NOTE — The following article was published in one of the leading American 



Journals. 



AN AMERICAN FUR MERCHANT IN THE FAR EAST 



Experiences of Albert M. Ahem in Japan and Siberia — Japanese 

 Energy and Courtesy — The Boundless Resources of Siberia — A Travel- 

 er's Experiences Between Harbin and Vladivostok — Elastic Train 

 Schedules — A 16-Year-Old Engineer — A Town Destroyed by Band- 

 its — Seven and One-Half Days to Make a 36-Hour Journey 



PABT I — JAPAN 



The World Salesman is a substantial-looking illustrated journal 

 published in Yokohama, Japan. The first 66 pages of the issue for 

 October, are printed in English. Then come five pages in Rus- 

 sian, four in Spanish, two in Esperanto, five in Japanese and four 

 in Chinese. On page 50 of the October issue is found a "two-deck" 

 head, which runs as follows: "American Firm Teaches Far East 

 Fur Shippers to Turn Furs, Hides, Bristles and Skins Into Gold 

 Dollars. St. Louis Has Won Place as Principal Fur Market of the 

 World." The page article which follows is an interview with Albert 

 M. Ahem, of Funsten Bros. & Co. of St. Louis, who has recently 

 returned from an extended trade pilgrimage to Japan and Siberia. 



A Commercial Ambassador 

 Mr. Ahem has proven an effective commercial ambassador for 

 St. Louis in the Far East. "When the commercial confusion caused 

 by the war had twisted and closed the old-time trade routes of the 

 world," said Mr. Ahem, as quoted in the Yokohama journal, "the 

 fur merchants of the Far East hardly knew what to do. The famous 

 fur marts of Nizhni Novgorod, which served simply as an ante- 

 chamber to the Leipzig sales, have ceased to serve a purpose and have 

 died out because the road to Germany is closed. The European 

 markets outside of Germany were similarly affected because of the 

 irregiJar supplies reaching them. Then St. Louis became the logical 

 channel into which the fur shipments of the world began to be di- 

 verted. It is in St. Louis that these merchants change their furs for 

 American dollars." 



