The Washington bee., 1911-12-02
CRAFT IN PERSIA
Officials Pay For the Privilege OF
Fleeing the Public.
A LAND WITHOUT LAWYERS.
And Yet That Extraordinary Exemp-
tion Does Not Help the Unfortunate
Who Gets into TroubIe-Coaxing the
Accused TO Confess.

1t would he difficult for a Persian
who has not Travelled to understand
American excitement over what the
newspapers here call graft" My
motheriaud, Persia, is not yet quite
awake to the possibility of a mans
serving the public for a certain fixed
salary and taking nothing more. IN
Persia they take it for granted that
every Ofiiceholder viii "gOuge' people
whenever he gets u chance.
There are no lawyers in Persia, so
there are no jokes about lawyers ap-
petite for gold and silver. If you have
ever had a costly lawsuit on your
hands you may think that makes mat
ters simpler, but getting into trouble
means being squeezed for money,
wrung for money, as if you were a
piece Of wet cloth in a washerwoman's
strong grip.
This is how it is managed: FIRST
: you see, the governor of city or OF
province never has a definite salary
from the state-nOt at all. On the con-
tFary, he pays the state treasury sew
eral thousand dollars more or less for
the privflege of being governor and Of
making what he can out of the enter
prise. He is not an elected officer; he
is more like d "cOncessiOnaire" at one
of your big eXpositions, who offers
large sum for a chance to run res
taurant or to provide ice cream soda or
candy.
The governor (Or mayor of a large
Persian town may have perhaps 100 to
100 employees under him. Of these
: only a few house servants (cOOk,
c0achman and the like have fixed
wages. The incomes of the others de-
pend upon the amount of money which
they can help turn into the great
mans hands in the form of fines and
taxes. You can guess whether the
neighbOrs are fond of them!
Suppose now you live in Persia. You
have leased a piece of ground or you
have sold some goods and the other
man does not pay. You dun him,
Then you threaten him. Then you go
to the governor and make a complaint.
An officer arrests your debtor and
takes him before the governors sec
EEldEN lOE GAdlltludllOus OSSABlg 44C
can convince that important parsonage
that it is not a just debt. If he can
not do that he would better put all his
wits to work to convince the secretary
that poverty makes it quite impOssi-
BILE to pay up.
This is where many of the 80 under
employees get their chance. A large
part Of their occupation is hunting up
facts about everybOdy's property,
everybOdy's business, everybOdy's in
come They know an amazing num-
Der of things which your debtor sup
posed were safely secret They pro-
duce information whenever infOrma-
ton is wanted.
Your mans pretense that business is
bad and that he is all but bankrupt is
brushed aside. and he is made to pro-
duce an amount Of money consider
ably larger than the original debt.
MADE" to produce it? Yes. There
are shocking things that can be done
to him if he hesitates too long, and he
knows it. So. like a child aware that
there is an ugly stick waiting in the
corner. he usually does not hesitate
too long. He saves his skin and hands
over the money. You get maybe so
to 90 ner cent to satisfy your claim
that is. the officer Of justice practi-
caIly collects from you something for
his own services. The rest goes to the
governor and such of the employees
as may he considered in the case.
Perhaps yoU have shop in the town
bazaar or market place and some poor
good-for-nothing steals a chicken that
was hanging ON the wall If a woman
was the thief she is most likely fined
possibly whipped if she has no money
to pay fine. IF the cuIprit is a man
they punch q hole through the car
tiIage of the lower end of his nose. put
a cord through the hole and lead him
in this painful disgrace all around the
bazaar. The officer collects as he goes
along few cents from this sh0pkeep
er and few cents from that one as
an acknowledgment Of the officers
service in publicly exposing a thief.
Naturally it often happens that some
outrageous robbery occurs or some
bOdv is brutally murdered. and the
guilty one Is UuhubMu. IHelt the StN
ernor's detective agents set to work
Anybody may be arrested on suspicion
and examined either as the probable
offender or as witness. If the sus
pect has plenty of money he can al
ways prove his innocence or his ignO
rance by paying cash to the examining
officers, though, since there is no regu
lated tariff in such matters, the pro
ceeding may be quite expensive.
If the suspect is too poor to maxi
things right With the examiners or to-
stubborn to tell what lie knOws-anC
sometimes, I am afraid, if he reall.
does not know anything to tell-the.
have some third degree" method
warranted to make a man say some
thing. One such method is what the
call the "bastinadO." 1t is whipping
the soles of the bare feet with sleI
der rods. Often live Goals from pip
are put on the shaven head Of a pris