BEIRUT 



663 



BELFAST 



ing root without difficulty and producing vig- 

 orous new plants. 



BEGONIAS 



BEIRUT, or BEYROUT, ba' root, has sur- 

 passed all other cities in Asiatic Turkey in 

 commercial and industrial growth. It is the 

 capital of a province of the same name and the 

 chief seaport of Syria, and is located sixty 

 miles northwest of Damascus, at the base of 

 the mountains of Lebanon. The term briar 

 root, applied to pipes, is generally supposed to 

 be a corruption of Beirut, which at one time 

 exported great quantities of wood suitable for 

 pipe making. Its chief exports now are olive 

 oil, cereals, sesame, tobacco and wood; its 

 manufactures are silk and cotton, and articles 

 of gold and silver. In ancient times Beirut 

 was a large and important Phoenician city, 

 but for centuries the city was passed from 

 ruler to ruler until 1763, when the Turks took 

 possession. It was bombarded and taken by 

 the British in 1840, but was again restored to 

 Turkey. Population, 150,000. 



BELASCO, be las' ko, DAVID (1862- ), one 

 of the best-known American theatrical man- 

 agers of modern times, and a playwright of 

 some distinction. He was born in San Fran- 

 cisco, and in that city began his career as an 

 actor at the age of fourteen. Finding that he 

 had rather unusual talent in adapting plays 

 for the stage, he turned his attention to dra- 

 matic writing, and throughout a long period has 

 won success in three fields as a playwright, 

 theatrical manager and producer E. H. Soth- 

 ern, Blanche Bates, Mrs Leslie Carter and 

 David Warfield are among the famous people 



of the stage who have been under his manage- 

 ment, and the Republic and several Belasco 

 theaters of New York City are important play- 

 houses that passed into his control during a 

 period of less than a dozen years. 



The name of Belasco is especially associated 

 with stage realism, for it is his belief that a 

 stage setting should correspond in the smallest 

 details with the scene which is being repre- 

 sented, whether it be a restaurant, an opium 

 den, a second-hand dothing shop or a drawing 

 room. In the spring of 1915 he joined with 

 Charles Frohman in the production of an old 

 success, The Celebrated Case, several of the 

 best players of the world being engaged for 

 the revival of this play. Plans for future 

 productions of a similar strong character were 

 interrupted by the death of Mr. Frohman on 

 the Lusitania, the great ship that was torpedoed 

 and destroyed by a German submarine in the 

 War of the Nations, in June, 1915. Among 

 the successful plays written by Belasco are 

 The Girl I Left Behind Me (with Franklin 

 Fyles), The Heart of Maryland, Zaza, Naughty 

 Anthony and The Girl of the Golden West. 

 The latter was one of his most successful 

 efforts. 



BELEM , ba leN ' , a name sometimes used 

 for Para, a city of Brazil, under which title it 

 is described in these volumes. 



BELFAST, IRELAND, the center of the linen 

 industries, is the capital of the province of 

 Ulster, on the borders of the counties of 

 Down and Antrim. It is the first city in Ire- 

 land in population, manufactures and trade, 

 because it is advantageously situated on Belfast 

 Lough where the River Layan flows into the 

 lake. It is 113 miles north of Dublin, with 

 a harbor which is one of the best in the 

 United Kingdom. Although there are some 

 unsightly slums, the city is for the most part 

 well laid out. The town hall is a notable 

 building, erected in 1906 at a cost of $1,500,000. 

 The ship-building industry is steadily increas- 

 ing in importance, and the city has manufac- 

 tures of machinery, distilleries, flour mills, tan 

 yards, chemical works and more power looms 

 and spinning mills than are contained in all the 

 rest of Ireland. The linen made in Belfast has 

 been a superior article for many years. 



Belfast has been the center of resistance to 

 Home Rule for Ireland, and clashes between 

 political and religious factions have caused fre- 

 quent riots, sometimes resulting in bloodshed. 

 Population in 1911, 386,947. See LINEN; HOME 

 RULE. 



