One may, besides, have his choice of hundreds and thousands of
those delightful curiosities and knickknacks, recommendable less
for their quaintness than for the certainty one feels that there
is no possible use in the world they may be put to.
There is no novelty at Nijni; no new shape, pattern, or colour
just coming out to catch popular favour; no unknown mechanical
contrivance; no discovery likely to affect human progress and brought
here for the entertainment of the intelligent, un-commercial visitor.
There are only the shop-keeper and his customer, though it is a
wholesale shop and on a very large scale.
The fair, moreover, has not the duration that is generally allowed
for an Exhibition.
[Illustration: NIJNI-NOVGOROD (BRIDGE OF THE FAIR).]
Though officially opened on the 27th of July, the fair does not
begin in good earnest till the 18th of August; and it reaches its
height on the 27th, when accounts are settled, and payments ensue;
after which, goods are removed, and the grounds cleared; only a
portion of the business lingering throughout September.
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