Down at the fair, in the centre of its hubbub, rises the governor's
summer-place. The governor dwells there with his family during the
few weeks of the fair (mid-August to mid-September), coming down
hither from the Imperial Palace in the town Kremlin, and occupying
the upper floor. The whole basement, the entrance-hall, and all
passages--with the exception of a narrow, private, winding
staircase--are invaded by the crowd and converted into a bazaar,
the noisiest in the fair, where there is incessant life and movement,
and music and hurly-burly at every hour between noon and night--a
lively scene upon which his Excellency and his guests and friends
look down from the balcony after their five o'clock dinner, smoking
their cigarettes, and watching the policemen as they pounce like
trained hawks on the unwary pick-pockets prowling among the crowd.
Of this immense mass of strangers now in Nijni, the town itself,
and especially the upper town, sees and hears but little.
The fair has its own ground, on its own side of the bridge, its
own hotels and lodging-houses, its own churches, chapels, theatres,
eating, gambling, and other houses, its long straight streets and
boulevards, and pleasure as well as business resorts.
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