Perth Amboy evening news., 1911-03-20
CRAFT IN PERSIA.
Officials Pay For the Privilege OF
Fleeing the Public.
A LAND WITHOUT LAWYERS.

Who Gets Into Misunderstanding tn,
Accused to Confess.
1t would be difficult for a Persian
who has not Travelled TO understand
American excitement over what The
newspapers here call graft" My
motherland, Persia. is not yet quite
awake to the possibility Of a mans
serving the public for a certain dxet
salary and taking nothing more. Ii
Persia they take 1t for granted thai
every otficeholder will "gouge" people
whenever he gets q chance.
There are no lawyers in Persia. &c
there are no jokes about lawyers ap
petite for gold and silver. If you have
ever had a costly lawsuit on you
hands you may think that makes mat
tiers simpler. but getting into trouble
means being squeezed for money
wrung for money, as ii you were q
piece Of wet cloth in a washerwoman's
strong grip.
This is how It Is managed: First
you see. the governor of a city or Of d
! province never has a definite salary
from the ~state-not at all. On the con
trary. he pays the state treasury sew.
eraI thousand dollars more or less fol-
the privilege of being governor and OF
making what he can out Of the enter.
prise. He Is not an elected officer: be
IL more like a .'concessionaire" at one
of your big expositions, who offers a
large sum for a chance to run a res
taurant or to provide ice cream soda OF
candy.
The governor Tor mayor OF a large
Persian town may have perhaps 100 to
100 employees under him. OF these
only a few house servants (cook.
coachman and the likeI have dxed
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 ines and
taxes. You can guess whether the
neigbbors are fond of themi
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
rotary for examination. Possibly he
can convince that important parsonage
that 1t Ia not q just debt. II he cam
do that he would better put ell his
,rs@~ - xrn~xr 20 ocovfnno thn anoratorv
that poverty makes II quite tmpossi-
BILE to pay DIP.
This IL where many of the $50 under
get their chance. A large
part of their occupation Is hunting mp
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 tnforfna-
ton is wanted.
Your mans p~retense that business is
bad and that ho is all but bankrupt Is
brushed aside. and he Is made TO pro-
ducs en- amount Of money consider
ably larger than the original debt
"Made" { produce lit Yes. There
are shocking things that a be done
TO him Ii 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 per cen to satisfy your claim
that Is. the officer OF justice practi-
cally collects from you something for
his own services. The rest goes to the
governor and such OF the employees
as may be considered In the case.
Perhaps you have a shop In the town
bazaar Or market place and some pool
good-for-nothing steals a chicken that
was hanging on the wall. II a woman
was the thief she is most likely fined
possibly whipped II she has no money
to pay a fine. If the euiprft is q mar
they punch a hole through the car
tilage OF the lower end Of his nose. pu'
q cord through the hole and lead hin
In this painful disgrace all around tht
bazaar. The officer collects as he goei
along a few cents from this shopkeep
er and a few cents from that one a:
an acknowledgment of the officer,
service In publicly exposing a~thief.
Naturally II often happens that som
outrageous robbery occur or some
body is brutality murdered. and th,
guilty one Is unknown. Then the gov
ernor's detective agents set to work
Anybody may be arrested on suspicion
and examined either as the probable
offender or as q witness Ii the aus
pect has plenty of money be can al
ways prove his innocence or his igno
rance by paying cash to the examining
officers. though. sinee there Is no regu
lated tariff In such matters. the pro
cecding may be quite expensive
If the suspect Is o poor to max
things right with the examiners Of to-
stubborn TO tell what he knows-ant
sometimes, I am afraid IL he reaii,
| does not know anything to teIl-tne.
have some s.third degree" method
warranted TO make a man say some
thing. One such method Is what the,
eau the "bastinado." II Is whippinI
| tba soles of the bare feet with slen
der rods. Often live coats from a pip
ara put on the shaven head of a pris
oner TO make him confess sometirae
- But no. Probably you would no
| care to hear n more along this pan
sicnlas I.ne. Persian inventions il IA
/ department OF criuiineiogy are cleve
IN their way. but not things TO d.
scribe in full detan-Leon Modem 1