the profits when the profits ex ceed 10 per cent of the capital. All persons who engnge In trade are bound to keep cer tain kinds of books and that without cor rections or erasures. If there are any mis takes tho entry must be bracketed and a note made of tho corrections. Such books are private, but they can be called for by order of the court. According to law a Russian clerk cannot carry on any business of his own or that of any other person except his master's. His employment Is aftc special contracts, which must be written, and If be breaks them ha Is responsible to Ms master for any loss or Injury through competition caused by him. Tho clerk can be fined to the amount of $50 and Imprisoned for three A -v. ,7 . AIR MARKET. months In such an event Every clerk must within a month after the end of each year give an account of Ma work to his employer and he is responsible for all dam age premeditated or brought about by care lessness during his service. This includes bookkeepers, correspondents, salesmen and workmen. A vast deal of Russian business Is done by peddlers, who carry the goods from vil lage to village In wagons and trade them for grain, eggs, flax, hemp and wool. Thero are many peddlers with packs on their backs both In the cities and In the country and there are open-air markets In the cities every Sunday where these peddlers con gregate, selling all sorts of things. I have attended some In St. Petersburg and I find large ones here In Moscow. The Sunday market in Moscow begins early and closes about 2 o'clock. It Is held In a wldo street not far from some of tho chief churches and extends along this street for about a mile. Tho street, with the exception of the car track. Is filled with tents and sheds and tables, upon which tho wares are spread. Some merchants lay their stock on the ground. I visited this market the other day. Thero must havo been something like a thousand merchants, each selling his own kind of wares. Thero were hundreds of boot and shoe stores. Tho goods were home-made and most of them cheap. They were hung from racks or placed on low tables. Tho shoe merchants were long-coated, high booted men with caps. They tried the shoes on their customers out In the broil ing sun and then dickered with them as to the price. The most of the men's furnishing goods were sold by women. I saw them selling men's caps, shirts, coats and even trou sers. Women walked about with great loads of trousers on their shoulders and on their arms begging the peasants to buy. Tho cap peddlers carried their wares in four-bushel baskets. They had brushes and kept brushing the caps to call tho attention of tho crowd. The purchasers tried on tho wares without the aid of a mirror, the only question being that of fit, for the same kind of cap Is used all over Russia. About the only things I did not see in this market were corsets and underwear. Only the ladies of Russia wear corsets, and these markets are patronized chiefly by the peasants, whose women have waists of goodly proportions, unaffected by pres sure. As to underwear, tho poorer Rus sians do not use It. Many of them sleep In the same clothes that they wear In the daytime find some keep a suit on until It falls to pieces. One of the queer features of Russian business Is tho use of pictures for letters in making signboards. A large percentage of the people cannot read or write, but all can understand pictures. Every store has on Its walls facing the street paintings representing the goods sold within. If it Is a shoo store, tho wall will bo covered with painted boots and shoes; If a bakery, there will be loaves of bread, and If a butcher, all sorts of Joints of meats, sau sages, etc. The usual barber sign has a man shaving a customer, and a dentist a representation of one pulling a tooth. Tho dairy Blgns are cows with milkmaids at work, and the tea signs are gaudy China men sipping tea. You can see pictures of graphophonea and sewing machines on tho walls of some of the stores, and the Amer ican bicycle and automobile are shown forth In the same way. The windows are filled with samples of tho merchandise sold within, and some kinds of goods ale hung outside during tho daytime. There la little business done after dark, but tho light lasts so long in tho summer that It Is full day until long after p. m. The Russians aro babies as stock specula tors. They hare Just begun to monkey with tho buzz saw and aro afraid of Its teeth, HCootinood on Pago Sixteen.)
