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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 5, 1911)
American Colleges Are Arousing the Mohammedans for, ( EDDY AT EIGHT f J 2Qg CEINI'ORY EGYPTIAlSr COLLEGE JVOTBALt, TEAM -JiSSlOCTT or TK. BOWSED miss AT' v CEHTEB C7 xu 1 6V f r I ...r r U fx ' ! ! , 5 . V. ... ' ft - V . (Copyright, 1911, by Frank 0. Carpenter.) ludlng Mohammedans, Jews, Armenians and Russians, MRUT (Special Correspondence of The 1,3 vel1 as representatives of the other nations about. Hoe.) Do you realize how American teaching is non-sectarian, although all are re- down to the sea. Standing upon the campus, which contains about nrty acres, one faces the glorious Medi terranean and at his back are the snow-capped moun tains of Lebanon with the rich vegetation climbing their slopes. The institution has a gymnasium, tennis courts and good athletic grounds. Its students play foot ball, base ball and cricket. They are full of college spirit and have their college papers and college songs. Their college yell is as follows: Rah! Rah! Rah! Rip! Rah! Ree! Room! Ah! Room! Ah! S. P. C. " The hoys have a silver cup which is contended for by the various athletic teams, and these Persians. Greeks, Syrians, Arabs, Kgyptians, Armenians and Turks are being welded Into one brotherhood by the hard knocks of foot ball and the track. Civil l.ing the Mohammedan. The Beirut college is an American college and a Christian college as well, but it does not attempt to proselytize, and the Mohammedan can come to it without changing his religion. It insists only that 1 1 - v? -fl I j 1 1 I , f educjitlon is revolutionizing the orient' Quired to attend daily prayers and go to services Sun It hap been one of the chief forces which day- 1 understand that this college Is now highly ap- tvervone wno goe9 thr0Ugh Its course shall attend have modernized Egypt, it has much to ljroved by tne new government, but that the latter cnapel and tne B)D)e claBeeg Btudylng the Blble M one do with the great revolution tn p0,., wou,d like t0 have 11 incorporated as a Turkish in- thn m.t ,,... ,n (h work n, thB worl(t it and It is the basis of the reorganization .""V011, J V, f ey Bnd th Turk" not long since the students, who believe in Moham- T 1"!S n touhot the whgle Turkish empire. Erectors To this the Americans naturally object. med 8truck aga,ngt thege regulattonB. Tney refu8ed The first schools of Egypt were started by United J. X l 0rganUed Unde,r tneu ,aW8uot to go to chapel and took an oath not to attend the I...;, u"M,u"lrCT ana educational In- ."LI . " J . .Z J " " Bible classes. The strike created a sensation, and for a time It seemed as though.it might do serious damage. ,The faculty, nowever, headed by the presi dent. Dr. Howard S. Bliss, insisted, saying that the school was a Christian college. They demanded that all students must attend the religious services, and the result was that most of the strikers came In and the college has gone along on its original lines. In talking about this to one of the Mohammedan students Dr. Bliss said: ,lla, it... -.v. vi vui vuii' ftc nao coiamioiR-u lu ft I I ur ill I 11 a III 111 f- Ti i V, , u J : 'euer 18 ""O'isnPd they . , " - - "-. ,an world the best that the Christian world has. iiiiibiiiu mm in active operation. The college! iuem u rcuu ui uuum iiiey line, ana mere has about .TOO women, and It Is associated with the ,s ,ittIe tr0ble o the newspapers. They can go new girls' academy which was dedicated t Poim where they please without passports, and the l- 1. ....... - .. .. ---..v um-i .. .. .... -wlUv.u.lo UUy, lover lne AUe vallev Tney have schools in Sudan and a great American college at Assiout, several hundred miles above Cairo. The col lege was started in a donkey stable about forty years ago, and it has been turning out graduates ever since It has now more than 1,000 students, who are housed in ten large two-story buildings, and it has recently completed three of the finest halls to be found in the far east. These are situated just outside Assiout at the junction of the Nile with the great canal north of which the foreign ownership gives them. The Censorship of the Turks. There is no doubt but that the Americans are sen sible in preferring the protection of Uncle Sam to that of the sultan. Conditions are bound to be unsettled In this part of the world for years to come. There will be revolutions and counter-revolutions before the Turks come down to a solid, substantial, modern gov ernment; andt no one can tell when the old condi- TtUiilE VLW UVILVUNGZ -AZIEICAN COLLEGE AT ASZlQVT,Iu(ii2JX.