Teheran Persia. Aug. 15th, 1916.

My Dear Mrs Platt,

Your letter of June 9th received; it seems a long time to wait to answer it. for when I first read it the mention of Mrs Bedee’s name made me say I will answer this letter once and indeed it is not very long for it takes a long time for a letter to come from American these days. I have just written a letter to Mr Wilhelm telling him I would ask you to send this to him to avoid writing the same things twice, for there are many things we want to tell everybody. The garden we are in is a most interesting place, like every other it was originally a piece of desert in Persia except where it is near water & this is on the side of a mountain & a stream that comes from the melting ice & snow high up is conducted into crude stone channels into the gardens that are enclosed by high mud walls but what the poets tell of Persian gardens make one think there are [page 2, left side of image 27] nightingales always everywhere & in the Spring after sunset for about a month we hear them about here, then they go to other parts of the country, but the gardens are not so very wonderful, consisting of sycamore trees, sometimes willow & sometimes different kinds of pine trees, with rose bushes & a few other flowering shrubs on the borders of the walks. all thro. the gardens are small narrow gutters for the water to come thro. which is essential. for it never rains here after June until Nov. & after Dec.

It seemed necessary for us to come away for a part of Miss Kappes’ vacation for in no other way could she get any rest from the people who constantly come to see us & one of the Bahai men offered us his garden for as long as we wish to occupy it since this year it has not been rented. We brought with us our man who cooks a does everything for us, mattresses, & a few other things necessary that could be brought on the backs of mules & donkeys & came ourselves in a carriage packed in tightly by small necessaries - [page 3, right side of image 27] it is camping but in a very comfortable way & with pleasant companions, for we have with us the head of the German School and his wife who are very learned people, they also have their cook & occupy one of room on one side of the house while we are on the other side & the two servants work together well having made a kitchen of a small greenhouse a very crude affair & we divide our daily expenses equally. you may be interested in hearing about these nice people. The lady was ill having fallen from the roof of the school building down into the room below injuring her severely. she became my patient & now they are rapidly becoming Bahais, never objecting or rejecting anything we have told them, & Dr Draeger told me he was sure his wife had to fall that he might receive the light of the Bahai Revelation. We have had letters from the German Bahais which he has enjoyed very much.

This garden is situated opposite [page 4, left side of image 26] the main entrance of the place where the Shah is staying & we hear the band play before sunset every evening & sometimes beautiful music & sometimes Persian music which is a series of grand slam banging & general rattling with abrupt beginning & ending & no sense to any of it. I’d like to tell you a great deal about it, especially about the girl’s school. you may think as I did the Persian children are very docile & lamblike but if you were here you might call some of them lambs but many of them would have to be called by another name. I believe it is Abdul Baha who says “now they are the most depraved people in the whole world” Baha Ullah also speaks of their degradation [illegible]. we must be most charitable with them but in the school small things cannot be overlooked & any one is fortunate who has a girl under the care of Miss Kappes to be trained [page 5, right side of image 28] They have an inform sense of disregard for the truth. all of them [illegible] I do not know one single person upon whose word you may rely - not excepting one [not, excepting, and one underlined]. but I think some of the girls at least will learn to tell the truth for Miss K. washes their mouths well with good strong laundry soap & it has worked wonders. no matter where you go in a meeting or anywhere else you can always pick out a girl from The Tarbiat school from her behavior & general conduct.

Miss K. has instituted many methods & improvements in the school that are copied by the other Persian girls schools most inferior institutions but attempts at schools. The Board of Education concerned itself only with the “Boys School but Miss K. had her school graded in the same way & encouraged the girls to prepare for an examination & certificate given by the Gov. in June last 23 of the Tarbiat girls received them. six of them had been pupils in the school but because they were tall they stopped going to school. when [page 6, left side of image 29] their classmates were ready for their last years work they prepared privately & in the large room where 100 girls were assembled waiting to be called it was easy to see the better class of girls were Tarbiat girls. in general there is no such thing as a sense of necessity of discipline in a Persian home. if a child wants anything it has but to cry & every thing comes its way. no such thing as self control is ever even dreamed of & the great lack in the Persian character is sincerity. I do not wish to give you an exaggerated idea or put them in a false light to you, but if some of these things were not true why were we sent here to work among them? I am sorry we did not know more of the truth of the people before we came, or more of the necessities. sometime I will send you a Persian geography, a very little book with very little in it & the Persian method of teaching is to memorize a whole string, & no matter whether they understand it [page 7, right side of image 29] or not it is true of all their teaching & there is only one way in which they can be taught, that is by learning another language & teaching them in it. [paragraph] Our Am. Minister Mr John Caldwell is on his way to America now for a vacation. I wish some of you could go to see them, they are very nice people. They went from here by the way of China & San Francisco & will finally be in Westfield N.J. at the home of Mrs Caldwell’s sister. I will try to get her address & if they are to be in N.Y. City you may be able to see them. They will return some time near Christmas & I think will bring Goodseah back with them. We all dressed up one day in Persian & Zoroastrian clothes & had our pictures taken. it was “great fun while it lasted” & when we get back home I will see if I can send you one since you have not seen any of us it will not matter if you say the faces are not recognizable, but the dress is interesting [page 8, left side of image 28] for it is just as the people look in the street.

