The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-03-28
INTERESTING TALE
OF ANCIENT RUG
Made in Persia and Instrumental in
Freedom of Frenchman of Royal
Blood-Brought to America.

l INCLUDING two presidents of the Uni
ted States) and the cry of thousands
of starving children, all are inter
woven in the history of an Orienta,
rug, which began as a love story and
continued in, succeeding chapters to
| combine with fascinating irregularity
truth and fiction, tragedy and ro-
nance, and the tale of events, world
wide in Importance.
The story began almost one hun
dred years ago in Persia. President
Harding from the east portico of the
capitol on Inauguration day when he
stood upon it to take the oath of Of
| flee wrote the last chapter. Now il
| is being used by the Near East re-
! lief to arouse interest In its appeal
to the American people in behalf of
| the thousands of orphans that are its
wards in the Levant.
| A Frenchman of royal blood, who
| went to Persia as a tutor to the
Shah's children one hundred years ago,
was the originator of the rug, or at
least one of his escapades were, ana
he helped to make it. And 1t all hap
pened because the Persian girls of
that day were Just as susceptible as
| their modern sisters everywhere to
the charms of a debonair youth, with
whom the Shah's daughter fell vio-
lently in love.
But the western prince could see
little in eastern beauty. Out of bore
dom he disguised himself and went out
one night in search of adventure At
n 90
was recognized as a person Of inn
portance, carried to an inn many miles
away and held there for ransom. Hero
the history of the rug begins. Like
her royal sister, the inn keepers
daughter also became enamored of the
gay young Frenchman, whose artistic
sense suggested to her that they
weave a rug to pay his ransom. It
was a tedious task that took several
years to accomplish, but it was final
ly ended.
The Frenchman was no more pleas
ed with the love of the inn keepers
daughter than he was with that of
the princess and he looked for his
release. He had the rug sent to the
Shahs' palace, ostensibly for sale, but
whom he knew he could use, a mes
sage that he had woven into the de-
sign Of the rug, which told the place
of his Imprisonment. The Shah was
prevailed upon to pay the ransom of
the young prince, who returned once
more to dodge the advances of the
princess, until finally he fled out Of
Persia, out of her life, and out of the
story of the rug.
But romance still continued to at
tach itself to the masterpiece that it
was responsible for creating. This
time. sixty years after the first cpl
sode when the then reigning Shah
became central figure in the story
by falling in love with an English
nun, who, true to her vows, refused
to listen to his impassioned pleading. !
She returned to England carrying
with her the precious rug, a parting
gift of her disappointed sutton.
The way to England led through the
port of Trebizonde, on the Black sea.
There were no hotels in the little viii |
lage and the EnglishwOman was di-
rected to the home a prominent Ar
menian to await the sailing of a YES
sci that would cary her to COnstan- |
tinople and thence home.
The rug aroused the envy and adj |
miration of the IL year old nephew Of !
the nuns host, Thomas H. Kullujian,
now an Armenian merchant in San
Francisco. When he grew up he made |
several vain trips to England to o.
cate the rug, which eventually came
into his possession through the auc-
ton sale of the estate of a New York
rug collector.
Immediately Kullujian began to
write new history for the rug. At the
Panama. Pacific exposition in San
Francisco the liberty bell rested on
it for five months, and Edison, Roose-
welt, Taft and other notables stood on
it. In 1917 he stretched it across
San Francisco street in the path of
100 National army men on their way
to the transports. The dust their feet
deposited on it was carefully collected
in three bottles, one sent to President
Wilson, another to the mayor of San
Francisco, and the third retained by
Mr.. Kullijian. This bottle l took to
with me-" he said, when l
went there this year to seek relatives
killed or scattered by the Turks. l
hope the rug will bring freedom for
Armenia just as it brought freedom to
the prince and to the nun" When the
peace conference in Versailles was
Armenia the rug was
placed under the table, around which
President Wilson, Lloyd-George and
Clemenceau sat. It was brought back
to this country and General Pershing
passed over 1t on his return from
France. Kullujian values the rug at
$4,000. He says the French gov
eminent offered him many times that |
amount for it, but he would not part |
With treasure whose sentimental
7alue to him could not be measured in
money. The Near East relief will |
1old the rug until it's campaign for |
he starving children In the Levant is /
,ver and the last of the thousands of
orphans in its care have grown to ma
urity| in it's asylums Possibly then /