AT NIJNI NOVGOROD. 275 



mention anything that could not be obtained through 

 agents. 



The variety of goods is bewildering ; and I was in- 

 formed that there is an exchange in the two months of 

 about 300,000,000 rubles, or $175,000,000. Most busi- 

 ness is transacted on a year's credit. Goods are sold 

 to be paid for at the next fair. On the whole, bad 

 debts are rare, and, while the system of long credit 

 survives, the exorbitant profits that in the past history 

 of the fair have justified the risk, no longer obtain, 

 owing to increased competition. 



When the Russian, Persian, Bokhariot, Siberian, or 

 other merchant who trades at Nijni pays his last year's 

 obligations, he expects a present. If a wine merchant, 

 after settling his bill, he looks over the wholesaler's 

 stock, and selecting a bottle of high-priced champagne, 

 jokingly walks off with it. If the transaction has been 

 in saddlery, he appropriates a fancy bridle. While I was 

 in my friend's magazine, a repository of hardware, a 

 Samarkandian merchant who called to settle for a 

 couple of American cotton gins, commenced to exam- 

 ine critically across-cut saw. My friend, who had just 

 been explaining this peculiarity of the trade of the 

 Nijni fair, gave me the wink. The Samarkandian 

 stepped to the door, and summoning a youth, quietly 

 made off with the saw, hardly giving the owner of it a 

 smile as he went out. 



In many little ways customers have to be indulgently 

 humored, to meet the peculiar ways and ideas of the 

 East. The Asiatic customers have a habit of dropping 

 in about zakuski time, when, of course they are politely 

 invited to partake of the tempting spread of caviare, 



