Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-09-21
A VISIT TO THE BIGGEST UNIVERSITY OF NORTH
ERIN AFRICA AT ASSIOUT ON THE NILE

the Mohammedsns. as they form the
rroat majority of the population, ana
are giving them offices iu preference
fo the Copta This was recently
charged by Coptc committee which
called ON Lord Cromor shortly before
he left Egypt and objected 20 his
rroydIrr out these native Christians
and Giving their places TO the follow
ors of thc prophet. The crowding out
| of fho Copts ls done iu curious way.
rate for Instance the selection OF stu-
dents Tor the training school Tor police
men. Before examination an apple
canta have to- give their names, ana
the Copts can thus be easily dlstingu-
iebed from the Mohammedans The
~ont bovs GET their names from the
characters OF the Bible, while the
names of the Mohammcdan boys come
from, the Koran When the eNamina-
ton papers are turned In the Judges
are instructed 20 mark down all those
who bear such names as Moses ana
Jacob. Peter and Paul. and to recon-
mend for appointment the Moham-
meds the Ais and the hassanS
coPTrc MILLIoNAIREs AND
THEIR CHARITIES.
The Copts are the shrewdest business
men OF Egypt Many of them start lie
moor and grow rich 10 Is common
saving here that no Jew can compete
with them. and they have driven the
Jews out Of the upper part OF the Nile
valley In Assiout there are "A number
OF rich Copts who have changed their
religion and become Protestant Chris
tiaus and some OF these men are very
charitable, one. FOR Instance, has built
a Protestant native church. lie put up
tho building after a visit TO England,
where he was much impressed with
frtrfrH hhNN Nfnnn his return
he said he was going to build church
for Assault on the plan Of Westminster.
The missionaries here advised him to
the contrary and asked that he make
his building rectangular instead But
not 30 must be Westminster Abbey or
nothing. and the result is great II
SHAPED structure Of wood with long
hall I'm the center and wings az the END.
The church cost about $4,000, ana II
win seat H. 500 people. / attended II last
Sunday and found the main hall filed
with dark-faced men In gowns and
fez caps The wings were shut on By
curtains. but I was well up I'm front
and so near one side that / could look
through the cracks. Each wing was
filled with women clad in black balloon
like garments and yelled so as TO con-
ceal all but their eyes. A few OF the
women wore European clothes and
French hats, showing how the new
civilization o. coming In.
Another rich Copt has established two
large primary schools here. one for boys
and the other for girls. Tn the boys
school there are $50 pupils, and in that
for the girls more than 200. These
schools are taught by native Protes-
tants, and not one cent OF American
money is spent upon them.
QUEER CHRISTIANS THESE.
am much interested IN the Copts.
There are about 600 600 of them in the
country They look much like Egypt
ians and dress about the same. The
women vei their faces, both I'm public
and in private. and until about a gener-
alton ago the unmarried women were
white wells.
These Copts believe ln the ancient
form of Christianity They are about
thp same Christians ae Egypt had In
Roman times They claim St. Mark
as their FIRST patriarch and say that he
preached the Gospel no Alexandria and
started the sect there They have
patriarch today. and under him bish-