MODERN PERSIA AND ITS CAPITAL 



387 



It is the delivery 

 end of the system 

 which is deficient. The 

 water is run about the 

 city in open ditches, 

 collected in pools, or 

 impounded in huge un- 

 derground reservoirs, 

 from which it is trans- 

 ported in large skins, 

 by water-carriers, to 

 private houses. 



The mysterious lit- 

 tle brooks that mag- 

 ically appear and 

 vanish along the city 

 streets are a refresh- 

 ing sight when there 

 has been no rain for 

 months, and they af- 

 ford a ready supply 

 for the street -sprin- 

 kler with his big dip- 

 per, the thirsty popu- 

 lace, and the busy 

 laundress who wishes 

 to rinse out a few 

 garments. But the 

 dangerous and dis- 

 gusting pollution re- 

 sults in much other- 

 wise avoidable illness. 



The mean flow of 

 water the year round 

 is estimated at nearly 

 one million gallons per 

 hour, which if prop- 

 erly utilized would be 

 abundant ; but, with 

 the winter supply too large and the sum- 

 mer supply too small, the distribution 

 unequal, and the wastage in open ditches 

 and by leakage so great, there are por- 

 tions of the city which in the dry season 

 receive no water whatever. 



Persia's first railway, 5^ miles long 



An account of Teheran would be in- 

 complete without some mention of the 

 first Persian railway and its route. This 

 abbreviated narrow-gauge line runs from 

 the southern end of the city, five and a 

 half miles across the hot plains, past the 

 ruins of ancient Rei. to the village of 

 Shah Abdul Azim, the seat of a famous 

 golden-domed shrine which attracts great 

 crowds of excursionists on every holiday. 



Photograph by J. W. Cook 



A PERSIAN MULLAH OR TEACHER: NOTE HIS HENNA-DYED 

 BEARD AND NAILS 



Absurd as its antiquated equipment may 

 appear, this road has one important ad- 

 vantage over many great American rail- 

 way systems in being able to earn a gen- 

 erous return on its capital investment. 



Of the famous old city of Rhages, or 

 Rei, founded, according to tradition, in 

 the fourth millennium before Christ, cap- 

 ital or metropolis of many dynasties, ad- 

 vanced base of Alexander the Great in 

 his campaign against Darius III, and the 

 birthplace of the mother of Zoroaster and 

 of Haroun-al-Raschid, all that remains 

 are a few ruined walls still massive in 

 their decay. An occasional cultivated 

 field or garden dots the site, and here and 

 there inquisitive treasure-hunters have 

 excavated the old house walls. 