-2 OQO CTUPUVT? the best we believe that the knowledge you have of the same time the college students tell what they have our religion r.Mll make you better and broader Mos- learned and as'a result the twentieth century spirit of lenis. Religion is for man, not man for religion, and modern progress is stirring tho Mohammedan world. we want you to have the training which will make v each one of you the best man, whether he be Christian The Work of the MiHsions. or Moslem." , j addition to the collegiate work great advances Today the Mohammedan students, attending the In our civilization are being made by the Protestant j services, look upon them as largely educational, and missions. There are now thousands of native Chris- they study the Bible as such. ' tlans in Syria, and from 75,000 to 100,000 nativa The influence of colleges line this goes far and Christians in the empire or Turkey. The American, wide. The students come from villages all over the missionaries alone have over 100 schools, with 5.00U Turkish empire and from those oT India and Persia as or 6.000 pupils, and the English have many more, well. Going home, each forms a little hotbed for tho Right here in Beirut is the largest and most up growth of Independent thought, and civilized ideas are to-date publishing plant in the orient. It belongs to Rpread in other ways. One of the great means of such the American mission, and It annually turns out ten distribution is the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, which of thousands of volumes of the Bible, of school text is attended by about half a million of Mohammedans books and of others on religious and scientific sub- from all parts of the orient. At that time Mecca be- Jects. Altogether it has published more than 700 dlf- comes a great camp meeting or bush meeting, such as ferent works in Arabic, and it is estimated that It has we farmers have in Virginia. The people come together printed approximately 1,000,000,000 pages of one kind and gossip. They discuss the crops and ask one an- or other. It issues in the neighborhood of 100.000 other how they are getting along. Hassan All of volumes a year, containing altogether something 111 Egypt says to Mohammed of Turkey: "How Is husi- .10,000,000 pages, ft s Bibles publmhed in Arabic are Ing the stay of President Roosevelt. The American College in Ejtypt. I visited the college at Assiout not long ago It is full to overflowing and notwithstanding the new struc- ,u,e J"81 completed It needs more monev ,h m new government Is doing all it can to promote edu cation. It was far different under the regime of Abdul Hamid. In his time every newspaper was carefully looked over, and all sentences or words objectionable to the governmental critics were cut out. This was so Our aim Is to make of you broad-minded, intelligent men whether you continue- to be Moslems or Christians. We believe that the best thing we have is our religion, and we are bound to let you know what it is. Whether you accept it or not rests with yourself. If upon investigation you still think the Moslem religion ncss? Are you making money, and how does your government treat you?" Mohammed replies that the Turks are taxed to death, but they hope for much under the now sultan. Thereupon Hassan says that the English have cut down the taxes and that the church has plenty of money in its treasury. He tells how he has been ablo to send his boy to college, and that he hopes he will some day be an official. The Turk thereupon lungs for a better government. At sold throughout the Mohammedan world. buildings. It has a grcatpreBtiKe throughout the Nile of PaperB cnln8 In through the mail as well as of the valley and its efficiency, with a little money, could be flatlv PaP"- Here in Beirut a Sunday weekly is easily doubled. The college is said to give a better Published devoted largely to the life and sayings of education than the government institutions, and that our Savlor- Tno objected to it, saying, The at the lowest possible cost. The tuition Is nominal. Pal,er ls a Dad one for ln 11 tny KiIl King of Jews 1'or the poorest scholars it is only about $1 a session every