Savannah morning news., 1886-06-23
PEusIANs IN THE SNOW.
Street Scenes in Teheran on Morn
ing in Winter.

]
Boston Herald of winter morning in Te-
heran: The Persians live through the
summer, but they worry, rather than live,
through the winter. They seem capable
OF enduring any degree of heat without
making any special provision against II,
but in the winter the majority OF the
citizens walk the streets with bumped
backs and shivering frames, or loaf
about in sunny corners as though
| hourly expecting it TO get warmer.
( The climate in winter is variable
TO the extent that it seldom remains uu-
pleasantly cold for more than two or three
days together, and to this, perhaps, isdue
the fact that few people seem to make
anything but makeshitt provisions
against it. Curious to see how they acted
in the presence of six inches Of snow, !
took stroll through the city at 8 O'Clock
one morning, after a snow storm OF "a
hours duration had subsided. l found,
perhaps, halt as many people abroad as
usual, and pedestrians gingerly stepping
in each others footsteps as they picked
their way along the streets. The footgear
Of the city Persians and more
especially the moullahs and seynds,
Is a slipper in which only the forepart of
the foot ia thrust, leaving the heel of the
sock without any protection above the
sole. The foOlgear of the women is even
worse, except that over the stocking-it
they wear any-there is the sock-like foot
gear of the green calico pantalettes,
which they slip on over their indoor cos
tune whenever they walk abroad. 1t is
always a marvel to me to see Persian
lady picking her way through the mud or
snow in tiny green slippers, in which lit
tie more than the toes are thrust, and the
entire sole back of the mere toe flapping
up and down at every step. A European
lady would find herself parting company
from these slippers every other step, but
the Persian lady never loses them; they
seem to be hinged or
GLUED TO HER TOES.
saw both ladies and moullahs walking
through the deep snow this morning in
this same unsuitable foot gear, and, for
any good their slippers did them, they
might lust as we'll have been in their
stocking feet. l saw one lady in pair of
elastic side CATERS, put on specially for
the occasion; but she walked with an
awkward, unnatural gait, and although
her feet looked snug and comfortable in
comparison with the others, couldn't help
but fancy that she was merely trying an
awkward experiment, and that the next
time she ventured out in the snow she
would discard them in favor of her native
slippers. The Persian socks are low and
many are bare, as they are in summer.
The Persian seems to regard his ankles as
unworthy of protection; on the coldest
dav in winter Perslans may be seen riding
donkeys, their legs dangling loosely down,
with six inches of unprotected shank be-
tween sock top and pantalo0n bottom.
Dervishes that were squatting ABOUT
half naked in the broiling summer sun
are squattlng about half naked now the
very same rags that they wore in July
serve them for covering this snowy Jan
uary morning. Some few, indeed, appear
with patchwork mantles drawn negli-
gently about them, but legs, arms, head
aud breast are bare, while MANY have
no additional covering whatever
Most Of them this morning
have managed to get perched
somewhere out of the snow. and are
lowering over broken jars containing live
Goals and hot ashes, which they have
begged from some neighboring bakers or
tchal-khan. The shopkeepers are all
likewise lowering over little crooks of
charcoal in their open front shops, and in
the tchai-khans groups OF men are seen
squattIng in small circles around tiny
bOnfres, chatting sOciably and taking
alternate whItfs OF the kalian. This latter
is the Persian idea of solid comfort. In
all Persia, not excepting even the Shah's
palace, there exists no such
REALISTIC PICTURE OF CosINEss
and fireside comfort as Dickens depicts a
score OF times so delightfully."-, and as may
be found in the home of nearly every we'll
tO-dO person in England or America. In
| deed, until educated up to the change, a
| Persian would doubtless consider himself
far more comfortable and happy as one OF
a small circle of gOssipers and kalian
smokers, squattlng around little blaze
of pine sticks, with an OyercOat protect
! ing his back, than in the snuggeet OF
steam-heated parlors with the society OF
| his family.
Everywhere, this morning, men with
! great wooden scoops are shoVelng the
snow off the flat mud roofs; but the der
wish crouching beneath the wall has no
fear that particle will be thrown Oh him,
for his sanctified rags are respected and
his unwashed person is regarded by the
laboring-class Persians with reverence; a
| fact which also accounts for Ferenghi
being more liable to insult from the work
ing class than any other.
No military music awakens the echoes
of this wintry morning, and about the
artillery square and the palace all is quiet
as though, like his humblest subject, the
Shah himself were content to remain Sc
cluded until the genial rays of the sun
dispersed the snow. The military maidan
is a level area of unbrOken whiteness
the officers don't relish the idea OF
| drilling the men IN SIX inches OF snow,
and the men themselves are huddled up
In their quarters, shiyering at the very
thought of march past through ever so
little Of the beautiful in their wretchedly
slip-shod condition. There will be no
more reviews until t1e snow is all melted
and the ground dried up; so our long
winded buglers will be longer winded
than ever when they again have a fair
chance to try their lungs; their blasts will
he all the shrlller and all the more discor-
dant from having had no practice for a
couple of weeks. Our tall and ever &C
tive Nubian dervish is
COAL BLACK STUDY ON WHITE
GROUND
this morning, as he emerged from his
| crOuching attitude I'm tiny space against
the wall of building. which some chari-
tably disposed person has cleared of the
snow for MIN. In this little bare spot he
will remain crouched until the warm
sunshine of midday c0aXes him 10
some other nook. On this wintry morn
ing, as IL was in summer weather, his
lean, lank, ebony figure is partially en-
yeloped in an old bath towel, his head,
arms and legs are destitute of covering,
but he has wrapped some rags about his
feet. He Is the happy p0ssessOr Of a crock
| of hot ashes. which he folds TO his naked
breast with his left arm as he sklps
| through the snow toward me, presenting
his alms-hOlder with his right. and greet
ing me with his "huk yak huk" in a