Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/198

 98 TEHERAN AND A NEWER PERSIA

At the foot of the stairway of the main hall, into which our party was formally ushered, stood a heavy easel bearing a large portrait of the Shah in all his coronation regalia. Near by was hanging a large Persian rug, so modern in design as to include some of the presidents of the United States among the dignitaries whose portraits formed the pattern. ^ The richly carpeted corridors and stately halls, through which we were conducted, were resplendent with mirrors, and the walls of some were gorgeously blazing with tiny facets of coruscating glass inlaid in panels of plaster of Paris, a style of decorative design much admired by the Persians. Some were even bril- liant with jeweled ornament, or with heavily embossed furniture; yet all that glittered was not gold, and there was much that was tinsel and tawdry. At the top of one of the fine staircases, for instance, we noticed as an adornment a frame filled with an immense assortment of fish-hooks — a business advertisement of some foreign firm dealing in angler's goods. I have since been told — for I missed visiting Court under the Regency, on my third journey — that much of the trash that had found its way into the palace, from time to time, has now been removed so as to leave the Shah's residence more in keeping with his royal dignity.

The chief attraction in the palace, however, was the great Coronation Room, Parisian rather than Persian in its style. Its treasures are many, but among them my eye was attracted by the remains of the largest meteoric stone in the world. Only half of the meteorite, however, is on exhibition, for the stone has been sawed in two ; the other half is now preserved somewhere in America, having been exchanged, I was told, for an insignificant piece of crystal, which stands near the portion that was retained. There was something munificent in the royal generosity that sanctioned such an exchange as an act of courtesy to this side of the Atlantic, and the graceful favor deserves its mention here.

1 1 believe this rug had been on exhibition at the World's Fair in Chicago or at the Exposition at St. Louis.

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