Glimpses of Modern Persia 
Mexico, Cuba, Porto Pico, in fact to all the 
Spanish colonies. A certain Persian home, 
overlooking a garden with a water font or 
basin, is almost a perfect replica, in plan, of 
an old sugar hacienda in which 1 once passed 
the night, near the ruins of Uxmal in Yucatan, 
save that in the latter all trace of ornamental 
work was lacking, and the bare adobe had 
nothing to relieve its gray expanse. 
In the facade of the fine Persian house of 
to-day one would naturally expect to see 
some survival of the superb encaustic tile 
mosaic which wholly covered the brickwork 
of three and four hundred years ago, and 
which may still be seen on old mosques and 
caravansaries, now in ruins. I bis seems, 
however, to have been numbered among the 
lost arts of which Persia has such a disheart¬ 
ening list to show. The decorative effects 
are now confined, in the main, to variegation 
in the brickwork; but for more elaborate 
ornamentation, indoors as well as out, the 
principal agent is mirror o;lass, which is 
wrought into more or less complex designs, 
on the pilasters and arches of the building’s 
face, over the doors and windows, in short, 
everywhere. The effect, when the sunlight 
has full play, is startling, but the thing is 
almost always carried to excess; and when one 
has seen the glories of the ancient tile work, 
its modern substitute seems a tawdry and 
commonplace resort. 
Another item in which the Persian builders 
are deficient is the construction of stairs. A 
stair, or flight of outside steps, is to them 
only a substantial ladder,a means of mounting. 
The enormous possibilities of the staircase, 
as we know it, seem strangely enough never 
to have been recognized by this race,—at 
least since its early faith was abandoned for 
the Arab doctrine. Witness to this singular 
disregard are the steps in all and sundry of the 
buildings here shown, in which there is no 
semblance of a balustrade. In old buildings 
A PRIVATE HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY 
366 
