The New York Times from New York, New York • Page 19

NEW YORK. SATURDAY. JUNK 24. 100T. 4in A PERSIAN TOWN.

A Missionary's Description of a Residence in YezJ, Its People, and Their Customs. 51 -IK KfV. Napier Malcolm has written a very lnlTi-Minfi book descriptive of a certain part of lie dM-laros that it is not a book travel Stopping five years In one plate Is traveling, and the of Much a stay Is not a traveler's experience," hi modest disclaimer. Out. though hi liook In about Yesd.

in the very centre of Persia. It Is not unlikely that hU descriptions fit other IVrsl'iii cities more or less closely. Kven if they do not. but refer wholly and exclusively to Yefd. they show a place with munnrrs and customs so different from our own that they uro interesting even in the narrower limils of their applicability.

Mr. Malcolm is a missionary, nnd he is also a fair-minded man. who finds wirao good In everything, like a veritable Uan-Ished Duke. Of Islam and Christianity he remark In his preface: There are really not many resemblances to note. An officer of Indian troops replied to a Mussulman's suggestion th.it there were resemblances t-tween the two religions: There Is hardly a single practical point where Mussulmans mid Christian are not entirely at whereupon the Mussulman said: Haliil).

have read your Hible, and have alw rend the Quran. 1 always make that remark to Christians. I made it to a padre the other day. and they utmost always say. Very true; Mohammedanism has a great ileal In common with Well.

Sahib, when they suy that. I know that they have not read the Quran and that they have not read their Ltibles. Persia is mostly desert, but desert In Persia Is of many kinds. The ordinary desert is good soil, and where it can be watered Is extremely fertile. Generally It has a hard but rather gravelly surface.

Tho oases are not really very different In character from the desert, however. Mr. Malcolm says. Water Is brought from the mountains In a most curious manner. It Is found near the hills at depths varying from 00 to 100 yards below the surface.

From the hills to the centre of the plain there Is a considerable though very gradual declivity. So when the original shaft has boon sunk and water found, perhaps at 3l feet below the surface, a long line of similar shafts is sunk toward the centre of the plain at distances varying from to 40 yards, tho lino sometimes stretching for more than 40 miles, until a point of desert has been reached that lies as deep down as the original water level. Then all the shafts are connected at the bottom by burrows Just big enough to afford passage to a man; the water Is let In. and appears In an open ditch In the centre of the desert. These aqueducts are called qun'ats.

The cost of making one ought to compare not unfavorably with the coHt of our own new Croton aqueduct. The Yesdls use their streets much more than we do, according I to Mr. Malcolm. The streets are bordered by brick walls, the tops of which am irinerullv in bad reoalr. and pieces of mud and sun-dried bricks lie In the street Where tho surface has not been taken up by bricks, which are left to bake in the sun In the middle of the road.

It Is generally used for drying munure that has been kneaded with a modicum of earth. The dyers also use the street for hanging up their cloths to dry. and also for arranging their skeins of silk, which they twist around wooden pegs stuck Into the walls about forty yards The road surface Is a little Irregular, and oc- 111 Lcastonally It Is made more Interesting by a shaft loading Into a qun'at. The Yezdl house Is of mud. with a porch, often covered with a dome.

Back of this are two or three courts, In ie larger of which the family Jives. In tho courts will be found a tank and flower beds. The house consists of two sets of buildings, with perhaps some upper rooms; these, however, do not form a real second story, being built over the lowest of the ground-floor rooms, so that the roof Is on one level. There Is a Summer portico, opening to the north, with an air shaft. For five months of the year this Summer portico and the room below it are the only habitable rooms In a Persian house.

