The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-16
WANT IN PERSIA.

Now that public attention has been
 aroused by the threatening attitude oi
 the working classes in Teheran, per
 haps few words as to the conditions under which the Persian proletariat in this benighted city of some l25000 in-
 habitants have to eke out an existence
 would be of interest.
 The staple food of the people is bread, of kind known as 'nun-i-sanyak, baked in pancake form on an earthen-
 ware pot over red hot charcoal.
 In the autumn of 1897, rise in the price of wheat from to tomas per khalvar (about BPS for 625 pounds) first | hinted at a scarcity of grain. With wheat at this price, bakers were able to supply the public with 8 loaf weighing one mand (about GA pounds) at kran | (5d). e4e
 | Since then wheat Gas well as barley and grain generally) has steadily gone up, until last year it had risen to three 1 times it's former price, and had grown | so scarce that only limited quantities could be procured in the bazaar. | Now, the government, although mak- | ing no serious efforts to keep down the price of grain, and to check the monop- i olists yet had issued a "ghataghan," prohibiting any increase in the price of bread.
 Those bakers, therefore, who contin- ued to bake and sell bread (which had deteriorated in the same degree in which wheat rose in value, until it con sisted mostly of barley, rice and pota- toes) were daily beaieged by bowling mobs.
 The Persian of to-day is for the most part harmless and inoffenslve enough, yet his Oriental nature, once stirred to frenzy by so just a grievance. would stop at nothing, and it were a bad day for those in authority, who rule by fear alone, if once the spark of revolution were fairly klndled
 When some sort of order has been restored by the aid of the Shah's far rashes Literally keepers of the carpet, meaning simply attendants), the people had to wait their turn, often for hours, while the bread was being baked, much as we in England wait our turn at the pit entrance of the theater under the watchful eye of our homely Robert" 4NOW, tolUD1IillS tlit pl lAt pL with the wages received by the better class working people, it will be seen how desperate an effort it must be for these poor folk to keep body and soul to- gether Service with Europeans, of whom the town contains some 600 is considered by the natives about as well paid an occupation as can be found; so it happens that, despite their religious seruples which make all dealings with the unclean iufidel a breach of Maham- med's law, and although, unlike Turk ish and Arab Mosems, they exclude on pain of death the "Feranghee' (E,uro- pean) from even entering mosque, a thing which is countenanced in both Constantinpole and Cairo, they are yet keenly bent on obtaining situations in the houses of well-to-do foreigners. Why should a true believer fear the wrath of his prophet when, after hav- ing feathered his nest a t the expense of his 'Feranghee Sahib, he can, by ju- diciously greasing his "mullahs'' (priest's) palms, buy absolution and the entree to a shaded grove in the gar dens of "behesht" (heaven)?
 The scale of wages al the foreigners
  mensem for pishketmat (house ser van) to six tomas (24s.) per mems. for an 'ashpaz' (sook).
 The religon prohibits them from par taking of any food which comes from the Christians table, and they have, therefore, entirely to feed, clothe, and often house themselves, as wei as wives and families, on this princely income.
 Their wages with an atve master would be about half those received | from European, but there they would, | of course, receive their board
 Now, it must be understood that Teherar, being situate in north Persia and on a high plateau, although very hot during eight months of the year, yet | has two or three months of severe cold | and frost, when the people require both | warm clothing and sustaining food and | if Tod. per day with fod al famine prices | must feed, clothe. and often house the | pick of the working classes, it is little 1 wonder if their less fortunate brethren | either starve or rebel.
 The present trouble, however. not | all that has been officially | said about the matter, is not due to bad | harvests; for the harTests during the past few years have been exceptionally | good. It is due entirely to a grain | this curse of 8 famished l