eek. This might suggest the assassination of In money, and the ordinary rate ls about $10 a year tne BU,tan. and we cannot permit it." Dr. Bliss, the The cost of the education varies with the taste of the l,re8idtnt r tDe college at Bierut. not long ago 1m- students. These are of all classes from the sons of l,ortei1 an old CPV uf Shakespeare. It was kept at the poorest fellah to the highest paBha and richest ,lle tU8tom house, the censor objecting. Said the merchant of the Nile valley. There are three kinds lat,er: "Shakespeare is a bad book for the Turks, it of accommodations, the cost of which ranges from $33 as ln lt tne Btorv of a lnan named Macbeth who killed jcar upward. The wealthy Egyptian boy can have a Kmg- n would ue a bad example for us." bis own room or he can live four in a room. He can Dr I31if,B BUtrepded in getting his Shakespeare in have a good table, or, at less cost, can be boarded so by savlnS ne liad another copy ot the same book, which, mat tie has meat three or four times a week. On the aB 11 a8 already in the country, could not be taken "Jim" Bridger, Western Pathfinder .'m Lmii! N THE Missouri Republican of March 20, appeared a notice advertising for "enterprising young men" who would engage to "ascend the Missouri river to its source, there to be employed-for one. two or three years." Among the enter prising young men who responded to this advertise ment which emanated from the Missouri Eur com pany was a young blacksmith apprentice" named James Bridger, whose unguessed destiny it-was to , become almost a legendary figure, ln the pioneer his tory or the new west. The hare racts or his story are thus summarized upon a monument tohis mem- other hand he can work his way through collece brine- out- a,d ne uld be glad to trade this for the new or' ln Mount Washington cemetery, Kansas City: ing niB own rood, and buying vegetables and fish at tol)V- 1 he censor consented, and he accepted the J"U4 jauhjH umuur.u mm. very low cost. Many of the boys bring their bread Shespeare which cost $1 and admitted -the fine old t,Cel",i!;iaU'd aV 'n"'U ,!rf VF IZ !d "n! frnni hnm. if i. . i . . ieir ureaa . . , guide. Discovered Great Salt lake, 1824; the South from home It I. made of ground corn or millet and edition instead. pagg m,. vutpd YpOW8tonp ,aUe and g(,V8t.ra Daked in cakes an Inch thick. These cakes are toasted At another time some New Testaments seut to Con- isio. Founded Fort -Bridger. 1S4I1. Opened over- until they are as hard as stone, in which shane thev stantinople were held back by one of the censors be- land route by Bridger's pass to Great Salt lake. .Was will keep through the term. Before going In to a meal' fau8e of tlle Epistle of Paul to the Galatlans. Galata Is guide for United States exploring expeditions, Albert thjt .....!..... .1 : . . 1 i . . . . m . i it. i i m t . . i . . . . SivHltf.,- InhtiQlnn'a a pm i i 1Kr. T an si t - 1 T 1(1 1 1 " 1. one ui i ne aivisiona 01 Constantinople, ana me censor asked: "Who is this man Paul, and why is he writing to our people In Galata?" He was, with difficulty, persuaded that St. Paul was dead and that his letter was not the part of a plot. I am told that a chemis try was once kept out because a censor objected to the term H-O, saying that it seemed to mean that Hamid II (the sultan, Abdul Hamid) amounted to nothing. hunting expedition which has been compared to the exploits of Gordon dimming in Africa, and certainly surpasses the late feat of Mr. Roosevelt. With forty retainers "set retaries, steward, cooks, flymakeiB, dog tenders, hunters, servants, etc' 112 horses, twelve yoke of oxen, fourteen dogs, Sir George plunged Into the absolute wilderness of the mountain Tuberculosis In Hyrla. The medical missionaries are doing a great deal ln all parts of the orient. 