'It is impossible but that offences will come, but woe unto him through whom they come.' For 'offences', the Oriental reading is 'accidents'.
In all large Persian towns there is a numerous class of 'roughs' known as the _kullah-numdah_ (felt-caps; they wear a brown hard-felt low hat without a brim), excitable and reckless, and always ready for disturbance.

They are the 'casuals', who live from hand to mouth, those to whom an appeal can be made by the careful working class when the price of bread is run up to famine figure, owing to the 'cornering' of wheat, which of late years has been much practised in Persia.

The baker used to be the first victim of popular fury in a bread riot, and it is said that one was baked alive in his own oven.

But in these times of grain speculation in Persia, the people have learnt to look in 'wheat corners' for the real cause of dear bread, and in consequence the bread riots have become more formidable, as was proved lately at Tabriz.

On a previous occasion the Vali Ahd (now H.I.M.the Shah), who, as Governor-General of Azerbaijan, resided at Tabriz, found himself unable to cope with the difficulty, and abandoned his projected visit to Tehran, so as to apply the money he had provided for it to cheapening bread for the people.