The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
1331 
The  Rural  New-Yorker  in  Persia 
. a  AST  OF  SUEZ.— My  wife  and  I  left  New 
York  on  December  27,  went  to  Cherbourg, 
France,  then  on  to  Paris  and  Marseilles  by 
rail.  At  this  last  port  we  took  the  Pen¬ 
insular  and  Oriental  steamer  “Kaiser-I- 
ii====_=_  Hind,”  sailed  down  through  the  strait  be¬ 
tween  Corsica  and  Sardinia,  on  past  old  Stromboli, 
off  the  Italian  coast,  which  gave  out  a  huge  cloud 
of  steam  as  we  passed  just  to  show  it  was  only 
a  sleeping  volcano  but  ready  to  awake  at  any  time. 
Then  through  the  Strait  of  Messina,  between  the  toe 
of  the  Italian  boot  and  Sicily,  then  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Suez  Canal,  and  made  our  first  stop  at  Port 
Said.  While  the  steamer  coaled  we  went  ashore 
and  saw  the  sights  of  the  Egyptian  city.  We  were 
at  Port  Said  only  a  few  hours  and  then 
went  on  through  the  Suez  Canal,  a 
Very  narrow  waterway  with  low  sandy 
banks  on  either  side,  with  none  of  the 
locks  and  scenic  features  of  our  own 
Panama  Canal.  We  went  on  through 
the  Red  Sea,  past  Mocha  in  Southern 
Arabia  where  the  good  coffee  comes 
from,  and  stopped  at  Aden.  Here  we 
went  ashore  while  the  steamer  coaled 
for  the  run  to  Bombay,  and  realized  we 
were  now  “East  of  Suez.”  We  paid 
our  respects  to  the  American  Consul 
at  Aden,  learned  of  his  uninteresting 
life  there,  especially  during  the  hot 
Summer  season,  and  the  dangers  of  the 
Aden,  ran  out  into  the  Gulf  of  Aden, 
and  then  on  through  the  Arabian  Sea, 
and  landed  at  Bombay,  India.  Here 
we  trans-shipped  to  a  smaller  but  com¬ 
fortable  steamer  and  left  immediately 
for  the  run  to  Mesopotamia.  We  first 
stopped  at  Karachi  in  India,  then  on 
up  the  barren  coast  of  Baluchistan 
into  the  Persian  Gulf,  whose  waters 
probably  witnessed  the  first  feeble 
timid  attempts  of  man  to  navigate  salt 
water.  We  stopped  to  let  off  a  few 
passengers  at  Bushire,  and  then  on 
Basra,  at  the  junction  of  the  famous 
old  Tigris  and  Euphrates  rivers,  and 
near  the  so-called  site  of  the  Garden 
of  Eden.  From  Basra  we  went  to 
Baghdad  by  rail  and  here  awaited  the 
autos  which  were  coming  for  us  for  the 
long  trip  to  Teheran,  the  capital  of 
Persia.  While  at  Baghdad  we  made  an 
auto  trip  to  old  Babylon,  and  prowled 
about  the  ruins  of  that  ancient  city, 
where  your  old  friend  Nebuchadnezzar 
and  his  associates  held  forth  in  glor¬ 
ious  splendor  so  many  years  ago. 
DIGGING  LICORICE.  —  Going  to 
Babylon  we  saw  the  natives  digging 
licorice  root,  which  grows  wild  in  the 
Mesopotamia  desert.  They  informed 
us  in  a  few  words  of  English  they 
“worked  for  MacAndrews  -  Forbes” 
which  brought  us  back  to  Fifth  Ave¬ 
nue,  where  the  offices  of  this  firm  are 
located.  Most  of  this  root  eventually 
reaches  the  Newark  factory,  where  it 
is  made  into  the  different  licorice  products.  Through 
this  country,  especially  along  the  banks  of  the 
old  Biblical  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  are  thou¬ 
sands  of  date  palms,  and  a  large  portion  of  this 
product  reaches  America.  We  had  to  wait  at 
Baghdad  some  three  weeks  for  the  autos  to  arrive 
and  on  receipt  of  a  telegram  that  they  were  at  the 
Persian  frontier  took  the  train  from  Baghdad  to 
Ivlianikin,  making  this  run  in  one  day. 
