Harbin, Jan. 7.
Today is. Christmas Day, old Russian style, and as has been the custom in Harbin since the Russians Fecelved the concession for a rai way line across Manchuria, it is a holiday, not even the Chinese meat and vegetable markets being open. It is a most extraordinary thing that the city of Harbin should be sbout the only place in the world where the municipality takes the Russian holiday of olden date into con sideration, even closing its markets. The foreign banks also close their doors to give their Russian staff holiday, though considering that the staff had their holiday on the real Christmas Day, it seems rather incongruous to give them a second Christmas, many of them not now recognizing the old style date.
Trade the stores before the old date was far from the trade that was seen before the actual Christmas and New Year's Days, when all the stores were packed to overflowing and such sales made as Harbin has not seen for many years.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.