The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-08-17


| mantraps. Luckily it was not more
than ten feet deep, and he was I'M
hurt. We pulled him out with hal
| ter rope. In the great perpetual
drouth that is creeping over Persia
| even the Kanat System is failing,
however. One hears on every hand
| the plant of the people that no wat
| er comes down the kanats; that the
| crops have dried up and died, and
that whole village colony must
perforce abandon their homes, and
F, seek a new location, where water
may still be had Someday, when
all the trees have been cut from the
mountains in America, and no more
snow lays on our now wooded
mountain sides, the great irrigated
regions in California, Oregon and
Washington will become deserts,
The Villages will be abandoned,
fields will become wastes, and the
population will perish. There is a
lesson for us in Persia's plight.
This old town of Kermanshah is
famous in Persia's history. 1t is on
the ancient caravan route from Tehe-
ran to Damascus, and in its palmy
days saw some stirring events in the
history of the east. Every explorer
from Alexander and Marco Polo to
an itinerant peddler of German-made
| jewelry has come to Kermanshah.
And everybody goes out to Faith Ali
Shah, near here, to see the mystic
carving on the cliffs. | don't know
what it all means; | stood and look
ed at for half an hour, and tried to
figure out why people who knew
enough to do such good work in one
direction should let their homes ana
country go to pieces as Persia has.
The photograph shows king on
horseback, fighting in that fierce
fashion which made old Persia FAM
GUS
A caravan of mules, loaded with
bales of rugs and carpets, passed
down the zigzag trail today on it's
| way to Bagdad. 1t hailed from
Hamadan and Sultanbad, where the
Germans have a mill that turns out
genuine Persian rugs" fresh every
e1-o aOa ,1ynrtE Of
these carpets were shipped from Bag
da1 for New York in 1909. Several
times this quantity go out each year
over the northern route via Mossul
and ConstantinOple, or Aleppo. Real
antiques are fast becoming an I'M
known Quantiay so far as exported
rugs are concerned. But the willy
Persians, awake to the demand in
America, rise t. the emergency with
characteristic Oriental astuteness.
| They buy new rugs, aniline dyed,
! from the German makers; these new
| ly woven rugs they deliberately
spread down in the filthy streets of
| the big b2Zaars in Kern.anshah.
Hamaden and other Persian towns.
Here the rugs lay for weeks, while
men, mules, camels, goats etc. swarm
back and forth across them. Grad
ually the newness wears off and the
| flaming colors subside, and there en-
sues that faded, dingy look which
amateur collectors associate with old
rugs, Rugs alone make up Persia >
one important export. Some tobacco
is sent out, and a certain amount or
gum tragacanth, though even the
shrub which produces this latter is
disappearing as the country dries up
and turns to a desert. Few genuine
antique rugs OF great value lemaln IN
| Persia; | have seen one or two, I'D
the hands of the upper class Perslans
worth upwards of thousand dollars
But most of the exquisite old fabrics
of which so much has been written
have long since passed into the hands
of American and European collectors
A demand existed for middle-priceo
rugs. and the Germans Immediately
started a factory.
| Kermanshah today is noted mainly
for it's rugs and carpets. II a rail-
road ran through here, from Bagdad
| to Teheran, the bulk of trade now
carried by mule-back would be tre-
blcd many times. Grain grown
about here sells in Bagdad for SIX
times the Kermanshah price, though
Bagiad is only 22O miles away. Teh-
eran, 325 miles away, pays ten and
twelve times as much for grain
grown at Kermanshah as the same
grain sells for where produced. To-
day I met the pack train from Bag
dad for Teheran; they had two
pianos. destined for a haram in Teh-
eran. The caravan boss told me that
these pianos had been on the road
from London to Teheran just ten
months, and that often goods took
one year to make the trip. Freight
charges climb to 500 ton and
over. Yes, Persia needs railroads.
But it is doubtful if they would pay
if built by private capital without
government guarantee. The rough
mountainous country, the fact that