MOUNTAIN  PASSES — At  Ivlianikin,  the  Persian 
frontier,  we  found  a  perfectly  good  imitation 
limousine,  product  of  Henry  Ford’s  factory,  and  a 
huge  English  Crossley  truck  for  the  baggage.  We 
packed  ourselves  and  our  bed  rolls  and  hand  lug¬ 
gage  in  the  Ford  and  started  for  the  500-mile  run  to 
Teheran,  some  eight  to  ten  days  off.  depending  on 
the  mountain  passes.  We  left  the  semi-tropical 
country  of  Mesopotamia,  climbed  up  through  the 
cold  country  of  Ivirmanshah,  Ilamadan,  Kasvin  and 
then  on  to  Teheran.  We  were  held  up  three  days 
at  one  of  the  passes  waiting  for  the  coolies  to 
clear  the  snow  from  the  road.  The  old  Ford,  true 
to  tradition,  carried  us  safely  through,  although  we 
did  manage  to  break  an  axle  and  lost  a  wheel,  truly 
lost,  as  it  ran  off  into  the  desert,  and  we  found  it 
hiding  under  a  clump  of  camel  grass.  Fortunately 
we  had  a  spare  axle  with  us,  so  made  the  repairs 
and  went  on. 
PERSIAN  CARAVANSERAI S— We  stopped  at  the 
* 
different  caravanserais  at  night,  huge  corrals  where 
the  camels  and  donkeys  stop  and  are  fed  and  rest  on 
their  long  journeys  with  merchandise  from  the  out¬ 
side  world  for  the  capital  of  Persia.  A  camel 
caravan  is  most  interesting,  a  long  procession,  any¬ 
where  from  50  to  150  camels,  tied  together  in  strings 
of  10  to  12,  each  unit  with  a  driver,  and  the  huge 
loads  on  the  backs  and  countless  bells,  on  each 
Device  for  Thrashing  Grain  in  Persia 
Shaking  Out  Straw  and  Winnowing  Grain 
animal,  of  all  sizes  and  tones.  The  bells  give  a 
wonderful  chanting  harmony  as  you  approach  and 
leave  the  caravan  meandering  along  the  road.  The 
animals  are  stabled  in  the  caravanserais  during  the 
night,  and  in  bad  weather,  and  are  fed  on  Alfalfa 
and  camel  grass,  a  species  of  cactus  growing  wild 
throughout  Persia.  A  queer  tale  is  told  of  a  chap 
who,  some  800  years  ago,  said  he  would  build 
“1.000  caravanserais  for  Persia.”  His  project  was 
ridiculed,  as  most  anyone  could  make  a  statement 
that  he  could  build  1,000,  meaning  perhaps  from  10 
to  100.  However,  this  chap,  just  to  show  he  meant 
business,  did  build,  not  1,000  caravanserais,  but  999. 
Some  of  them  are  still  in  evidence,  along  the  route 
we  passed.  These  are  known  as  the  “‘999  caravan¬ 
serais,”  and  wonderful  monuments  to  the  old  chap. 
ARRIVAL  AT  TEHERAN.— At  Teheran  we  met 
Dr.  Millspaugh,  the  head  of  the  American  Finance 
Commission,  and  the  other  10  members  of  the  or¬ 
ganization,  all  of  whom  had  preceded  us  to  Persia. 
We  expected  to  find  letters  from  home  at  Teheran, 
but  the  only  States  mail  was  a  Rural  New-Yorker. 
How  this  copy  beat  us  out  is  a  mystery,  as  no  letters 
were  there,  but  we  did  enjoy  reading  it,  especially 
the  small  column  of  domestic  news,  as  we  had  heard 
nothing  of  the  outside  world  for  some  six  weeks. 
We  left  New  York  on  December  27  and  arrived  in 
Teheran  on  March  5,  1923. 
STARTING  NORTH.— After  a  conference  on  the 
many  matters  awaiting  the  work  of  the  commission, 
I  was  selected  to  go  to  the  province  of  Azerbaidjan, 
up  in  north  Persia,  to  he  stationed  at  Tabriz.  Mrs. 
