It is whispered that the Shah’s European trip was not suggested by the
Shah himself, but by the noted telegraphic newsman, Baron Reuter. People
who pretend to know say that Reuter began life very poor; that he was an
energetic spirit and improved such opportunities as fell in his way;
that he learned several languages, and finally became a European guide,
or courier, and employed himself in conducting all sorts of foreigners
through all sorts of countries and wearing them out with the usual
frantic system of sight-seeing. That was a good education for him; it
also gave him an intimate knowledge of all the routes of travel and
taught him how certain long ones might be shortened. By and by he got
some carrier pigeons and established a news express, which necessarily
prospered, since it furnished journals and commercial people with all
matters of importance considerably in advance of the mails. When
railways came into vogue he obtained concessions which enlarged his
facilities and still enabled him to defy competition. He was ready for
the telegraph and seized that, too; and now for years
“REUTER’S TELEGRAMS”
has stood in brackets at the head of the telegraphic column of all
European journals. He became rich; he bought telegraph lines and built
others, purchased a second-hand German baronetcy, and finally sold out
his telegraphic property to his government for $3,000,000 and was out of
business for once. But he could not stay out.
After building himself a sort of a palace, he looked around for fresh
game, singled out the Shah of Persia and “went for him,” as the
historian Josephus phrases it. He got an enormous “concession” from him
and then conceived the admirable idea of exhibiting a Shah of Persia in
the capitals of Europe and thus advertising his concession before
needful capitalists. It was a sublimer idea than any that any showman’s
brain has ever given birth to. No Shah had ever voluntarily traveled in
Europe before; but then no Shah had ever fallen into the hands of a
European guide before.