The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-06-29
Tho Poor Persian.

The Poor Persian.
It has now been about fortnight since the
public eye began to be dazzled with the re-
ports which accompanied the progress of the
Shah of Persia from his dominions. During
that time he has been Toasted in St Peters
burg Vienna and London, and is now on the
eve of crossing over into Paris. He has been
confronted with ornaments, received by en-
perors, and he dined at the tables of some of
the most powerful and accomplished princes
of the age. Description has exhausted itself
upon his demands, the severe majesty of his
countenance and his frozen indifference to
adulation. It was feared at first that the
number of wives who accompanied him
during the first stages of his travels would
stand in the way of his being received at the
various European Courts as cordially as
be could desire; but at an early date
His Majesty had the tact to perceive
the complications to which the matter would
inevitably give rise. and to avoid them by send
ing the ladies summarily home. It seems
pity that a prince who began his visits to
civilized monarchs, by thus securing the good
opinion of his critics should not be equally
successful in maintaining it It is sad to be
reminded that in several important points of
etiquette His Majesty is failure; that he is
unfamiliar with the virtue of punctuality
that he prefers his fingers to the knife and
fork; that be can scarcely be prevailed upon
70 acknowledge with bow the salutations of
the people, and that he is at no pains to imi-
tate the respect which, at the European
courts. he everywhere sees paid to woman.
Let us hope that these little peculiarities will
be forsaken by him in time, and when he has
seen all that St. Petersburg and Vienna and
London and Paris have to offer, and learned
all the lessons of morality and intellect which
Europe has to teach that he will return q
wiser and happier man to his own country,
cherishing deeper affection for the railroad
and telegraph, profounder respect for the
iron-clad steamer, and more comprehensive
faith in the institutions Of civilization, than
ever before.
For several reasons it is to be regretted
that His Majesty could not visit the United
States. There is no reason why he and his
wives should not have rested at Salt Lake City
and reassumed all the dignity and prestige of
which the bigotry and prejudice Of European
civilization temporarily deprived them. The
lessons in stirpiculture which he might have
imbibed here would have been Of incalculable
advantage to him in replenishing the deci-
mated population of Persia. The contempla-
ton of emotional insanity and Of the influence
which it exercises over our sympathetic COM
munity would have invigoratingly sailed
mind stepped in the traditions Of Eastern des-
potism and the moral and physical cleanliness
of New York could scarcely have failed to
ameliorate ultimately the condition of Teheran.
The professional interviewer would have gently
insinuated the wedge of democratic equality
into the gnarled and knotted fibre of Per-
sian prejudice and the spectacle of our
women's rights women would have opened
paid by our European relations to the
sex. Possibly he might have sneered at
Central Park and drawn invidious COMPARE
sons between it and his native rose gardens
and we hardly think he could have SO bent his
royal disdain as to visit our public baths and
acknowledge single feeling in unison with
the soiled humanity disporting there. 1t is
uncertain whether our churches could teach
him anything excepting that the formal
observance of religion is not the thing for
Summer, just as the drama might suggest that
good plays were never intended for the dog
days. But on the whole perhaps, it is
preferable for his comfort as well as ours that
he should not come hither until he has become
soaked and sodden with European civilization.
When he drips with that, and the convention
alisms of his native land are washed away
from him, it will be quite time enough for
him to begin to absorb the fresher inspirations
of the New World.