1 have seen their hospitals everywhere on this t rip around the world. They are to be found in all parts of India, far up the Nil valley and in the leading centers of the Holy Land. One of the best I have visited is situated at Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, being headed by Dr. Torrcnce, who has been treating tho Bedouins and others there for the last thirty years, ln talking with him the question of tuberculosis come up. and he described the evils of the great white plague as they are round in his region on the very edge of the desert. He says tuberculosis is rife among the Bedouins, although they live out of doors and are in the purest of air all tho time. H thinks that the diseaso is largely distributed by the cattle. About 60 per cent of the cows have tubercu losis, and tho people live chiefly on milk. Another doctor connected with that hospital tells me that Syria had no consumption until about twenty- north west, and did not come out for two years. He traversed the ranges from Routt county, northwest- five years ago, when the disoaao was brought ln from trn Colorado, up through Wyoming1 and Montana; the United States by natives who had emigrated to and wisely he engaged, as the best of guides, old' our country, 'contracted consumption and brought It Jim Bridger. Gore must have been one of those royal back home. The Syrians had no Idea what it meant, good fellows, such as the Britisher so often proves and it rapidly spread. The sanitary conditions of this when tried out, for he and Bridger became fast Prt of the world are bad, the bacteria breed rapidly ...v .luuru.!. mp ineir nreati in buckets of water set out for the purpose, and, when soft, carry it with them In to the table. The Assiout Institution has its graduates in all th government departments of Egypt. They are among the leading merchants of the country, and every town has numbers of them. Many are Copts and not a few are Mohammedans. 1 am told that there are more than 10.000 boys now being educated in the United Presbyterian schools and colleges. How the Kulmn l.oM His Throne. Shortly before the Sultan Abdul Hamid was ousted by the Young Turk party and carried to his prison In Salonikl, where he now Is. he referred bitterly to the work that Robert college had done ln unsettling bis empire. Said he: "That institution has cost me Bul garia, und lt Is like to lose me my throne." He was rlRht. Robert college was founded in 1S63 by a New York merchant named Robert, who gave a large part of his fortune to this Institution. He was aided by the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin. D." I)., who was, I think, the real organizer. Since then it has been The Syrian College at Beirut. In addition to Robert college and the institution at Assiout. there is one here at Beirut which ls quite as Important as either of the others. I refer to the Syrian Protestant college, established by Americans in 1866, which since then has been the Harvard and Yale.of the far east. It has had thousands of graduates, and its doctors and lawjers stand at the heads of their profession in Egypt, Syria. Turkey, Persia and India. It has !00 students, all orientals, representing every part of the Levant. This Institution wan founded by Presbyterians, but the instruction is non-sectarian. The faculty has about thirty-five professors, the. moat of them Americans, turning out graduates, and they have largely formed and it is a thoroughly up-to-date university. It has a the leaven which has brought about the new Turkey medical department which, with its hospitals, treats aud the Young Turk party of today. Some of its something like 1 0,000 patients a year. It has physical, graduates built up Bulgaria and organized flte col- chemical and other laboratories, a large library .and leges and schools there. Others have been teaching ethnological and Industrial museums devoted to Syria ln nhoola throughout the Turkish empire: many and Turkey. hae acted as officers of the government, and today During my stay here I have visited the college. It the best of the new Turks are among them. is beautifully located, the buildings being situated on Robert college Lj now :00 or coo students, ln- the bluffs south of Beirut and running from them Sydney Johnston's army in 1S57, and G. M. Dodge ln U. P. surveys and Indian campaigns, 1S50-66. Piquant glimpses -of the man himself, however, arc captured for us by Edwin 1.. Sabin, writing in Recreation, New York. We learn that, while still a, young mail, Bridger's qualities won him the honorary appellation, '01d Jim;" that when he discovered Great Salt lake and tasted Its water he concluded that 1t was an arm of the Pacific ocean; and that whilt not the discoverer of the Yellowstone National parkhe and his companion, Joe Meek, were the first to explore that marvelous region. For a long time their accounts of the wonders of the Yellowstone were received incredulously as trappers' tales. Bridger, in his