Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, August 16, 1903, Page 31

Nijni Novgorod, the World’s Big gest Fair MR. CARPENTER IN DROSHKY IN NIJNL BELL: BAZAAR, NIJNL (Copyright, 198, by Frank G. Carpenter.) IINI NOVGOROD, Aug. 3.—(Spe- clal Correspondence of The Bee.) ~—The great falr of Nijni Novgo- rod is now at its thickest. It is frequented dally ©, 00,00 Luyers and sellers from all parts of Russia and western Asla, and [ts exchonges amount to $6,000,000 every twenty-four Fcuss. They will aggregate $200,000,000 or $300,00 ))) during the time of the fair, and If cur American ex- porters had their goods here on sale our trade with Russia might be ircreased to an enormous extent, Indeed, the United States should study the fairs of Russia and lay out a trade route for the American invasion along the lines of their meeting. This country does busincss after the style of tl o middle ages It has more than 10,600 fairs to which the people come from all quarters to buy and sell, and if our American goods could be placed in them our factories should have to emplcy extra hands. I have the figures of the exchanges of these fairs before me. Phey nre furnished by tha Treasury department of Russia and may be considered correct. Central Russia has 2,000 fairs every year with exchanges amounting to $200,000,000, which, if 1 re- member correctly, is as great as the foreign trade of all China a few years : vo. Kast- ern Russin has 3,000 fairs, with returns of $95,000,000, and Little Russia, 20, with a sale of more than $50,000,000 worth of goods, In southern Russia there are 8.6 fairs an- nually, with $60,000,000 of exchanges; in mid- dle Rusein, 2,200, with $35,000,000, and In the Baltie region, 1,600 fairs, with a business of $5,000,000. Away up along the Arctlec occan there are 400 fairs, which do a business of more than $7,000,000, and in Siberia the fairs al- ready number 0§00, with annual returns amounting to $25,000,000. In central Asla the exact number of fairs {s not known, but their sales amount to $20,000,0(0 a year in addition to this, there are 1,20 fa Poland and some in other parts of the em- pire. Altogether $500,000,000 worth of busi- ness Is annually done in the Ru:ssian fairs alone, Many of these fairs have their special- ties, I describe those of Nijni Novgorod, the greatest of all, farther on in this letter, The failr at Irbit in the government of Perm is held during the month of Febru- ary.. It is largely frequented by people from B8iberia and China, It handles tea, #llks, camel's hair and goat's wool from China and Central Asla, and furs, hides, fish, honey, butter and oil from Siberia, as well as all kinds of wares, from Russia in Europe. Its sales amount to $40,000,000, There is another fair in the same region of about the same character which sglls over $2,000,000 worth of goods, and one known as the fair of Karavan, not far from here, which deals almost exclusively in metals, especially iron and castiron. Its annual exchanges are about $1,000,000. There I8 a big June fair not far from here which decls chiefly in timber, and there are fairs in the south devoted to live stock {0 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 sold in great quantities, and the northern fairs have large sales of fish and furs, codliver oll d such things. I desyair of giving you a vivid description of the fair of Nijni Novgorod. It is one of the wonders of the world and is a greater wonder every year. It was predicted that the Transsiberfan road would kill it, but it is growing and its exchanges are greater than ever Think of a city with a population of 200,(60 merchants which does business for only about a month every year, and that a business running into the 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 as dead as a graveyard, and you have some ldea of Nijnl Novgorod. The word ‘fair,’”” however, gives you a poor idea. It makes you think of tents and booths and ragged buildings with flags flying. You imagine circuses, fake shows and merry-go-rounds. Nijni Novgorod has all these, but they are om the outskirts. The real town Is more like a substantial wholesale business center trading quietly and without noise. The fair city Is located on a narrow tongue of land where the great rivers Volga and Oka join. It is 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 with merchandise of all kinds, and carts and wagons moving to and from them into the city, The fair is a real city, not one of boards and canvass. It is a city of stone and mor- tar, of 7,000 stores In good business bulld- ings. It has miles of (s paved with cobblestones and with siGewalks of stone flagging. 