The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-12-15
TEHERRN NOT
So BEAUTIFUL
AS IS SH|RAz
Declares the Westerner though
the Natives Picture 1t as
Most Beautiful.

'AFtGiAL TO fHG fnltGPshl
WASHINGTON. Dec. l5.-"The cap
iial of small buffer state between
three clashing empires. the English,
Russian and Ottoman empire. Tcheran
IL recent years. and more especially
since the outbreak OF the great war,
has had nm importance thrust upon II
OF most embarrassing kind" begins
The latest war primer Of the National
Geographic Society. Geographically
OF greater interest to each of the
groups OF contending powers than any
other neutral capital. Persian Teheran
is experiencing insuperable difficulties
in keeping its destiny clear Of those
Of the warning giants around IT,
Tcheran, according to the Persian.
is very beautiful but the natives
praise OF his country's capital is sell
dom supported unrcservcdly by the
westerner. for he finds the Persian
city Of Shiraz far more beautiful and
lsfahan the peer of the residence. The
capital lies seventy miles south Of the
Caspian sea. on a plateau OF coarse
sand and gravel. which Is fringed by
low. distant hills, and. TO the north.
by some higher mountains. Mount
Damavand Is the key 10 the city's set
ting. towering in the northeast to a
magnificent crest 10 400 feet high. To
the southwark. stretch level lands,
which lose themselves in waste and
desert.
Meet and Mingb.
The East and West meet and mingle
as oil and water in the shah's metrop-
oils. Teheran is, OF course. purely
Oriental lcty, but. like all eastern cen
ters Of Importance. II has suffered
such encroachments from the West as
street cars. telegraphs. gas lighting.
and severity dyed and tailored CLOTHES
for men. II is backward in its devel-
opment and uneven in its improve
ment. Its Boulevard des Ambassa-
deurs is more or less OF splendid
thoronShfare: and II is lined with a
European type Of shops. two good
hotels, and n number of fine native
palaces. II has among the largest
military parade grounds in the world
$50 by $50 yards. roughly paved
with strewn cobblc stones.
THE modern icty is not SO very old.
as 1t came into existence less than 700
years ago. about the time that ancient
Ragha, the crumbling suburb to the
south. began to sink into oblivion.
Ragha, known in the time OF Alexan-
der the Great as Ragae, was the birth
nlace Of Harun al-Rashid. and at one
time the golden capital at Parthia. In
the days Of its supremacy. it was as
vain and rich and SNOWY as stored
famadan. the pride Of earliest Persia,
the city of seven walls in seven cOlors,
with palaces wrought in gold and sill
yer and frescoed with precious stones,
Modern Teheran is the inheritor OF the
traditions and the pride OF Ragae and
Of ltamadan. and Of the ancient hon
ors Of Pasargadae and Persepolis.
With the rise OF Teheran. Media re-
gained the place that II lost to Persia
in the time Of Cyrus.
Anarchy Rules.
Anarchy has ruled within the cap
ital in way more or less pronounced
during the last several years. and the
people of the city have accomplished
little toward its moderniZation and the
development OF its importance as n
place OF commerce and manufacture
There is an important caravan-trade,
which passes through Teheran toward
the Russian borders and certain
manufacture Of cotton. linen, carpets.
sohes and iron products. Its business
is enough TO give support to a popula-
ton OF about 100000, in which are in
cluded about 600 Europeans.
THE climate OF Teheran is not n
favorable one. and especially are the
summers unhealthy. when all Of the
people who can get away go to the
foothills in the North. Writing in 1896,
Persian gives pathetic summary OF
n Teheran summer. He says that the
air was too hot and even smelly, that
the water was heavy and unwholcsome.
and. in short. everything so bad that
the Angle OF Death ran away from ii,
But. then. this author wrote shortly
after a fearful cholera plague had
passed over the city The nearby-con-
trast Of the cool summer gardens in
the foothills, likely. has conspIrcd to
give the Teheran summer bad stond-
ing"