Houses that are not very new are always more or less tumble-down; but no Yesdl wants his house to last forever. Nobody can realise the damage that can be done in a town like Yezd by a really wet day. Somo while ago we had twenty-four hours of rain, which destroyed, I believe, about a couple of hundred roofs, and, what' Is worse, caused the older qun'at pits to fall in, blocking the water supply in some parts of the town for three months. Is there any other town In the world where a little extra rain causes a three months' drought? There Is a story In Teheran about a Dutch Ambassador, who was so afraid of the roof falling that In wet weather he Invariably slept under the table. However, he was a very tall man.

and when the catastrophe happened he got his foot crushed." The houses are built only for protection against heat; in Winter the Yesdls "grin and bear it," the merchants close their FIVE YKAItS IN A PERMIAN TO WW. liy Naplor Malcolm. Map aod Illustrations. On. volume.

I 8vo. Cloth. Ne Turk: B. P. Put ton Co.

CS.Ml offices and stay at hw, and only the smaller tr i.lfKmrn and artK'ins go to the bazars. The heating arrangement consists of a wooden stool, under which a charcoal brazier Is place over stool an brazier a heap of rugs and quilts Is placed, and the family tuck their legs under the wraps, squatting on the floor. Yezd. with about Inhabitants, is Insular beyond the Insularity of islands When you send a letter to Isfahan, it your friend writes by return mail you may get un answer in a month. It is a great pity that they have got rid of the native telegraph line.

The poles were rough sticks, like what a washerwoman uses in Kngland to prop her clothesline. I upHe. taking the good line with the bail, there was on the average about one insulator to every three poles this Is without counting the insulators which hung mill way between the poles, apparently by way of ornament. In a good many place the line lay on the ground; at others it -crossed the road about the level of a horseman's hin. One day in Yezd a Kuropean wanted to send a telegram, and sent to ask when the line would be up.

They sent him a polite message that the line was always down that was not the trouble; but a camel had stepped on It. Jhe Insularity of the own. and the atmosphere' of the place, remind Malcolm of a preparatory school for little" boys. The so-called fanaticism of the Yezdl he diagnoses as two-thirds non-religious. "There was an element of tur-bulency.

a real religious element; and an element of insularity, utterly unconnected with creed and doctrine." In a chapter on Islam In Persia. Mr. Malcolm says: As for the favorable views of Islam lately brought forward by Kurnpeans, 1 can only pass on the story told me of an educated Mussulman in India who had been shown a book on the subject. This gentleman. Sahib." he said, as he handed back the volume.

appears to know very little about his own religion, and absolutely nothing about ours." In Zoroas-trianlsm (Parslism) it Is not tinteachlng but teaching that Is required to lead the people to Christ; but In Mohammedanism, In spite of Its greater pretensions, almost every apparent truth crumbles Into mere truism or actual falsity the moment you try to make It the basis of anything practical. I firmly believe that the difficulties In the Islam of to-day are due rather to the essential wrongness of the system than to Its corruption by the masses. The religion of the Mussulman Yezd is largely superstition now. The most popular edition of the Quran Is a very minute round one in two parts, absolutely illegible, nnd only suitable for wearing In a sewn-up case. The mull is, or priests, will divine in the mosques with the Quran for a fee.

The commoner form Is with a rosary, rather on the plan of Two, four, six. eight, Mary at the cottage Persians will consult the beads as to whether to send for the doctor, and after he has come, to see If they shall buy the medicine he has prescribed, and finally, after buying It. to see if the patient shall take a dose." On the subject of lying, Mr. Malcolm says, among other things: Never forget that the Jokes of W. S.

Gilbert are the facts of Persia. In the Yezd bazaars, probably not less than one-third of the speeches made by Mussulmans are falsehoods. One day a cook of a Ruropean went to the bazaar, and after the usual haggling, fixed the price of some meat at 12 krans for thirteen pounds. Hut," Bald the cook, you've got your thumb on the scales." Did you think." retorted the butcher. that I would give you meat at thirteen pounds for a krans unless I kept my thumb on the scales? We had a neighbor who was considered a fairly respectable man.

whose sole business was the forging of sesls. But the fact Is that every class, from, the highest to the lowest. Is thoroughly permeated by the leaven of dishonesty. A Mohammedan assured me that truth-speaking and honesty had nothing to do with religion, but were purely a matter of climate. "In that case," suld "the people of Persia ought to speak the truth very well, for one of the Greek historians who lived befortf' the Mohammedan era, declared that the Persians were famous for speaking tho truth." But who dues not know." replied the Mohammedan, that the climate of a country changes entirely every 2,000 years? Mr.

