Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1873-07-24
PERSIA AND ITS SHAH.
Condition of the Country to-day.

ture" contains, under the above title,
about this Asiatic despOt, and his un-
happy land and people, some COM
munications which are taken from the
report of journey in 1872, by Mr..
Morcusey, Secretary of the British Ie-
CATION at Vienna. We lay some ex-
tracts from it before our readers. Persia
is about as large as Great Britain and
France together, but it has no more in
habitants than Ireland alone-i. e., be-
tween five and six millions, of whom,
according to Morcusey, several thou
sands have died of hunger during the
last year. This absolutely poor popu-
lation has to raise government reve-
nue. of at least twelve millions of thai
ers, but this sum does not suffice to
meet the wants of the ,and
foggings, satrapal extortions, and 9TH
er mems used in the East to raise a
revenue, have long ago lost their pow
er. Persia consists alternately of par
adises, such as described byssHafiz and
Saadi, and partly by Goethe in his
''Westostlicher DivaD," and of deserts
of rock, sand land salt. Although there
are high mountain ranges, it never
rains enough, because the heights are
destitute of foreit, and there exist no
works of irrigation. In the vicinity of
the sea, the rivers lose their flow in
terrible wilderness, or dead, bitter, and
salt lakes. There are, further, the
greatest contrasts of temperature. In
some parts people perish from cold and
fever, while in others they are dying
of heat. A strip of coast on the Per-
sian Gulf is, during the greatest part
of the year, as hot as an oven, while on
the coast of the Caspian Sea there is for
at least five months in the year a cold,
damp, feverish air. Between these
parts there are here and there cases of
SURPRISING beauty, with fields covered
with grain, Tor gardens full of roses,
lilies, and other flowers. The present
capital, Teheran, unites in Itself nearly
all possible degrees of cold and heat
At Christmas time missionaries skate,
to the amusement of the Shah and his
Ministers, On long sheets of ice, which
are protected by high walls against the
rays of the sun, which are also in win
ter po erful, in order that the ice may
last the longer. During the summer
everyone who can get away goes to the
slope of the Flbrun Mountains. Those
who must remain live during the heat
of the day in subterranean rooms, and
during the night on the roofs of the
houses, in an atmosphere SO dry that
one cannot catch cold. Good roads
are found but rarely or not at all, and
travelling is done on horseback, but the
Shah, for his own convenience, has had
built to his country residence railway
about one German mile in length
Travelling is not everywhere without
danger, for there are wild, nomadic
hordes who attack and plunder single
travellers well as caravans. The Shah
has too many soldiers for the revenues
of the country, but too few for its Sc
curity. These soldiers drain the coun-
try, but loOk, nevertheless, starved,
shabby, anil raggedly uniformed; theya
are frequently but half armed, and
seem rather like robbers, or beggars
than protectors of the country. They
also rarely receive their pay regularly.
They drill in the European manner,
but very negligently; in fact, they show
their decay on their faces just as the
country does. Persia is in many places
covered with the decayed rests of very
old, old and new capitals. Pasagarda,
the oldest capital and residence of Per-
sia, in Paris, near the frontier of Kar-
mania, contained, in a fine park, the
tomb of Cyrus, its founder, who bad
built the town as monument of the
victory he had gained here over the
Median Astyages. To the northwest
of it was Persepolis, founded by Cam
byses, enlarged and beautifed by Dar-
ius and XerXes. Ecbatana, at present
called Hamadan, was, on account of
its agreeable climate, the summer resi-
dence of the Persian and Parthian
kings---a most magnificent city, with
splendid royal palace. Teheran, the
present capital of Persia, and residence
of the Shah since last century, can
hardly show decent building besides
the palaces of the Shah and some of
his favorites. The streets are narrow,
curved, and i'll paved, the rooms of the
houses are low and poorly furnished.
The genuine Persians, males and fe-
males, are still good looking, and well
grown, with an almost German express
sion of face, but lean and feeble. The
only things in the country that have
conserved themselves, beautiful land
powerful, are the horses. But ability
and taste, wit and humor, cannot have
altogether died out, for in the bazars
are found many tasteful articles for use
and luxury. The chief blessing of
Persia, the tasty fruits of all kinds,and
the light wines of (Ecbatana) III ,lmadan
still deserve all the praise given them
by the poet Hafiz.
Gnod ropotlo IO1Una ara NOW haipu