Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-03-10
A STORY FROM PERSIA.
abduction of a Beautiful Girl-A Speenmic
of Oriental Justice.

| Detroit News.
The Rev. Arch-Priest Cuciago shivered
perceptibly, spite of the warmth of the re-
! option room in the Bishops residence, when
he came down to welcome the reporter this
morning. Contrary to his usual custom, he
wore thick and soft robes of brown cloth,
bordered with Persian silk embroidery.
"Ah," he said, in his quick, vivacious
French ''your country is cold, but the faith
full of your country know how to give warm
! welcome to the stranger guest from the
ORIENT
SIS not the HISTORIAN priesthood recog-
nized in Persia?''
'sThe patriarch of the HISTORIAN church
is practically an independent sovereign, hav-
ing his seat at Koordistan. His jurisdiction
! enthusiastically extends over the HISTORIAN
Christians of Persia, and it is policy on the
part of the Cabinet at Teheran to cultivate
his good will. He, too, has to pave the way
to favor with gifts, and the Shah finds him
a useful ally, particularly in his relations
with Russia. -
:Teeeg," he said, 81 will give you an in
stance that occurred short time before I
started for Rome. Awealthy Christian had
very beautiful daughter. By. chance a
Mussulman of high position saw her, and
desired to add her to his already extensive
haren. He applied to her father for her,
and was, of course, Indignantly refused. A
few days afterward the house of the Christian
was invaded by horde ofscoundrels, headed
by the rejected lover, and the girl abducted.
The Christian, mad with grief, bought his
way to the foot of the Cadi, and laid his
grief there. The judge ordered the parties
to appear, and the defendant was instructed
to produce the abducted maiden. day
was fixed, and the defendant appeared with
yelled Mohammedan woman, whom he rep
resented and swore to be the Christian girl.
The woman, on her part, swore that she was
the daughter of the Christian, that she had
long desired to embrace the Mohammedan
faith, that she had been consenting party
to the abduction, had since become one of
the four lawful wives of the abductor, and
had been received into the Mohammedan
fold The Christian was at once non-suited,
heavily fined for attempting to interfere
with the faith Of child of the prophet, and
driven out of court. Within an hour host
of Mohamnedan officials swooped down
upon his house, confscated everything he had
in the world, and drove him and his family
beggars into the street. This is by no
means an isolated case, either" added Mon
signor.
GLOW many Christians are there in
Persia?''
"About one million. The total population
is twelve millions. They are mainly agri-
culturists, raising rice, barley, cotton, tobac-
CO, &C., for the Russian market
''Are taxes high?'
"High! They are simply crushing. A
man raises crop, and has only about one
twelfth of it for himself after the local and
general governments have secured their
share. The life of the peasant is that of
abject slavery, and yet the government is al
ways poor, on account of the speculation of
officials
'Have any good results followed the Shah's
visit to European States?
81 rather think yes. We have no reason
to complain of the Shah. He has always
conducted himself en- bon g0rcon, and if he
could have his way there would be equal
rights, but the mollahs are too many for
him. He has too many fanatics around
him, who destroy the effect of his good in
tentions and DEGREES. He actually has tried
to govern better since his return, but his
promises far exceed his performance. His
ideas of enlightenment are crude, and he is
too fond of pleasure to see that his good in
tentions are carried out