Malcolm thinks that the language Is responsible for the Yeidl's Inaccuracy of Ideus, and one may well agree with him. lie says: The words one uses In a letter are almost entirely different from those used conversationally, and those in an ordinary prose history are again different. Then it is almost lmios3ible to distinguish the tenses; and lastly theiadjectlve is generally indistinguishable from the substantive, and the link between an adjective and the term which it qualifies is the same ns the sign of the possessive. For Instance, the text. "This is My beloved Bon." may be read In the Persian Hible, This is the Hon of My beloved." without the slightest violence to the grammar.

Mr. Malcolm's book. It Is evident, affords an Interesting and novel picture of a curious country. He tries to be fair to the people, among whom he worked for five years, and we think he succeeds. His chapters on the Islam of Yesd are detailed and analytical; his book should be read by any one who intends to visit Persia, and will prove interesting to those who do not Intend to do so.

The colored pictures, by a Persian artist, are not the least attractive part of an unusually pleasing book. Infects of America. An Idea of the scope and aim of the volume on "American Insects." by Prof. Vernon I Kellog of Stanford University, is given in the course of his preface: This book is written In the endeavor to foster an Interest In insect biology on the port of students of natural history, of nature observers. and of general traders; it provides in a single volume a general systematic account of all th principal groups of insects as they occur in America, together with special accounts o( the structure, physiology, development, and metamorphoses, and of certain particularly Interesting an.t important ecoiogtcal relations of insects with tin- world around them.

Systematic entomology, economic entomology and what may be called the bionomics of insects are he special subjects of the matter and illustration of the book. An effort l-eti made to put the matter at the easy command of the average Intelligent reader. American Insects appear through Henry Holt A Co. the end of the month or early In July. The author Is already known through the volumes written In collaboration with lYofs.

Comstock, Jordan, and Jenkins. hirst Iessons In Zoology," monographs In systematic entomology, and numerous papers on Insect morphology and life history. The forthcoming book will be illustrated from drawings and photographs by Miss Mary Wellman and others. The Snare of Politics. TIIR 1 LTIMATK PASSIUV Ily Philip Verrlll Mihels.

Unix New York: Harper 1 U. Mr. Philip Verrill M'ghels. who will be remembered as the author of Ilruvver Jim's Baby," has gone far afield In this new story of his. The war between honor and politics, the love of woman and the love of power, wage fiercely in this story, nnd poor John Ilukon is tossed about in the seething current of affairs like a rudderless ship.

An absolutely Incorruptible Senator, determined to exposo the blackness of the rln of vile politicians that encircled affairs at Washington, John Hakon soon found himself shelved by this same ring because of his non-support of it. After It had drawn his fangs. It was like It to again seek to pluce John Hakon high In public favor for had not his record of five years before been stainless? Therefore Insidiously began an undercurrent of gossip and hint of Hakon'a name for the nomination for President at the Chicago Convention, But Jjhn. stilt high of Ideal and strong of faith, believed by leaguing himself with the devils In this case Grey stone the mighty and his minions he inljht learn their own methods wherewith ta fight them fairly. Besides, there was that overmastering political ambition Implanted deep in John's nature which made the mere thought of the Presidency send his blood danclug madly through his veins.

But If Greystone thought to place a figurehead In the Presidential chair, he had also thought of the personal price John was to pay for his high position. Oreystone's. daughter Clara was past thirty and possessed of few charms, but it was her father's wish to become fa-ther-ln-lawlo a President. Since Hakon The New Macmillan Books PUBLISHED THIS WEEK Charles Egbert Craddock's new novel The Storm Centre A Is a very readable story of flirtations and love In an old-time Southern household within the lines of the Federal Army. Actual light in? does not enter the story, but the war Is its background of mystery and draimtlc adventure.

