at all
times helps to make life sweet and pleasant, is absolutely lacking in
Persia. European women are scarce and mostly married or about to get
married. The native women are kept in strict seclusion. One never sees a
native woman except heavily veiled under her _chudder_, much less can a
European talk to her. The laws of Persia are so severe that anything in
the shape of a flirtation with a Persian lady may cost the life of Juliet
or Romeo, or both, and if life is spared, blackmail is ever after levied
by the police or by the girl's parents or by servants.

In Teheran all good citizens must be indoors by nine o'clock at night,
and any one found prowling in the streets after that hour has to deal
with the police. In the European quarter this rule is overlooked in the
case of foreigners, but in the native city even Europeans found
peacefully walking about later than that hour are taken into custody and
conveyed before the magistrate, who satisfies himself as to the man's
identity and has him duly escorted home.

There are no permanent amusements of any kind in Teheran. An occasional
concert or a dance, but no theatres, no music-halls. There is a
comfortable Club, where people meet and drink and play cards, but that is
all.

Social sets, of course, exist in the Teheran foreign community. There are
"The Telegraph" set, "the Bank," "the Legations." There is an uncommon
deal of social etiquette, and people are most particular regarding calls,
dress, and the number of cards left at each door. It looks somewhat
incongruous to see men in their black frock-coats and silk tall hats,
prowling about the streets, with mud up to their knees if wet, or blinded
with dust if dry, among strings of camels, mules, or donkeys. But that is
the fashion, and people have to abide by it.

There are missionaries in Teheran, American and English, but fortunately
they are not permitted to make converts. The English, Russian and Belgian
communities are the most numerous, then the French, the Dutch, the
Austrian, the Italian, the American.

Taking things all round, the Europeans seem reconciled to their position
in Teheran--a life devoid of any very great excitement, and partaking
rather of the nature of vegetation, yet with a certain charm in it--they
say--when once people get accustomed to it. But one has to get accustomed
to it first.

The usual servant question is a very serious one in Teheran, and is one
of the chief troubles that Europe