1t has street cars, electric lights, theaters and bLig hotels, It has great golden domed churches full of treasure, presided over by long-haired priests in gowns of gold hrm-mh'._“_)( has also a city hall and police to keep it in order. It has its stock exchange and its board of man- agement and in fact everything that you will find In a great business center. Not- withsianding this, the city Is alive only about one month of the year, and that month is now. Supposs we go across the Oka and look at it. Weo are now In Nijnli Novgorod proper, a town of about 100,000 people, a mile or more away from the fair. We aro an a high bill separated from the falr city by the wide and fast flowlng river. This UNLOADING GOODS AT NIJNL PN ———— ..; b,-:i,, FHTTG® OF BOATS, NIINT FATK part of Nijni 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 is always passing to and fro on it. There arec hundreds of Russtan wag- ons pulled by shaggy horses with high yokes over their necks and driven by shaggy Russian peasants i red shirts and trousgers 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 wagons in front and their drivers asleep on the skins, Behind comes a train of wagons contain- ing hogsheads of wine from south Russia, and here at the left I1s one of great plates of steel. See those carts going by now. They are filled with skin covered boxes marked with characters in Chinese. They contain tea, and_have come here on camels from China via Kiahkta 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 falr through. Watch out for those droschkies! The horses 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 carrlages contain Russian officlals 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 sce further down where the Oka flows in and the two go on to- gether. This river is but a branch of the main stream, but it is a mile wide at this point. It has a vast trade and is navigable for hundreds of miles. The Volga i3 2,300 miles long. It is the longest river in Europe and with its tributaries it has almost 7,000 miles of navigable waterways, all of which contribute to this great Nljnl fair. You can see something of the shipping by the boats in the Oka. They are of all kinds and they come from all parts of the empire, from 8t. Petersburg to the Caspian sea. The Volga is connected with St. Petersburg by canal and above Nijni alone it has 14,000 boats, employing 800,000 men, while from here to the Casplan there are, it is esti- mated, 8,70 more manned by 200,000 sailors and boatmen Over there on the banks you can see them unloading the steamers. The goods are taken off on rude wheelbarrows by shaggy- haired peasants in long boots and clothes of red cotton. They wear caps or go bare- headed and also barefooted; they look dirty and savag Hero they carry great boxes and bales on saddles on thelr backs, like the porters of Constantinople, and there they drag along iron rails or roll boxes over and oves, The banks are filled with mountains 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, Armenlans, Turks and Chinese. There is one street devoted to the stores of the Orlent, where are rugs, per- fumes and all sorts of Turkish goods. There is another devoted to Persian wares and an- other where the things are altogether Chinese. The streets are wide. They are lined with two-story 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 its own sec- tion. At the right as we leave the bridge are long streets devoted to metals and hardware. Great piles of fron, lead, cop- per and other things lis 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 stores upon it are filled to overflowing. The Russians make excgllent iron and they can do anything in metal. Last year the empire produced about 3,000,000 tons of pig iron and 1,500,000 tons of rolled steel of various kinds. This same section is devoted to hard- ware. In some blocks we filnd cutlery stores contalning knives as fine as any made in Sheflleld, as well as excellent razors, sclssors and all sorts of tools, There are great steel mills not far from Nijnl, and there are works making farm tools in many parts of the empire. We secll the Russians some agricultural machinery, but they make more at home. Their output of farm tools last year amounted to $5,000,000; they manufacture shovels, 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 find 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 bazaar. This Is a section which sells bells of all kinds, from a farm @inner bell to some almost as big as a haystack. The bells shine like silver, They are made of bronze and white metal, the larger ones costing thousands of dele + .. (Continued on Page Fifteend .i7)