Europe and elsewhere, by Mark Twain [pseud.] [with an appreciation by Brander Matthews and an introduction by Albert Bigelow Paine]

O'SHAH
or two loomed vaguely. One may call such a morning
perfect.
The corps of correspondents were well jaded with
their railway journey, but after champagne and soda
downstairs with the officers, everybody came up
refreshed and cheery and exceedingly well acquainted
all around. The Persian grandees had meantime
taken up a position in a glass house on the afterdeck, and were sipping coffee in a grave, Oriental
way. They all had much lighter complexions and
a more European cast of features than I was prepared for, and several of them were exceedingly
handsome, fine-looking men.
They all sat in a cricle on a sofa (the deckhouse
being circular), and they made a right gaudy spectacle. Their breasts were completely crusted with
gold bullion embroidery of a pattern resembling
frayed and interlacing ferns, and they had large
jeweled ornaments on their breasts also. The Grand
Vizier came out to have a look around. In addition
to the sumptuous gold fernery on his breast he wore
a jeweled star as large as the palm of my hand, and
about his neck hung the Shah's miniature, reposing
in a bed of diamonds, that gleamed and flashed in a
wonderful way when touched by the sunlight. It
was said that to receive the Shah's portrait from
the Shah was the highest compliment that could be
conferred upon a Persian subject. I did not care so
much about the diamonds, but I would have liked
to have the portrait very much. The Grand Vizier's
sword hilt and the whole back of the sheath from
end to end were composed of a neat and simple
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