Morning journal and courier., 1884-08-06

A
 Proud of-The syrian Protestant Col- 1e&e-The Johanniter Hosp1tal-Nov- | el Street Crfes-The Month Rama dan. | BEYRoUT, Syria, July 6, 1884.
 | To the Editor of the JOURNAL. AND COURIER:
 1 Oh for an interesting city where there is | no sightseeing to be donei For weeks this
 has been the plaintive lamentation sent up f by my surfeited soul and where is the pro I fessional globe -trotter who has not experi- | eneed the same longing9 Cairo and Jerusa- I lem are enough to freeze the blood of the 1 scared veteran; and even the memories of Damascus, Baalbec and other recent victims of visitation cause my flesh to creep. Well | might Shakespeare's characters cover under | the lash of E'Tyrant Conscience;' but if they had "taken to the road, as do their persona | tors, fancy the thousand tongues would have been multiplied tenfold Just as you settle down into state of delicious inanity, after reaching city, and are becoming glori- ously obliyious of steamer sailings, railway | timetables. guide books and pestiferous I dragomans, then conscience rude1y rouses you, seizes you by the scalp-lock and drags ! you off to "the bazaars," some tawdry ' I sance.
 To the weary disgruntled tourist I com I mend Beyrout It is not ravishingly beau 1 tiful place, but it is very pleasant, and you 1 don't want distractingly fine scenery; you ! want physical stagnation. After a three ' weeks rest here I find myself quite attached | to the place, and can conscientiously give \ this advertisement. Beyrout has no tyranni | cal, stereotyped sights. It is free from even spectacular convenGionalities, and therefore | is near approach to that ideal haven of refuge referred to in the opening paragraph of this letter. It has no departed glory" with which to harass you, but on the contra I " modern enterprise, thrift and promising prospects for the future. No late memories | of Damascus or Baalbec, therefore, shall ob- I trude themselves into this letter, but instead its theme shall be impressions regarding this | live, growing, modern city. In the first I place you are at liberty to spell the name I Beyrout just exactly as you please. 1 have l adopted an old-fashioned method, but you ' are free to choose any one of the numerous ' recent versions. The new styles each spring always embrace large assortment of meth ods. The most approved French method is Beirut, and our mission has latterly adopted this spelling. I notice, however, that the French company operating the wagon-road between here and Damascus use the combi- nation Beyrouth. Beirout is favorite Eng fish spelling, while I have seen Bairut in print. The city smells as sweet by one of these names as by another, and all together only give it a population of about one hun dred thousand souls. During the last two decades the city has about doubled itself in number of inhabitants.
 It is generally held that Beyrout is not mentioned in the Bible. Its claims to this honor have frequently been canvassed, and Berothah of Ezekiel xvii, 16, and Berothai of Second Samuel, viii, 8, have been cited as
 possible references. But our eminent mis- sionary Dr. Thompson concludes against these references, and who has had better fa-
 cilities for studying the question than he?
 He inclines to the belief, however, that Eze-
 kieFs Berothah and Sanuel's Berothai were identical It has also been suggested that the Baal-berith of Judges, viii, 33, was the god of Berith (Beyrout) Doubtless there was large city here, for as much is implied in the writings of Josephus, Pliny, Strabo and others. Moreover, the situation is the best for many miles along the coast, and this is the strongest kind of presumptive evi- denee, for the Phoenicians were very level headed people. The site was included in the land of promise, but not in the land of pos session. It is regarded as remarkable fact that the disciples never visited Beyrout-as the records seem to imply-for during the Roman era it experienced its greatest glory. Colleges, baths, theatres, palaces, temples, churches and grand colonnades were clements in the magnifcence of the city under Angus tus, Agrippa and Titus. But all these mate rial glories were demolished by @ fearful earthquake in A. D. 551. It is said that ex- cavations in almost any part of the city to- day will develop memorials of this awful tragedy; which would go to prove that the ancient Beirout must have been much more prosperous than even this goodly modern city.
 Here Titus celebrated his capture of Jeru- salem, and here St. George killed the legend ary dragon. Don't dare to dispute this dra- gon story or the wrath of the dragomans will rest upon you.
 There is nothing imposing in the city of to-day. It is clean, healthy, well supplied with the smaller types of foliage and emi- nently comfortable in aspect. Like every city on Turkish soil, it has grown by irregu- lar accretions, so that there is little system displayed in the arrangement of streets. I The city circles around 8 spacious bay and nestles among the foothills of Lebanon. From nearly every point of view boundless expanse of sea is revealed, and to the east the mountains loom up grandly. Even in this warm season of the year snow is visible on some of the loftiest peaks though this is exceptional. The elevations that are always snow-capped are not visible from Beyrout. The situation of the hotel where I am stopping is especially charming. It is built over the water, so that the sea actually pass es under the rooms. There is long, glass enclosed balcony looking seawards, from which one never tires of surveying the blue Mediterranean beyond and below. There is always variety in the movements of the sea. Now it's swash is so gentle and soothing that it is the most effective of lullabies when one wishes to fall asleep. Again the sea is in an uproar and the spray leaps up to the very windows. The illusion that we actually at sea is quite hard to shake off at times. The fish have learned to watch for the refuse that is committed to the sea from the hotel galleys and are consequently very tame. Portly-looking fellows foot two long come right under the balcony and stare up impertinently at us. The temptation is very strong to make them atone for their temeri- ty; and not few have been hauled up with rod and line to the broad veranda. One day somebody got up more enthusiasm than usu- al, and cast a torpedo from the balcony into a school of inquisitive marine beauties. A boy sprang in after the explosion and brought three fat fellows to the surface. Many others were stunned, but not sufficiently to keep them from evading the swimmer. Nets are also cast in front of the hotel, and many bushels of fsh-meat captured.
 The shore along here is very rocky, like that at Half, Jaffa and even along the mar gin of Galilee After each storm masses of salt are formed in the depressions in these rocks.
 The abominable Turks are in the way of Beyrout's complete prosperity. They oppose every progressive measure, refuse to permit the establishment of gas works and forbid mining in the mineral mountains. As four ffths of the inhabitants here are Christians, so-called Ghat is non-Mohammedans), this is especially grievous, and the race is deserved ly detested. Even the policemen (spare the markD are Turks. They go in squads of three for the most part, armed to the teeth. It takes two companions to screw the courage of an ordinary patrolman up to the sticking point. There is Turkish man-of-war al ways in the harbor here. It is a twe-funnel paddle boat, and looks as if it might make quite decent dispatch steamer; but have lively suspicion that I could sink it to the bottom of the harbor if I had good Colts revolver. Recently the Sultan's birthday occurred and spasmodic effort was made to celebrate it. A few rockets were sent up from the Turkish barracks in town and a few more from the warship referred to. But the gene
 ral effect was so paltry and half hearted as to
 be actually pitiable. Whatever the Turks do | is done in a cheap, threadbare way that ex-
 cites only contempt from westerners.
 When I first came here there was also an