Year: 1873




reform as we know it Just now


The shah why He Carried with


Him His Ministry, His Diamonds


and His Treasury.


Western philosophers and political econ
omists have been puzzled to account for the
seemingly reckless extravagance and foolish
ness of the Shah in carrying with him on his
European tour retinue, including his Minis
try OF fifty or sixty persons oil his diamonds,
and some twenty-five millions of dollars--all
the ready cash of his treasury. But if the re-
port be true that he is about to bid sad fare
well to Paris and return at once to Teheran,
broken out in his dominions the reasons why
he carries his Cabinet his jewelry and the
available funds of his treasury along with him
may be readily conjectured.


His people have been decimated by the
most terrible famine, two years duration, Of
which we have any authentic details-the most
terrible and destructive famine of ancient or
modern times. Ground to the dust before by
the arbitrary taxes and unscrupulous extor-
tions of his provincial subordinates, the suf-
ferings Of his people since have doubtless
been rather aggravated than diminished. In the
single season for the profitable cultivation of
the soil which has followed their exhausting
famine the poor producing Persians have had
enough 10 do to maintain their struggle for
existence but the roaming hordss of desert
barbarians, which constitute one-ffth Of the
Shah's unreliable subjects, may have been
emboldened by his absence to organize con-
spiracy for the seizure of Teheran and the
treasures Of the kingdom treasures which,
great as they are for a country so poor as
Persia, those desert robbers may have magni-
fed ten times beyond their actual value The
Shah, before leaving his dominlons, no doubt.
was informed Of the dangers to which he
would leave them exposed--for the absolute
despot has his spies and informers at all
points-and hence, as a measure of wise pre-
caution, he took with him on His grand excur-
sion his Ministry, his precious jewels and his
available cash on hand.


The Russian army in its conquest Of Khiva,
it appears, released and sent home some ten
thousand Persians who had been held by the
Khan as slaves. These poor wretches, we
presume, in search of subsistence, were driven
from Persia by the pressure of their late
famine, as were thousands Of others over all
the Persian borders. Many of these people
are now returning, only to find that their
country has not yet rallied from its exhaustion,
and, pushed again to the e1tremities of starva-
ton, they may have joined in some desperate
revolt. While thus, however accounting for
the apparent extravagance and splendor of the
Shah on his European tour, the question
again recurs, why, in the beggared and chaotic
condition in which Persia is represented to be
at this time, instead of wasting his money on
this pleasure expedition, why did not the
Shah remain at home TO look after and pro-
vide for his people? We answer, that, as
within the limits Of his dominions there were
not the ways and m cans of relief which the
emergency demanded, he undertook this
European journey TO secure them.


In PERSIA country which, in It's natural
features and peculiarities, very much resem-
tles our interior Great Basin Of Utah and
Nevada-railroads are wanted: and the Shah.