earnestness, tried too hard to de scribe the sights, and failed because over-vlvld. Joe Meek, his comrade for many a t n sj year, was more prosaic. . He rather suspected that he had discovered hell; but being near frozen at the time welcomed the "change in climate." and luxurlati d In the hot ground beneath his moccasins. ' It took a good deal to feaze a mountain man in his own rountrv. WThen the trade in beaver fur declined at the ad vent of the silk hat, "Old Jim" Bridger established a general trading post, known as "Bridger's Fort," on a fork of the trails that led to Oregon and Salt lake. Here he made the acquaintance of Sir George Gore, of whom Mr. Sablu writes: "It was ln 1834 that Sir' George Gore, real Irish fri.'iids. "The nobleman's custom was to lie abed until near noon, then to arise, bathe, cat and set out, by himself or with Bridger, upon a hunt. And what hunting there must have been! While Bridger may have had hard work to diagnose the late sleeping and the bathing, he could appreciate the man and his eu thuslasni. Sir George Gore delighted to read aloud to him out of Shakespeare aud Munchau sen (who 'war a durued liar'), and hear his com ments. "Bridger declared that 'that t liar Mr. Fullslut'f (Falstaff) war a leetle too fond o' lager beer;' but Shakespeare, withal, so enthused him that he waylaid an emigrant train and bought a copy for a yoke of oxen, lie hired a boy at $40 a month to read to him; only to quit in a rage at Richard III and the disease is sweeping the country. listen to any more talk of any man who war mean enough to kill bis mother!' "He has been called 'the Daniel Boom' of the west.' And It pleases one to think it was something more than a coincidence that he should make his 'last camp' (even though he did not remain) In the very same house In which that other great Virginian had passed over the rang'? fifty years b'-fore. "Quaint, honest old Bridger. Men today in their prime recall him with a smile and a word of praise. He lived to hear his Yellowstone yarns indicated, to .see a railroad using his particular psss and trui), and to realize that his mountain days had not been wasted. HU post has i rumbUd Into a shapeless mass; but over the mountain man's dust, removed, after twenty years, by a friend, from the farm burial place to the Kansas City cemetery, arises a noble granite An American Hospital for Consumptives. And this brings me to a great work which has Just been started at Juneau within a few miles of Beirut. I refer to the tuberculosis hospital, which is being built there by the Church of the Covenant of Washing ton city, and which Is under the care of Dr. Mary Eddy, a young woman physician,' who has become famous for her work as a medical missionary through out the near east. Miss Eddy Is the daughter of the Rev. William W. Eddy, who came to Syria about sixty years ago and remained here until his dealh. She Is a woman of fine education and great medical skill, and moreover an expcit upon all matters connected with tuberculosis and Its treatment. She is the only woman who has exer been granted he-'wouldn't an Made or certificate of protection from the sultan nobleman and thorough Irish sportsman, passed up monument. Hie deed of another friend:, and the Missouri from St. Louis on the xaslly-executed Bridger knows, also, that he Is not forgotten." Jim authorizing her to practice as a dm tor everywhere throughout bis d( minion and directiny; that all good Turks shall give her assistance as she goes on her way. Miss Eddy has been working in S.x ri.i for years ami has been fighting the spread of consumption nH best she could with no place for her patients. The people have come and camped in tents near her bouse waititin treatment and the tents of the Bedouins may be Men dotting the plains near where the hospital now is It is only a year or so ao that Hie movement to erect this hospital began, and the liuildints are now ap proaching i ompl' t ion. Among the larrvsl fix ers to it haxe been Mis. John Hay. the wife of ihe late secre tary of state, and the late Mis. Gardiner Hubbard, the mother-iii-law of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. So fa' the contributions are not equal to the needs of the Institution, and much more money could be profitably used. I do not know any place where charitable con tributions will bring m a greater return. FRANK G. CARPENTER.