A Noble Face Passes from View (Obituary of Chevalier Basil Yafeth)

Lebanon has received news of the death of the peerless self-made man, the great industrialist, a man of nobility and generous deeds, a model of honesty and rectitude, a man of benefactions and noble works — the lamented, the late Chevalier Basil Yafeth.

He was one of the branches of the noble Yafeth tree, which carried itself from the heights of this proud mountain — from Shweir — to Brazil, where it grew and rose and flourished and bore fruit, its boughs hanging low, laden with the fragrant harvest and the dewy perfume.

He was the dean of the Lebanese colony which, for all its high standing in Brazilian society and in the fields of its activity, appreciated the worth of his talents and his character and the greatness of his spirit and his heart, and so chose him as its dean — foremost in pursuit of the highest aims, bold on the paths of chivalry and honor.

The Lebanese Women's League, bound to the deceased and to his noble family by ties of loyalty and gratitude, comes forward to his virtuous widow — who, with her keen intelligence, her penetrating judgment, and her exemplary personality, shared with him in building his glory, his fame, and his success — to share in her grief and sorrow, and offers to her, to his two daughters, and to all the Yafeth family in the Mahjar, in the homeland, and under every sky, its heartfelt condolences. May God inspire them all with the beauty of patience, and may He grant them, and the homeland, fair recompense in this noble company of the family's men, its youth, and its grandchildren.

May God have mercy on the dear departed and grant him rest in the expanse of His paradise.