of respect and grief
at his death.

The discovery of the ex-Minister of War's frauds, the death of the head
Mullah, the reported secret attempts to poison the Shah, the prospects of
a drought, the reported murder of two Russians at Resht, and other minor
sources of discontent, all coming together, gave rise to fears on the
part of Europeans that a revolution might take place in Teheran. But such
rumours are so very frequent in all Eastern countries that generally no
one attaches any importance to them until it is too late. Europeans are
rather tolerated than loved in Persia, and a walk through the native
streets or bazaars in Teheran is quite sufficient to convince one of the
fact. Nor are the Persians to be blamed, for there is hardly a nation in
Asia that has suffered more often and in a more shameful manner from
European speculators and adventurers than the land of Iran.

Perhaps the country itself, or rather the people, with their vainglory
and empty pomp, are particularly adapted to be victimised by impostors
and are easy preys to them. Some of the tricks that have been played upon
them do not lack humour. Take, for instance, the pretty farce of the
_Compagnie generale pour l'eclairage et le chauffage en Perse_, which
undertook to light the city of Teheran with no less than one thousand
gas lights. Machinery was really imported at great expense from Europe
for the manufacture of the gas--many of the heavier pieces of machinery
are still lying on the roadside between Resht and Teheran--extensive
premises were built in Teheran itself, and an elaborate doorway with a
suitable inscription on it, is still to be seen; but the most important
part of all--the getting of the coal from which the gas was to be
extracted--had not been considered. The Lalun coal mines, which offered a
gleam of hope to the shareholders, were exploited and found practically
useless. The Company and Government came to loggerheads, each accusing
the other of false dealing, and the result was that the Persians insisted
on the Company lighting up Teheran with the agreed 1,000 lights. If gas
could not be manufactured, oil lights would do. There was the signed
agreement and the Company must stick to it.

The Company willingly agreed, but as the document did not specify the
site where each lamp-post should be situate nearly all were erected, at a
distance of only a few feet from one another--a regular forest of
them--in the two main streets of the Eu