Page 57 - 1930 October - To Dragma

50 To

THE DDSI.f I I I U I I

'Wherein &<r^ide Through
'Persia in a J^orry

MIX

By L I L L I A N SCHOEDLER, Alpha

The preceding letter: you will remember that Miss Schoedler spent an
interesting and hectic time getting from Meshed to Teheran through miles
of mud and mud-holes.

After the stillness and primitiveness of the desert and its tiny vill
lages, Teheran, with its bustle and worldliness, came as something of 4
shock. Years ago (about 1875), at the decree of a former Shah, the old!
city modernized itself quite conscientiously and radically along Eurcl
pean lines. Even now it is known as the "Paris of the East," and th^
many Russians who have crossed the border and found refuge in Tehera
help, with their dress and their gayety, to foster the illusion. The c i t j
has a beautiful location at the foot of the high wall of snow-capped mourn
tains that separates the central plateau region of Persia from the low
lands that border on the Caspian Sea; its trees and gardens seemef
doubly green and wonderful after the barren brownness of the desertl
as the capital of Persia, and therefore the seat of a great many f o r e i g j
embassies, it has a comparatively rich social European life—but for all