I hope Mrs Bedee will write to me. I want to know about the woodcocks. The last I heard was Miss W. was ill. also about Miss Boylan, Mrs Logie, Mrs Washington, Mrs Morton & of course everybody else. if you see any of them please give them my best love & if you want to do something very nice for us, send us Isabel Fraser’s book. some one sent it to Miss Stewart & I have seen it. it is a very nice one to show to a beginner. Sometime after you have read your magazines send us one once in a while. They are of great value to us for our own reading & to show to the pupils in the school & [“the” scribbled out] pictures of all kinds are very useful. no matter how small, they use them as prizes in the school. Miss K. cuts out the small advertising pictures in the back of magazines & pastes them in the spelling books as reward for good work. you see we do not hesitate to beg, but I often wish I had

[page 9, right side of image 30] After all my fast writing I was too late for the mail which only goes twice a week. I was interrupted by callers who know English, very nice Bahai young men. I showed them what you had sent us & one of them asked me if I would ask you for one of those very beautiful cards with the Greatest Name & Abdul Baha’s pictures. perhaps you have another you can spare. I remember Mrs Beede’s daughter very well, she did such a lovely thing to me, one day I was alone & tired she brought me a basket of peaches, & I never have forgotten it. Of course I am sure Mrs Beede will sometime come to Persia & have so often imagined her here, we have not a very large house, but for this country a very good one & every time anyone says anything about coming to Persia I at once tell them they must come & stay with us. Miss K. does too but I wonder what would happen if they all came at one! “The more the merrier”. but not until this war is over will anyone [page 10, left side of image 31] come. A cablegram came saying that Mr & Mrs Caldwell sailed the 18th so they will be probably get here soon after you receive this letter.

Tuesday a.m.

Yesterday Miss K. was simply abused by the meeting of 5 men, came home in a perfect nervous collapse & was awake all night from sheer nervousness & worry. until now we have kept all our troubles to ourselves & I do not know what will come of my having told this, but to not have asked any one’s advice about it. I only hope all the Bahai women will know but not Miss K’s family. of course it will turn our right some way. we don’t know how. I have Miss K. in bed & she is not feeling bad just now, but if you all knew what she has gone thro. you would wonder that she has any nerves left.

We do not have the [illegible] of the West but Dr Moody & Miss S. have it & we read theirs, Miss Holes has been an angel to us in sending some to us but for Miss H. I don’t know what we would do. I have had some one reading aloud to Miss K. from one of the books she sent us. & she is so good & judicious it is all right for her as well as the other Bahais to read this but not let it go to her Mother. The enclosed photo is not good, but as [page 11, right side of image 31] any we have, you can see the cucumbers & apricots on the floor in front of us. the three Zoroastrian women are, mother, daughter, and son’s wife.

Mrs Beede will want to know about Raffil [sp?]. he was engaged to marry a Persian girl here, her uncle prevented it. there after getting all the money he could out of everybody & not paying any one he would not accept an ordinary position & lived on what he could borrow, & finally secured a position in one of the provinces & we hear he is living not a good life. When he arrived here being met by his brother, he told everybody he was not his brother, he would not go among the Bahais. they were as good & patient with him as they could be. I am telling this because from what he has said many times we think he wants to return to America & perhaps he will, so it is better that those who were his old friends know how to protect themselves because all generosity to him is only an injury to him & loss to the giver.

Of course it is a long distance for a letter to go carrying so many bad things, but I will write some good ones too & keep you all informed [page 12, left side of image 30] Not long ago a tablet came to a Persian here praising Miss K. & her work in the school. the improvement among the teachers as well as pupils & she has the moral support of many of the best men, all [“all” underlined] the women who in an excited meeting all stood by her.

Thursday [“Thursday” underlined] - the mail goes out very soon & I must close this long letter. Miss K. is feeling a little better in her mind & we hope things will turn out better but I will write you all again -

Love from the 4 of us In El Baha -

Sarah A. Clock.

18 Ave. Alladollah Terehan, Persia.