iestly class, when it was first
started in 1886 by a Belgian company--"La Societe des Chemins de Fer et
des Tramways de Perse." The trains began to run two years later, in 1888,
and it was believed that the enormous crowds of pilgrims who daily
visited the holy shrine would avail themselves of the convenience. Huge
profits were expected, but unluckily the four or five engines that were
imported at an excessive cost, and the difficulties encountered in laying
down the line, which was continually being torn up by fanatics, and, most
of all, the difficulty experienced in inducing pilgrims to travel in
sufficient numbers by the line instead of on horses, mules or donkeys
were unexpected and insoluble problems which the managers had to face,
and which made the shareholders grumble. The expenses far exceeded the
profits, and the capital employed in the construction of the line was
already vastly larger than had been anticipated. One fine day,
furthermore, a much-envied and respected pilgrim, who had returned in
holiness from the famous shrine of Kerbalah, was unhappily run over and
killed by a train. The Mullahs made capital of this accident and preached
vengeance upon foreign importations, the work of the devil and
distasteful to Allah the great. The railway was mobbed and the engine and
carriages became a mass of debris.

There was nearly a serious riot about this in Teheran city; the trains
continued to run with the undamaged engines, but no one would travel by
them. Result? "La Compagnie des Chemins de Fer et des Tramways de Perse"
went bankrupt. The whole concern was eventually bought up cheap by a
Russian Company, and is now working again, as far as regards the railway,
in a more or less spasmodic manner.

The tramway service connects the three principal gates of the outer wall
of Teheran with the centre of the city "the Place des Canons"
(Meidan-Top-Khaned).

Although there are a great many mosques in Teheran city there is not one
of great importance or beauty. The Mesjid-i-shah, or the Shah's Mosque,
is the most noteworthy, and has a very decorative glazed tiled facade.
Then next in beauty is probably the mosque of the Shah's mother, but
neither is in any way uncommon for size, or wealth, architectural lines,
or sacredness. Several mosques have colleges attached to them, as is the
usual custom in Persia. Access to the interior of the mosques is not
permitted to Europeans unless they have embraced the Mahommedan reli