The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1916-03-18
PERsIA'S OLD CAPITAL
TEHERAN A CITY THAT Is.
MANY ViCiso
& Center of Warning Interests
THAT Threaten Its Very Existence
MOT an Especially Healthy
Place in Summer Months.

The capital of small buffer state
between three clashing empires, the
English, Russian and Ottoman empire,
1eheran in recent years, and more es-
peclally since the outbreak of the
great war, has had an Importance
thrust upon it of a most embarrassing
KIND, begins war primer of the Ma
tional Geographic society. GeOgraph-
lcaily OF greater interest to each of the
groups of contending powers than any
other neutral capital, Persian Teheran
Is experiencing insuperable difficulties
in keeping it's destiny clear Of those Of
the warning giants around it.
Teheran, according to the Persian.
is very beautiful. but the praise of
MS country's capital is seldom sup
ported unreservedly by the western
er; for he finds the Persian city of
Shlraz far more beautiful and Is
fahan the peer of the residence. The
capital lies 70 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 to the citys
setting, towering in the northeast to
a magnificent crest Of 1900 feet high.
The East and West meet and mingle
as oil and water in the shahs metropo-
lis. Teheran is. of course, a purely
oriental city. but, like all eastern CEN
tiers or importance, 1t has suffered
such Entertainments from the West as
street cars, telegraphs, gas lighting
and severely dyed and tailored
clothes for men. 1t is backward in its
development and uneven in it's i'm
provement. Its Boulevard des Ambas-
sadeurs is more or less of splendid
thoroughfare and it is lined with Eu-
ropean type of shops, two good hotels
and a number of fine native palaces. 1t
has one Of the largest military parade |
grounds III the world-550 by $50 yards |
paved with strewn cobble |
stones
The modern city is not so very old. |
as it came into existence less than |
100 years ago, about the time that
ancient Ragha, the crumbling suburb
to the south. began to sink into OBJ
livion. Ragha. known in the time of
the Great as Ragae. was
the birthplace of Harun al-Rashid. and
at one time the golden capital OF
Parthia.
Anarchy has ruled within the CAPT.
tai in way more or less pronounced
during the last several years, and
The people Of the city have accom-.
plished little toward it's moderniza-
ton and development of its impor.
lance as place of commerce and
There is an important
caravan trade. which passes through
leheran toward the Russian borders.
md a certain manufacture of cot
on, linen. carpets, shoes and iron
Its business is enough to
give support to a population OF about
10000, in which are included about
800 Europeans
The climate of Teheran is not
adorable one and especially are the
unhealthy. when all of thu
'eople who can get away go to the
oothills in the north Writing in
596, Persian gives a pathetic
urinary of a Teheran summer. He
avs that the air was too hot and even
nelly. that the water was heavy and
Wholesome and. in short, everything
0 bad that the Angel CT Death ran
way from it. But, then. this author
'rote shortly after a fearful cholera
lague had passed over tue city. The
earby contrast of the cool summer
ardens in the foothills. likely. has
onspired to give the Teheran summer
bad standing.