There followed a period of fervent nationalism, industrialise- don and
reforms. An American financial mission intro. duced some sort of order into Persia's incoherent fiscal system. Communications were improved, and the great truth railway constructed. The nomadic tribes-weor brought under control, brigandage was abolished, and the special. privileges hitherto enjoyed by foreigners were drastically curtailed German specialists were engaged to establish those essential factories which Persia had hitherto been glad to do without. And the Persian head-dress was abolished, at first in favour of a cap called the "kola pahlevi," designed, it was said, upon the model of those worn by Belgian customs officials, and later of any old cap that any man could buy in the bazaars. The English visitor is often inclined to an unfair and perhaps impertinent regret at the disappearance of oriental " picturesque- ness." Yet it was tragic to watch the old and gentle civilisation of Persia imitating our materialism.
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