The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-11-30
ADJUSTMENTS IN PERSIA,
PLEASURES OF RICH AND POOR IN
AN ORIENTAL COUNTRY.
Smoking and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
and Public NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Story T~cIlcrs-The nI%nu1crsm

Smoking and Observation-Disclosures
and Public NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Story Tellcrs-The "Loutcrs."
In the why of popular amusrmcnts
there is not much in / crs:a, writes Wolf
Won Schierbrard in the San Francisco
Chronicle. The rich, of course, us else
where, know how to find and sip the
honey Of amusement from the chalicc Of
life. Not so the poor. The wealthy Per
sian INDUCES in banquets, to which he
will invite his intimate friends, and
where they will get bcast.y drunk on Or
rack and wine and date handy. where
from forty to 200 dishes and swcetmcats
are served, n where sCme female slaves
will dance to him md his guests; where
they will recline after the meal by the
brbbling kanaut, with the fragrant
fumes of the ghalyan envcloping them.
while Jewish musicians will play and n
professional s~tory-teller will get Oft his
best yarns and jokes, the whole crowd
meanwhile swiliing tea and sherbct bv
the galloon. In the evening they will
even have fireworks. and hundreds of
little lamps, inclosed In varicolored glass
globes, which have their rays reflected
from the glass ceilings.
The rich will go off on long hunting
Vi VII hluS pulIlCS VI ~
pigeon matches. They will employ Jug
glers and prize fighters and magicians.
They will while the weary hours pleas
antly away in their andarouns with their
women in q variety Of ways. Money al
ways finds means TO spend the. time
amusingly, if it chooses, but how about
the poor Persians, and they form ninety
nine per cent. of the population? Prac-
tically they have only the ghalzan, the
tea house, the bah, and the professional
story-tellers and ''boutees' to give them
their foretaste of the paradise which
Mohammed has printed in such glowing
colors. The ghalzau is tho Russian
water pipe. It is quite different from
the Turkish narghileh, has no flexible
tube and mouthpiece, but a straight.
stiff stem, and it is so heavy and incon-
venicnt to hold that it requires ones two
hands and entire attention to manipulate
it. But the splendid smoke it furnish: 8
compensatcs for the trouble. the smoke
: passes through cool water and is quite
free from nicotine when it comes to the
mouth.
The tobacco used in the ghalzan is
called :'tumbekee," to dis inguish it
from the ''futun," or tobacco or tn.
chibouk. 1t is raised in three grades.
In the lower grades of tumb.kce some
, opium is admixed, and this with the in
vetcrate smoker produces along in &c
afternoon a sort of narcosis, called by
them ''ketf;' that is, the state of greatest
attainable we'll being, of tranquility
(the Persian has the same word for b iss,'
JOY, happiness and tranquility.
Many Persians will smoke fol ty to fifty
ghalzans a day; that il, they will gcner.
ally only smoke up half the t bacco in
the silver cup TINT holds it on top of the
bottle shaped ghalzans, throwing the
other half way rs it is usually imp egna-
ted with nicotine. These pipes are kept
exceedingly clean, a remarkable fact in
q country where even the highest are
quite filthy to our notion. In tho house
holds of the well-to do one of the high
est servants is the ghalzandar (pipe-
clean the pipes and keep his master sup
smoke the ghalzan a great deal, both
! those of high and low rank. I have
seen ladies from the Shah's audaroun
stop on the high road in their carriages
by a wayside inn and lave half y dozen
| ghalzans brought to them, the eunuchs
and servant meanwhile blocking the
way to all passers-b by.
The teahouse is the Persian substitute
for our great American saloon. Curiously
enough, although nothing but tea and
sherb.t is over called for in these places
in the way of liquids, they are termed
galway khane coffee house) in 1 crsian.
Every large town in Persia has hundreds
such places. In Teheran there are between
400 aud 500 of them. some of them quite
elegant and heightened, but they are
cheap, all of them. There is generally n
large, high room, through the middle of
which a stream is rushing, i'll summer,
with q species of summer g.rdcn Behind,
where tho nightingales are performing
and the roses are blushing in their naive
pink. Dozens OF Persluns OF high and
low degree are seated on their htun"hes
by the babbling water, smoking incessant
ghalzans and drinking tea sweet and hot,
while n story teller unfolds before their
half-closed eyes all the splendors of nus
tum and the Persia of old. To sit there
q couple Of hours enjoying himself
hugely, while a son or nephew is left in
! charge of the shop in the ncighboring
bazaar, will cost no more than 5 To II
shahi (34 to 10 cents). Of late, however,
the tea-house business had bet ONE so
much in vogue all over Persia, and the
artisans, mechanics and small meichants
had become so addicted to the habit of
resorting there, that the Shah issued a
frman to close up or pull down oil the
tea-houses in Persia OF course, like all
these firmans, it was not carried out, al
though thousands Of the smaller ones
were RACED to the ground. The Lii es-
Sultan and 1spahan, for instance, had
about 200 destroyed, But that left sew
i owl htNrIr,d ~nk orl The ro.~asn-
ones of course did a more f1%ourishing
| hnsiness than ever.