3-065-813 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Football in the Jews' Market, St. Petersburg, 1874. 'Some of the market-places of the Russian capital city, in the hours not devoted to trade, are the daily resort of loungers, who divert themselves with one or another game of play. This is...likely to be seen in the Tchukin Dvor. Here the ordinary business is in miscellaneous secondhand articles, offered for sale chiefly by Jews, whose small booths are erected in rows all over the ground, leaving narrow lanes and a few open spaces...These markets are of greater proportionate importance to common life, than in other European cities, which have more regular and well-stocked shops in the streets outside the market-place. Fruit, dried or fresh, flesh-meat, and frozen carcasses or joints in winter, fish cooked in oil, sausages, bread and cheese, tea, quass, vodka, and other drinks, are here sold to regale the appetites of a multitude of customers. Coats, hats, boots, and gowns, which have seen much service, perhaps, in clothing several successive owners, are displayed for the investiture of those willing to put money into such an investment. The Tchukin Dvor contains, besides a wonderful medley of Jews' odd merchandise, a large collection of live birds and pet animals'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.