Cloth, f.jo. Mrs. Nancy Huston Danks's new novel The Little Hills is restful in its suggestion of shaded roads, fragrant with far-away Summer scents. Its people are loving and lovable, groping up their little hills of life, lifting up their eyes, each to his own honest, carnal, pathetic, amusing Ideal. Cloth, Mr.

Jack London's new novel The Game "In rapidity of action, forceful style, and gripping Interest It is one of the most notable of his stories. The plot is simple, and of. Increasing power and fascination." The Plain Dealer. Ji lustra led in colors and decorated. Cloth, S'SO- Professor L.

II. Bailey's new book The Outlook to Nature I is a stimulating, winning discussion of the sound and wholesome practice of "setting the mind toward naturalness," In the everyday of the bearing of this attitude on education, etc. Oolh, $1.15 (poitize tic). FitzGerald in the English Men of Lettrrs Series. Mr.

ARTHUR BENSON, whose brief life of Rossettl In the same erks won favor because of its rare combination of sympathy ar.d lane judgment, is the author of this admirable life of the secluded, fastidious, subtly t-tractive nun of genius. Cloth, gill top, i2mo, 75. net fiastaxe, 8c). THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, Publishers, 64-C6 Filth New York. cared for no one el the bargain was tniJe.

That Mr. has Improve greatly since the writing of his former story nevda scarcely be A simple reading of dramatic Incidents which follow thick and fast upon John's Indifferent of Crrvstonr a terms, hia nevt- in with Kuth Mlterwoo-t. the antithesis of ircnie-uralned Ura. her almost breathless eagerness tor the highest political honor for Hakon. Die ami ntiioua charms of Mrs." Me.

he. one of the strongest tool, in the bands of the unscrupulous lirrystotie, Hakon'a acorn of her thereby amusing the sleeping tiger wPhin her to the luty of a woman scorneilNll these characters and Incidents rushing heedlessly to their several ends combine to make a brilliant atage-ful. Greystone as' the Imperious magnate, the Czar of corruption In state af fairs, yet had his weak it as other men. ana it was mere that I In Hon was able at last to strike and turn the knife. Yet, If It was a personal triumph for him In that last hour when he stood before his chief and Mrs.

Meshe and denounced them Ixilh. ut the same time he signed the death warrant to all future political as pint Ions. As for poor Clara, Mr. Mtghels seems to have been rather pitiless with her. who.

after alt, was tuoie fool than knave. Greek Influences. TIIK OK IIKM.KJISM in, AI.KXA.MIKH'S KNI'IHK. Ily Johs IVntlana Mah.rry. V.

D. T. C. I. sometime ProfeMor of Ant-lent.

History In the Cniver.lt of Dulilln. It mo. Pp. Chicago: Tho UaivM-sity of Chicane Press. 11.

Prof. Molmffy, who has written' audi a vast number of books on the several aspects of Greek life, and who haa dev voted himself especially to the period fce-glnnlng with Alexander the Great, the period of diffused, and In a measure dl-' luted Greek culture, called specifically Hellenism, presents In this little volume a-sort of summary of the results of hla lifetime of study. The six chapters which" compose It were originally six lectures de- llverod at the University of Chicago In the Summer of Their content Is rapid survey of the three Macedonian kingdoms Into which the empire of Alexander resolved Itself at tho conqueror's' death Macedon proper, Egypt, and Syria -with a tracing of what the Greek civilisation did for the peoples of those re-" glons, none of them Greeks to start with. Macedonia served chiefly to pass Hellenism along as a centre of Hellenistic Influence It ceased to exist with ths Ho-mnn conquest. In Kgypt the Immemorial civilization of the oldest of lands was too strong for it In the end, but meanwhile It furnished Alexandria the university of the Hellenistic world.

It was In Syria a name which Includes In this case most of Asia Minor. Judea, and Mesopotamia- that the Hetlentzatlnn of the various pen tiles was most widespread and complete. And It was here that Greek ideas encountered Jewish Ideas and Buddhist doe trlnes coming from India. All three. Mahaffy somewhat cautiously suggests, contributed to the making of Christianity as we know It, but he noes not suggest (as so many do) that this making was purely human and evolutionary..