Jones  and  I  again  started  on  our  journey,  taking 
an  auto  for  a  two  days’  ride  to  the  end  of  the  auto 
road  at  a  small  place  called  Zinjan.  Here  we  char¬ 
tered  an  old  hack  or  coach,  a  deep  sea-going  variety, 
with  four  horses  hitched  abreast,  and  made  the  bal¬ 
ance  of  the  300-mile  journey  from 
Teheran  to  Tabriz.  We  were  eight  days 
on  this  part  of  the  trip,  sleeping  in 
the  “guest  rooms”  of  the  caravanserais 
and  drinking  many  cups  of  delicious 
samovar  tea.  The  samovars,  as  in 
Russia,  are  in  evidence  in  all  Persian 
homes.  In  northern  Persia  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  Russian  influence,  so  our 
limited  knowledge  of  this  language  se¬ 
cured  what  we  needed  along  the  road. 
We  also  had  a  number  of  road  guards 
with  us,  as  the  wandering  tribes  are 
apt  to  give  trouble  to  travelers,  but 
we  met  none.  It  was  rather  a  long 
coach  ride  with  all  sorts  of  weather. 
We  carried  our  bed  roll  and  provisions 
with  us  and  braved  sunshine,  rain, 
snow,  hail ;  crossed  swollen  rivers,  al¬ 
ways  guarding  our  blankets  from 
dampness,  as  the  weather  was  quite 
cold.  Our  trunks  came  via  camel-back, 
well  bound  up  in  waterproof  material, 
and  arrived  at  Tabriz  about  three 
weeks  after  us,  but  in  good  condition, 
considering  the  distance  traveled. 
THE  WORK. — The  work  here  is  ex¬ 
tremely  interesting,  re-organizing  the 
finances,  collecting  taxes,  trying  to  run 
all  of  the  municipal  departments,  and 
they  have  even  added  the  leper  colony 
and  the  poorhouse  to  my  department. 
Northern  Persia  suffered  greatly  dur¬ 
ing  the  war,  overrun  by  the  different 
armies,  the  vast  vineyards  around  the 
great  salt  lake  of  Urumia  all  being  de¬ 
stroyed.  The  Christians,  Armenians 
and  Assyrians  living  there  were  driven 
from  their  homes,  and  large  numbers 
massacred  by  the  Turks.  The  Near 
East  Relief  with  American  money  has 
given  a  great  deal  of  assistance  to 
these  people,  and  has  done  good  work 
here,  assisting  the  refugees  and  trying 
to  help  them  get  started  once  more  in 
their  Urumian  homes.  Taxes  in  Persia 
are  of  two  kinds:  indirect,  such  as 
road  taxes,  internal  revenue,  etc.,  and 
direct  taxes,  such  as  paid  in  cash  or 
in  kind,  the  latter  being  grain  given 
in  accordance  with  the  old  ruling  of 
the  Koran.  This  grain  tax,  wheat  and 
barley,  is  collected  from  the  villages, 
brought  to  Tabriz  or  other  centers  and 
sold  to  the  bakers  or  other  buyers  for  the  account  of 
the  government.  There  are  many  ramifications  of 
the  tax  rules  and  regulations  which  are  quite  in¬ 
teresting  to  work  out  along  proper  lines. 
AN  AGRICULTURAL  COUNTRY.— Agriculture  is 
the  backbone  of  Persia.  Large  tracts  of  irrigated 
wheat  and  barley  land  are  planted  in  the  northern 
provinces,  but  all  plowing  done  with  the  old  Biblical 
crooked  stick,  shod  with  a  small  iron  share,  and 
drawn  by  two  bullocks.  How  they  manage  to  plow 
so  much  for  Fall  sowing  is  a  problem  to  us,  so  accus¬ 
tomed  to  modern  methods.  I  watched  them  plowing 
for  Spring  planting,  some  50  plows  with  oxen  in  one 
large  field,  simply  scratching  a  furrow  about  four 
inches  deep,  with  no  turning  over  of  the  soil  at  all. 
I  could  not  help  but  think  what  a  tractor  would  do 
if  only  cheap  fuel  were  available.  Around  Tabriz 
they  dry-farm  for  barley,  depending  on  the  Spring 
rains  for  a  crop.  They  also  irrigate,  the  water  com¬ 
ing  from  the  snow  mountains  some  20  miles  away. 
They  use  the  same  old  method  of  irrigation  ditches 
as  you  see  around  the  ruins  of  old  Babylon.  Crop 
different  Arabian  fevers. 
ON  TO  MESOPOTAMIA.— We  left 
A  camel  caravan  in  Persia  traveling  along  snowy  road, 
must  be  transported  about  500  miles  in  this  way. 
All  goods  for  inland  cities 
A  camel  averages  15  miles  a  day. 
