The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-01


st ton a mere mud hovel. Dabeed, about
midway between Teheran and Bushire, is
considered the worst station in Persia. The
extremes of heat and cold in Dabeed are in
tense. From many degrees below zero in
winter and raging storms like billiards, 1t
gets SO hot in summer that the operator
often sits at his instrument up to his chm
in tub of water. None of the cooling ap-
planes that make life tolerable in India
are available here.
The Ingiliz telegraph-jee is quite an i'm
portant parsonage in Persia. Outside of
Teheran and Bushire, he is the solo repre-
sentative of Europe He is a Sahih, whose
salary often exceeds the income of the Per-
sian prince or governor of the town. He
has several servants, and keeps the showiest
riding horse in town, vieing in the matter
of horseflesh with the local prince, with
whom he is always on very good terms
He and the prince invite each other to din
ner; not day passes but the prince comes
and smokes a kalian or two in the telegraph
thana, and in the evening they sit beside
the Steaming samovar and smoke and drink
tea. The prince sends his friend, the tele-
graph-jee, presents of fruit, or pheasant
now and then, and when the line inspector
comes along and leaves with the English
man few bottles of choice Cruiskeen
Lawn the prince knows he will not be
overlooked.
The mollahs and seyuds and khans and
leading observation-disclosures, too, are all
friendly, as a general thing. to the FERN
CHI He is the one relief from the monotony
of daily life to them, speck of human in
terest upon which to center their oriental
curiosity.
1t is often a remarkable change for the
young Englishman. FROM an unambitious
berth in England, wages a pound a week,
hn E,,Ic al inn or. fxArg hnhnnh-
bing on equal terms with Persian princes
with twice as much money to jingle as the
prince, and riding the finest horse in town.
In addition to large salary, inducements
are held out to him to qualify himself for
preferment. A sum equal to three months
salary is paid to him for passing an exarni-
nation in Persian Eve hundred pounds IS
offered as an inducement to qualify for GER
tain services in India. For all these advan-
tages about the only sacrifice he has to make
is of a social nature.
Food is cheap and plentiful, and in the
larger station almost everything can be
found in the baZaES. Some of the men
marry and settle down in the service; they
obtain wives from England, or marry the
maid servants at the legations i'll Teheran
One or two have married American women;
but by SO doing the telegraph sahib" loses
caste, much as a man docs out west by
estimation of his comrades, Persians. and
also with the Americans themselves at
heart, although they consider the capture
of a sahib very advantageous.
Everything is now so thoroughly equipped
and organized that the telegraph service
runs smoothly and efficiently, but this was
far from being the case at first. The diff
culties were long way from being over
come when the line was put through For
II. - ~,,l 20
keep communication open between Teheran
and Bushire. Here for nearly thousand
miles it follows along the greatest caravan
route in Persia. The charvadars and
camel-men regarded the long lengths of
nice strong WIRE strung all along their
route almost in the light Of a special dis
pensation OF Allah, seat to their favored
country so that they might obtain all the
material they wanted from time to time to
mend their ramshacklo pack-saddle, chains
and harness without paying any money.
All summer long thousands of camels
and pack mules are constantly employed
along this route, and the caravan people
used to render the line we'll nigh worthless
Whenever anything broke that could be
mended with wire, the charvadar would
simply Skinny up telegraph pole and help
himself. In day or two, perhaps, some
thing else would fall to pieces; but it mat
quantity of good English telegraph wire
was always to be had for the trouble OF
| climbing pole.
Next TO the charvadars the wandering
| tribes were the worst depredatorS. The
nomads of Persia are much given TO embel
fishing their charms of person by means OF
thick wire bracelets. Copper or silver wire
is their preference, but they have no OBJ
| lection to bracelets of baser metal, especially
=
stretch a telegraph wire through their
country was about the same thing as
placing pot of jam where it can be easily
| reached by boy Nomads who had caught
| on went strutting about the country wear.
| ing wealth of telegraph wire bracelets
that made the eyes of their less lucky tribes
men bulge with adjustment.
| Finding that they could be obtained fol-
nothing by merely climbing up the Ingili1
| poles and hacking off the wire, the popu
| larity of the new style bracelets spread far
and wide among the Eliantes, Susmani:
and Bactiaris. These unsophisticated chill
| dren of the desert, for time, outdid even
| the caravan men. Ambitious young no
MAIDS thought they saw in the unlimited
quantities of telegraph wire an opportunity
to largely increase their wealth, and they
began to carry the bracelets into the more
remote regions as articles of commerce.
All bulS Juo SbCOu
patiently hoping that time and the employ
ment of numerous native linemen would
eventually put stop to the depredations.
The caravan people, however, finding that
| they escaped punishment, grew more and
more enterprising and aggressive. They
| were not slow to discover in the thing they
found SO profitable, sources of amusement
| to boot They took to shooting at the in
| sulators for wagers, and clipping the wires
with bullets for sport.
Another form of recreation was to make
| a mark up near the thin end of the cast-iron
poles, and stand off so many PAGES and shoot
at it, They used to gamble on the number
of shots it would take to crack the pole, and
| bring the upper part, cross-trees, wires, and
insulators down to the ground. This was,
of course, rare fun for the Persians. But
for those who had to bring iron poles from
England, and pack them on camels hundreds
of miles over the deserts, it was not quite SC
| funny.
The English finally had TO appeal to the
shah to protect the line Every good, said
the king of kings, blandly, 'it shall be
stopped. Orders we're sent out to cut off
the hands Of people who were found wear
ing telegraph wire bracelets. Among those
unfortunates were the two Eliantes men
toned at the beginning of this paper.
Equally effective punishments were dealt
out to the caravan people. This had the
desired effect, and to-day the telegraph
wires are as safe in Persia as in any coun'
try. THOMAS STEVENS.