New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-07-05

Large octave, PIP. $50 and 633 Longmans. Green
81 Co. London and NewlorK
This is an ambitious learned and thoroughly
digcsted volume on modern Persia, and deserves
immediate recognition as n standard work OF tho
first rank among comprehensive books Of travel
The foundation for it laid in a valuable
series of letters contributed 10 THE London
Tines but the supcrstructure has been
elaboratelv constructed after laborious jour
news exhaustive study OF the literature OF the
subject and continuous correspondence with the
best known authorities. When the author IN MS
preface asserts that these two large volumes ell
body the results Of three years OF almost conhuous
labor he reveals the high aims which nave IN
spired his studies and Investigations. Inc pook-
writer who aspires TO write popular WORK vi
travel does not exhaust his energies in TINS waste
ful way. He fills his pages with snowy writing,
personal incidents and superficial observation, ana
produces a book that is as easily read as a sum
mer novel. and as quickly forgotten. Mr. Curzons
motive is a higher one than TO entertain care@Ss
and Indifferent readers He has aimed 70 produce
n commemorative work dealing with every aspect
Of nublic life in Persia with it's inhabitants, prov
inces cities lines Of communication, antiquities
government institutions resources, trade. hnahce'
policy. and present and future development, OF
in short, with everything which mas maze ~ "
nation For this laborious achievement, MS s'uu-
les Of Russia in Central Asia have precautionary
fitted him. and he has done his work so 'hor-
ourhly that it will be many years before any
rival In literature attempts to supplaht lib WI
ume as the standard book on Persia
The JOURNEYS Of which this work bears record
;rclu6ed a ride of $50 miles through the frontier
nrovince Of Khorasan TO Teheran another horse
h.ck ride OF 500 miles from Teheran to Bushlrc'
tho ascent OF the Shat-cl-Arab and the haruh
River. and the navigation OF the Persian JUL
Tho districts travencd were the northeas% cen-
trail southwest and the southern maritime hls"-
way With an itineracy so exhaustive com,
prehcnsive survey OF the country was rcuuei'"
possible 1t began with the remnant OF the once
poNerful principality of Khorasan, when orlei-
nally embraced Merry and Khiva in the nor'h ana
Herat and Kandahar in the east lhough "
ruined estate it presents many interesting "speoS'
being fortified by impregnable mountains, inter
spcrsed with plains where stand the runs OF
famous capitals and possessing in Meshed Guy
NJ GREAT renown Khorasan is the province Dor
dcrinr at once upon Afghanstan and the RUSSIAN
possessions in Central Asia, aud the possesSlo"
Of Neshed is one of the prizes OF future
warfare between the great European rivals ioi
supremacy in the East. Many Imperial interests
centre in that mountain stronghold with us WORTH
famed capital and the author is one OF the most
cmpetent English writer's to present them ih'cih-
gently 10 his countrymen.
Another large portion Of the work relates TO
Teheran and Ispahan. one an Asiatic capital Will
the borrowed trappings of Europe and the mem
or;os of n conrt ryalling In splendor that OF the
Great Mogul, and the other with Its wreck OF
Fallen nalaces and former greatness. Neither kum'
with its golden dones and saints resting places,
nor Shiraz with its poets graves and memories
of the lovelicst gardens of the East Is neg
lected and tho relics of more ancient pa'' a.
Personals. the Persia of Herodotus and Aenophon'
arc reverently approached. On the plains oil u'e
Tcris and Euphratcs where great cities ana tie
coonnadcs of splendid palaces once adorned the
river banks lie halts to notice the newly re-
yyed sparks OF industry and trade. ana oscourses
of lands Of equal honor in sacred lescnd ana pro-
fame history. teemng with intimatons OF the
Garden of Eden, of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel Al
exander and Sinbad the Sailor, the Arab Columbus
Of an earlier age
Persia as il is described in these glowing pages
;s Of the East most Eastern, and it eXerts
wonderful and incaculahe fascination over the
travellers mind. The author finds 1t dlnlcuit 10
bring home 10 English readers. whose ideas OF
nature are drawn exclusively from the West, the
extremity OF the contrast that meets the eye
Mountains in Europe for the most part piue or
purple in color in Persia they are fame-red, or
nmber or funereai drab Fields in Europe when
deCked
crimson with upturned mould In Persia they
are only distnguishable from the brown desert
b,. The dry beds OF the irrigation bitches. A typ
;col English village consists of detached and often
uictnresoue cottages half hidden amid venerable
troes A typical Persian village Is cluster OF
Nlthy mud huts huddled within the prOtecueh OF
+. decayed mud wall. Outside the Caspian prov
inces and a few mountain villages there Is no'
Forest and barely wood in Persia that is worthy
of the name Extensive plains are suddenly Ter
minated by gaunt and forbidding peaks. drear
and colorless desolatiOn in winter Is succeeded py
rio,ors though ephcmeral verdure and thousand
&ints Of flowers in the spring. Where the charmed
circle Of water distribution ends the desert begins
and the transition is as awful as from HE 70
death. Warmth by day in winter is eXpiated by
biting cold at night
The contradictions Of Nature seem 70 be re-
snonsjble in some way for the loss of life. Ma
iestic ruins that tell of popuous and mighty
mast rear their heads amid deserted wastes ana
yacabond TENTS Tiny and iu-nour1shed chr
dren grow up into robust men. Premature 1e-
male beauty as followed by ugliness beyond words
Splendide mendaX may be taken as the motto
Of Persian character The finest domestic virtues
coexist with barbarity and supreme indifference
TO suffering Elegance OF department is compatible
with a coaIseuees amounting TO bestiallty. The
Persian is now naughty and now cringing. Ac-
csmplished manners and more than Persian
polish cover truly superb faculty for lying and
almost scientific impoSture. The most scandalous
corruption is combined with scrupulous regard
for specified precepts Of the moral law. Religion
is alternately stringent and lax, inspiring at
one moment the bigOt's rage, at the next the
agnostic's indifference Government Is both
patriarchal and machiavellian- patriarthaI IN It's
simplicity of structure, machlaVeiilan In It's nm
ished ingenuity of wrong doing Life is both
magnificent and squaid; the people at once despic-
able and noble; the panorama at the same time