AT NIJNI NOVGOROD. 277 



nation permitted by the authorities. The regulations 

 in regard to fire are amusingly rough on the cigarette 

 smoker, whose habitat is, above all other places, Russia. 

 A person caught smoking in the streets is arrested and 

 ingloriously marched off to the police-station, where he 

 is fined fifty rubles. At the hotels a couple of lynx- 

 eyed lackeys in the employ of the proprietor are 

 stationed at the entrance to warn the outgoing guests 

 of this regulation, and to bar the way of the uninitiated, 

 who would otherwise step jauntily into the street and 

 into the arms of the nearest policeman. These dvorniks 

 reap a rich harvest of tips from the guests of the hotels, 

 who naturally feel under obligations to them from saving 

 them fifty ruble fines. 



The wisdom of these precautions against fire come 

 to be understood as the traveler walks about the city 

 and realizes the enormous value of the merchandise 

 that it contains. Every hole and corner is literally 

 crammed with goods. The shops and warehouses are 

 as prolific of goods as the streets, cafes, and hotels are 

 of people, and both goods and people are of a poly- 

 glot character not to be seen anywhere else in the 

 world. 



To a person who has never traveled in Asia, a trip 

 to Nijni Novgorod during the fair would more than 

 repay the trouble. Merchants from distant parts of 

 Asia bring their manners and customs with them to 

 Nijni. The Persian may be seen in turban or tall 

 lamb-skin hat squatting in his little bazaar, complacently 

 stroking his beard and smoking his kalian, precisely as 

 he is to be seen in Teheran or Ispahan. Young Tar- 

 tars are seen by the score strolling about the streets 



