Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 129, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1913 — TRIALS of TRAVEL in PERSIA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TRIALS of TRAVEL in PERSIA

/ ALLAH pleases, tomorO• I row,” says the average Persian as he considers the transaction of business or' the taking of a Journey. And* before the westerner has been long in this country he drops his shibboleth that “time is money," and falls into the fatalistic philosophy of the east, where the language has no equivalent for our Words, punctuality and promptitude, writes a Teheran correspondent of the Los Angeles Times. Truly, Persia is no place for the hustler, accustomed to “do” a country or a kingdom by express railroad routes and automobile transit, and who expects to get Ritz or WaldorfAstoria wherever he stops. Only when the powers take hold of Persia and run the country will travel become easy and pleasant for the ordinary globetrotter. For the present it is open only to the venturesome and leisurely, for there are scarcely any railroads in the length and breadth of the land, and transit over any distance is both perilous and arduous, though full of interest to the strong and seasoned traveler. In Persia it is no simple undertaking to prepare for a caravan journey of 160 miles or so, as your arangements must allow for at least eight days on the road—in many places merely a rough, stony track through mountain gorges. A string of six or eight mules is required, and you have to be smart at a bargain when you haggle with the owner of the" hearts, though as a matter of fact, the muleteer generally gets his price. The contract must then be written out, and the muleteer affixes his seal to it, for few of them can either read or write. But you are not through with the deal until you have paid over half or even three-quarters of the stipulated “ticket journey.” The next business is the engagement of a smart boy for the rpad and a cook to prepare the nfeals, and upon their character the entire comfort of your caravan journey depends. Expert Servants. Persian servants could give points to the most expert swell mobsman going. They always make the very best use of opportunities for plunder when the provisions for the trip are bought. Gradually, however, the large saddlebags begin to swell out with packets of tea, loaves of sugar, tips of provisions, rice, meat, bread, candles, coals and other necessaries. You have also to provide a new samovar, plates, knives, forks, spoons, together with a teapot and teacups. While the servants are busy with the dealer jthe sahib chooses a saddle and some camp furniture not forgetting a traveling carpet. Fortunately, for eight months of the year In Persia the sun shines continually out of a fine blue sky, so journeys are generally taken under ideal conditions. Rain adds the last note of desolation to the mostly barren land, making the miserable villages full of hungry, begging people, and the gloomy, fort-like caravansaries, gray, nightmare visions of hopelessness. The chief outstanding feature of a long tour in Persia is the massive caravansaries, the poorest apologies for hotels the world contains. They are built by charitable people who desire to do a good turn to the travelers on the lonely roads and mule tracks, which ate infested by marauding bands of highwaymen. As a rule they are built square, with rooms around the sides, opening on to the Interior courtyard. In bad weather the mules are put into roomy Btables behind, though generally the animals are tethered in the spacious oourtyard, with their loads disposed around them and the bells on their harness tinkling continually. On first alighting at one of these rest-houßeß for the night, when the servant Indicates your apartment you are apt to be badly jarred by its appearance. The opening into the black, smoke-begrimed room is doorleßs. The mud floor is dirty and uneven, the corners filled with all kinds of rubbish, such _ps egg-shells, fruit skins and the like. But if the boy Is a good one he soon makes his master comfortable. A fire is lighted, the room swept and the meager equipment set out A curtain nailed over the enrance baffles the gaze of inquisitive onlookers, and when in the flickering

candlelight the steaming samovar sings, -and the dinner of several courses begins to appear, past troubles are forgotten until a new day dawns. The dinner, by the bye, is prepared by the cook tn a draughty corner on three cage-like crates ,one on each side of the pack-saddle. Big Caravans. Often during the long hours of the daily march are heard the low-sound-ing bells, telling of an approaching caravan. Surrounded by huge bales of cotton, cases of opium and bundles of carpets come a troop of Persians on pilgrimage to Mecca or Kubella, who for safety’s sake generally travel with a * large, well-guarded caravan. Their well-filled saddle-bags contain everything necessary foj their six to eight-months journey. So accustomed do the Persians become to the pace of their mules; they can doze comfortably. on their backs through the hot hours of the afternoon without running the slightest risk of misadventure, but the westerner has to keep wide awake to preserve his equilibrium. The most useful vehicles for long journeys in Persia are the palakis and kajavahs, the quaintest contrivances for travel to be seen anywhere. These “Persian cabs” are fixed upon mules. Some skill, too, is required in loading up the mule with its human freight, care being taken that the two people who travel side- by side are 'about the same weight If a tiny husband and a fat wife have to go togeth-... er, his box must be filled up with ballast so as to equalize the weight. Similar care has to be exercised in dismounting, for if one passenger jumps out without giving warning of his intention, his neighbor is shot to the ground with unseemly haste. The onjy difference between the kajavah and the palaki is that the latter is open; while the former is covered with a light ,water-proof roof and is curtained against bad weather. The most comfortable means of travel, sacred to the use -of the wealthiest class, is the takhtiravan, a kind of palanquin, consisting of a box about seven feet long and five feet high, fitted with doors and windows and furnished inside with a soft mattress and luxurious cushions. The vehicle is built on the Sedan-chair principle, the poles* resting on a sort of saddle on the backs of the mules, which are harnessed tandem'.