BEIRUT

[s. 93] : A city situated on the eastern coast the Mediterranean, capital of the Turkish province of Syria (Suriye). It is the commercial of and literary center of Syria, and in its appearance and in the culture of its inhabitants more nearly resembles a European city than any other city in the land. It is situated on a plain at the foot of the Lebanon, and in beauty of scenery rivals Naples, the shore here describing a graceful curve of several miles’ radius, in the bosom of which the It is adorned city lies, built on rising ground. with many elegant buildings, public and private, rising one above another in a gentle slope, with a near background of mulberry, olive, and pine groves, and a more distant background of the terraced and vine-clad sides of Mount Lebanon, whose peaks, nearly 10,000 feet high, are snow crowned for several months of the year. The climate is tropical. The rainy season is confined principally to the three winter months, when the thermometer rarely sinks below 50° Fahrenheit. A long summer reigns, with unbroken heat day and night, while the thermometer ranges from 80° to 90°, and occasionally rises to 100°. The population numbers about 100,000, and composed of Mohammedans, Druses, Christians of various sects, and Jews. An English company has brought water to it from the mountain in an aqueduct six or eight miles long, and has also lighted its streets with is There are carriage roads in the city and its suburbs, extending to the near points in the Lebanon, and one to Damascus (built by a French company). A railroad also connects Beirut and Damascus. Mi ion work, vigorously conducted since 1823, first by the ABCFM, and since 1870 by the PN, has borne fruit not only in direct visible results of educational institutions established. Beirut Beug’al youth educated and sent forth as teachers, phyand preachers, books printed, a Prote icians community gathered, congregations a emand converts enrolled, but indirectly by upUfting the of the whole community to a higher plane of social, intellectual, and moral life. In self-defense and in rivalry the other religtant bled, ious sects have printing-pre es opened schools and and hospitals. The colleges, Mohammedans have even so far nm counter to their old tradition and practises as to open schools for girls, lest their Fatimas and Zobeides should learn in Christian schools too many verses of the Bible and too many Gospel hymns; and the Greek Church has been compelled to open Sunday schools, in imitation of the Protestants. The has at Beirut (opened by the in 1823) a station of which the working force consists of 4 mi ionaries and their wives, with 7 ABCFM PN unmarried women and 13 native workers, men and women. There are 3 preaching places, 3 outstations, 1 high grade boarding school for 1 theological school, 5 Sunday schools, 1 printing house which sends forth its i ues wherever the Arabic language is spoken in three continents. publishes about 25,000,000 of pages annually, about half of these being pages of Scripture. In “the Pre ” are steam-pre es, with all the apparatus for type-casting, electro From its typing, lithographing, and binding. doors go forth yearly about 60,000 bound volumes of scientific and religious books. The Syrian Protestant College is auxiliary to the mi ion, and in closest sympathy with it. It occupies a splendid position on high ground overlooking the sea. It embraces preparatory, girls, H medical and commercial departments, and is more fully described in a separate article. There is also a station of the Kaiserswerth Deacone es at Beirut, established in 1860. It has 26 deacone es, who conduct a fine hospital, served by the Medical Department of the Syrian Protestant College. It also carries on a high collegiate, school and 2 village schools. Mi Taylor’s orphanage, opened in 1868, is carried on by 2 unmarried women and 6 native workers, men and women. It has a dispensary. The Church of Scotland has a mi ion to the Jews, with a mi ionary and his wife and 2 common schools. The Jerusalem and the East Mi ion Fund also has a station here, but no statistics are given. The British Syrian schools have a station at Beirut, with 5 women mi ionaries and 49 native workers, 19 outstations, 1 high school, 1 school for the blind, 1 dispensary and 18 common schools. The BFBS has a Bible depot here, with 1 agent and 6 native workers. MERI A BEIT village in the Lebanon district: of Syria; station of the Friends’ Foreign Mi ion A ociation (1898), with 1 woman mi ionary, 2 native workers, 1 chapel, 1 Sunday school and 2 village schools. BELGAUM A city in the district of Belgaum,: Bombay, India, 80 miles northeast of Goa. ulation (including suburbs), 32,000, PopHindus, Muslims, Jains, Christians, Parsees, etc.; station of the LMS (1820), with 3 mi ionaries and their wives, 14 native workers, men and women; 6 outstations, 6 Sunday schools 8 village schools and 61 church members. 94