goods. In a day, the old-fashioned tramway of the city was deserted on
the mere suspicion that it was owned in Russia, while an excited
Belgian Minister rained protests and petitions on the Persian Foreign
Office in an endeavor to show that the tramway was owned by his
countrymen. Crowds of youths, students, and women filled the street,
dragging absent-minded passengers from the cars, smashing the windows
of shops that still displayed Russian goods, seeing that no one drank
tea because it came from Russia, although produced in India, and going
in processions before the gates of the foreign legations to demand
justice of the representatives of the world powers for a people in the
extremity of despair.

One day, the rumor would come that the chief "mullahs" or priests at
Nadjef had proclaimed the "holy war" (_jihad_) against the Russians; on
another, that the Russian troops had commenced to shoot up Kasvin on
their march to Teheran.

At one time, when rumors were thick that the Medjlis would give in
under the threats and attempted bribery which well-known Russian
proteges were employing on many of its members, three hundred veiled
and black-gowned Persian women, a large proportion with pistols
concealed under their skirts or in the folds of their sleeves, marched
suddenly to the Parliament grounds and demanded admission to the
Chamber. The president of the Medjlis consented to receive a deputation
from them. Once admitted into his presence, these honor-loving Persian
mothers, wives, and daughters exhibited their weapons, and to show the
grim seriousness of their words, they tore aside their veils, and
threatened that they would kill their own husbands and sons, and end
their own lives, if the deputies failed in their duty to uphold the
dignity and the sovereignty of their beloved country.

When neither threats nor bribes availed against the Medjlis, Russia
decreed its destruction by force.

In the early afternoon of December 24th, the deposed cabinet, having
been themselves duly _persuaded_ to take the step, executed a _coup
d'etat_ against the Medjlis, and by a demonstration of gendarmes and
Bakhtiyari tribesmen, succeeded in expelling all the deputies and
employees who were within the Parliament grounds; after which the gates
were locked and barred, and a strong detachment of the so-called Royal
Regiment left in charge. The deputies were threatened with death if
they attempted to return there or to meet in any other