EMIGRATION
The period of my life in Syria has witnessed the rapid development of
emigration. In former days there was very little travel among the
people, the marriage of a girl to a man in a neighboring village being a
notable and rather rare occurrence. It was no unusual thing for a person
to spend his whole life without ever going so much as ten miles from his
birthplace. I was entertained for supper one night at the home of a
wealthy Moslem in Homs. The old father of our host was present and I
entered into conversation with him as to the experiences of his long
life. He told me that he had taken four wives, as permitted by Moslem
law. He had twenty sons who had all grown up and married in Homs. He
said that his grandsons numbered about a hundred, all of whom he knew
by face, though he might not be able to fit the right name to each, at
first sight. Knowing him to be quite wealthy, I asked whether he had
traveled much. My first question was whether he had been to the
seashore, some sixty-five miles away at Tripoli. He had never seen the
sea. "Have you been to Damascus?" This would appeal more to a devout
Moslem, since the sea is always associated more or less with the unholy
foreigners of Christian faith, while Damascus is an ancient seat of
Moslem power and glory. "No, I have never seen Damascus," was his
answer. "Well, surely you have been to Hamath?" This is only thirty
miles distant. "No," he said, "I never went to Hamath." "Have you passed
your whole life right here in Homs?" "Once," he said, "I made a journey
out among the Arabs of the desert, to buy sheep." That was the extent of
traveling by an intelligent, well-to-do Moslem of the old school.
Some thirty or forty years ago a change began among the people and a
few enterprising men sought more favorable opportunities for making a
living in foreign lands. Many of them were successful and encouraged
others to follow them, until now the most profitable business of the
steamships calling at Syrian ports is the carrying of emigrants back and
forth. The weekly exit is numbered by the hundreds, and large numbers
also return from time to time. Few of those who return to Syria remain
for any length of time, for, having once tasted the liberty and
experienced the opportunities of life in western lands, they are no
longer content to fall back into the old, slow, unprofitable methods of
the Orient. A notable change has also come over the character of the
emigration in another respect. At first it was only the more
enterprising, vigorous young men who went abroad to seek their fortunes.
Now whole families go together. Women and girls emigrate as freely as
men. At first it was only Christians who sought to improve their
condition in Christian lands; now Moslems and Nusairiyeh go as freely as
do the Christians.
At first this emigration was a blind flight from poverty and oppressive
conditions at home, with little understanding of the places to which the
emigrants were going. They placed themselves literally in the hands of
the steamship agents in Marseilles. Taking passage from Syria to
Marseilles, they were shipped on from there in bunches, according to the
advantage of the agent into whose hands they fell. They might be sent to
Argentine, while the friends to whom they were going were in
Massachusetts. They might be sent to Sierra Leone or to Capetown, but it
was all America in their minds. The simple idea of geography in those
days seemed to divide the world into two parts, Syria and America. The
common people know far better now, for they discuss intelligently the
conditions of life and business in the various parts of the world.
Syrians are to be found in every one of the United States, from Maine to
Florida, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They are in Alaska, the
Sandwich Islands and the Philippines. They are in every country of
Central and South America, in the West Indies and in all parts of
Africa. In many places they have bought property and made permanent
business arrangements.
In the early years there were many indications of their lack of
experience in money matters and general business methods. One man in
Brazil had accumulated quite a sum of money and wished to return home.
He did not understand the simplicity of taking a draft on London from
the bank, and was averse to parting with good gold for a mere slip of
paper. He changed all his money into English sovereigns and put the
whole nine hundred into a belt, which he secured around his body under
his clothes. He did not dare remove his treasure day or night during the
weeks of journey, enduring the weight and pressure until he reached
home. He was then taken sick and nearly lost his life from kidney
trouble induced by this folly.
Another young man in Mexico started home by way of New York. He knew
that English and French gold are current in Syria, and was sure that
American gold was every bit as good. So he exchanged his money for
American gold coin. It came to my attention through a man who came to me
with a twenty-dollar gold piece, and asked what it was worth. When I
told him its real value, he showed such surprise as to arouse my
curiosity. It appeared that this coin, with one like it, had been given
as betrothal token for his daughter. Subsequently the engagement was
broken by the young man and so, in accordance with oriental custom, the
token was forfeited. The father, wishing to realize on the coin, took it
to a local goldsmith who pretended to examine it carefully and then
offered three dollars for it. The father was disappointed at this
appraisal and indignant that his daughter should have been rated so low.
The reaction, when he found the coin to be worth nearly seven times as
much as he had been informed, was almost too much for him.
One matter connected incidentally with the emigration has been the call
for assistance in handling money for those abroad. In the earlier years
there were no adequate banking facilities outside of Beirut and so the
people began to send back money to their families through the hands of
friends who were merchants living in the various seaport towns. In
several cases unscrupulous men took advantage of the general ignorance
in money matters to secure abnormal profits to themselves, and in more
than one instance, through fraudulent bankruptcy, cheated the people out
of hundreds of pounds. Those who were in any way connected with the
American missionaries began sending their money to us, and at last we
were obliged to conduct quite an extensive banking business. In some
years drafts for several thousand pounds would come to me in sums
ranging from two or three pounds to several hundred at a time. These
were to be paid out to various relatives or to be held on deposit until
the owners' return. On one occasion I opened a registered letter from
Brazil and found in it a draft on London for ten pounds. On reading the
letter I found it to be written by a man I did not know, in behalf of
another stranger, and that the money was to be paid to an entire
stranger in a village I had never seen. It was enough for the sender to
know that his money was in the hands of an American missionary.
On one occasion a returned emigrant came to my associate with a kerchief
full of silver and gold coins. He asked the privilege of depositing this
with the mission until he needed it. As it was evidently a considerable
sum, he was advised to put it in the bank so as to secure some
interest, but he preferred to feel sure that his money was safe, even
though it earned nothing. Neither did he see any necessity of waiting
until the money should be counted and a regular entry made of it in the
books. It was enough that the missionary had charge of it. This open
account remained with us a number of years and sometimes amounted to two
thousand dollars.
A man sent me from Venezuela a draft for a hundred pounds, charging me
to let no one know of it, but to hold the money until he should come.
After a long interval I learned that his wife was thinking of going to
join him, since no word had been received. I succeeded in dissuading
her, as I knew he was planning to come home and they might miss each
other in mid-ocean. The return was delayed, and before he arrived his
funds in my hands amounted to six or seven hundred pounds.
The volume of emigration is growing every year and is taking away the
strength of the land, but better banking facilities have relieved us of
the financial cares formerly carried. The director of the Ottoman Bank
in Tripoli estimates the annual amount of money passing through this one
port in drafts from Syrians abroad as not less than seven hundred
thousand pounds sterling.