The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1877-07-07

washed over with blue, upon which were
scrolled decorations nodded in the same
plaster.
The uniformity and ugliness of some
London streets-say Cover street, for ex-
ample-are bad enough, but brick wall
would be worse; and a brick is a thing Of
beauty, and of many colors, compared with
mud. Dried mud is the prevailing mate
rial aud color in Tehcran. One of the
principal sites in the city is occupied by
the "taziah, or theatre, in which religious
representations are given, after the man.
ner of the Ober-Ammersgau Passion plays,
of the suiferings and death of Houssein
The front of this building is a good speci-
men Of modern Persian architecture, which
in England we should recognise as the
Rosherville or Cremorne style-the gew-
gaw, prctentious, vulgar, and ephemeral
style, erected in those places of amusc-
ment, only TO be seen at night, and to last
for season. The fdcdde is shaped like
a small transept of the Crystal Palace, and
covered with florid, coarse decorations in
plaster, with headings of bits of coarse
looking glass, bright blue, red, yellow, aud
green being plcntifully laid upon the plas
ter wherever there is opportunity. Be
hind this is the Shah's palace, which is
better, in that the plaster is uncolored
The gate which leads to this central inclo.
sure, the citadel, or arg, (the same word
probably as lark, of Teheran, is of the
same Tunbridge-warc pattern as the two
gates; but the arches are filed with cx-
travagant representations, in tiles of the
coarsest colors, of the triumphs of legend
AIRY heroes of Persia over terrible creatures
which can have existed only in the fancy
Of the artist The excessively grotesque
in these mosaics gives them certain GU
rious interest 1t is upon the inner side
of this gateway that one sees to what
low level Persian art has descended The
ornaments of this most important and cen.
tral gate in Teheran are representations of
Persian soldiers, liie-size, the painting Of
the glazed tiles being very much such as
is seen in the east end of London upon
the street bills of the lowest music halls.
In drawing, each soldier is like the 'menn
we are accustomed to see from the pencil
Of children of three or four years old. The
features OF each man are upon one plan !;
they have the same leer as those of his
companions; the mustachc is brick and
half long, and the black boots are hang.
ing painfully, as if tortured in the search
for some clod or cloud to stand upon. The
ornamentation of the exterior Of some of
the mosques with these colored bricks,
chiefly Of light blue and yellow, is very
effective, but We met with no place in
which this work was not more or less dis
figured by ruin; and repair does not seem
to be the business of any person or de-
partment.
From one end of Persia to the other,
this miserable condition of decay, diapi.
dation and ruin is characteristic of all pub
lie edifices-the mosques, palaces, bridges
everything. 1t is probably correct to
say that this invariable condition is con
sequence of the universal corruption of the
government The work of maintenance
and repair belongs to the executive gov
ernment, and the funds which should be
thus expended pass into the rapacious
pockets of the governors of the country.
LANTERNS OF CEREMONY.
1t battles the simple English mind to
conceive plan by which rank can be in
dicated at night in dark, unlighted city,
where the streets are full of holes. But
with the Persian rank is everything; and
this is denoted at night according to the
size and number of lanterns by which the
progress of the great is Illuminated. The
ceremonious lanterns of Tcheran, about
eighteen inches in diameter, have a metal
top and bottom, the intervening and lumin-
Gus space being of plain or colored linen,
about yard deep. Through a ring in
the top the bearer passes his arm, and,
holding it high, he can just keep the Ian
tern from of the ground as he walks On
the occasion of dinner at the British
Legation, or any similar festival elsewhere,
these lanterns are seen advancing from all
quarters, followed by guests, who are in
visible IN the surrounding gloom.
PERSIAN DINNER PARTY.
was invited to dinner which was to
be thoroughly Persian. 1t was a bitterly
cold evening, and the guests arrived mostly
on mules, and all wrapped from head to
foot in furs. At first, it does strike one
us odd to be received, upon an occasion of
ceremony, in room without chairs or
table-indeed, with nothing but carpet.
The room was high, the ceiling domed
and painted, and upon it there was good
deal of gliding and stalactite ornament,
such as is seen in the Crystal Palace revi.
val of the coloring of the Alhambra.
There were hung on the walls several pic
lures Of women, such as are exhibited for
view in the Palais Royal, and there were
also one or two familiar prints from the
Illustrated London Ne,cs. At a lower
level, there were some pictures painted in
Persian style, that is, crowded with figures,
no regard being had to perspective or to
gradation of color. One represented the
miraculous procession of birds and beasts
into Noah's ark, the rear brought up by
Noah himself, whose beard, colossal and
black as a ravens wing, drew attention to
the far background. ..#t
The shoes of all the guests who were not
European were outside the door; their
overcoats thrown in a corner of the apart
ment, which was ut once reception and
dining room. In rectangular recess,
three musicians, sitting on the floor, dis
coursed strange song and music. One had
a wiry instrument, resembling a small
guitar; another produced short screams
from sort Of fageolet; and the third, who
also contributed the chief part of the vocal
entertainment, had small drum. In the
centre Of the room there was a Persian
carpet of many and beautiful colors round
the sides were felts, nearly half an inch
thick, and five feet wide, upon which most
Of the guests sat or reclined.
1t is not considered good manners in
the East to display much of ones legs
upon the carpet. Mohammed, the foun-
der of Islam, has been praised by his bio
grapher because he never projected his
legs or his feet before company; and we
ara told that the pronhat ahowoJ HE u,