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Daniel Bliss in His Seventieth Year. 
 
The Reminiscences of 
 Daniel Bliss 
 
 Edited and Supplemented by 
 His Eldest Son 
 
 iUUSIRATSa 
 
 New York Chicago 
 
 Fleming H. Re veil Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
'f':''" Copyright, 1920, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
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 New York: i$8 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago': 17 North Wabash Ave. 
 London : ai Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh : 75 Princes Street 
 
Dedicated to 
 ALL HIS STUDENTS 
 
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Illustrations 
 
 Facingpage 
 
 Daniel Bliss in His Seventieth Year . . . Title 
 
 President Bliss and President Washburn . . 60 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Bliss . . ... 80 
 
 The Young Missionary 130 
 
 Marquand House: The President's Residence . 188 
 
 Statue Presented to the College by Graduates and 
 
 Former Students in Egypt and the Sudan . . 220 
 
 President Howard Sweetser Bliss .... 230 
 
 At the College Gate . < \ . . . . 240 
 
 The Ninetieth Birthday : Dr. Bliss with His Grcat- 
 
 Grandchildren . • • ^ . . 252 
 
I 
 
 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 UNITY is the distinctive mark of the life- 
 work of Daniel Bliss. He was born on 
 August 17, 1823, and lived to within a few 
 days of his ninety-third birthday, passing peace- 
 fully away, not in any illness, but because his time 
 had come, on July 27, 1916, at his home in Beirftt, 
 Syria. Six weeks before his translation, his was 
 the prominent figure at the Commencement Exer- 
 cises of the Syrian Protestant College, held at the 
 close of its fiftieth year. 
 
 This institution had controlled his thoughts for 
 sixty years. This one thing he did. First there 
 was a period of six years, covering his early mis- 
 sionary life in Syria, a period when the idea of the 
 College was slowly germinating. Then followed 
 four strenuous years of direct planning and of the 
 collection of funds, years spent in the United States 
 and in England. Then for thirty-six years he was 
 active President, watching the number of students 
 increase from less than a score to many hundreds. 
 
 Then for fourteen years he was the President- 
 Emeritus, still keen in his interest, invaluable in 
 counsel, constant in attendance at University exer- 
 cises, a benediction of peace and of strength, felt by 
 
 11 
 
12 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 all — ^teachers, students, visitors — as they saw him, 
 with his tall erect figure and wonderful white hair, 
 on his daily walks over the extensive campus; paus- 
 ing often to look with simple enjoyment at the land 
 he had bought, at the buildings he had erected, at 
 the trees he had planted — or to gaze over the blue 
 expanse of the Mediterranean, at the long line of 
 the stately Lebanon Mountains, among which the 
 idea of the College had first come to birth. 
 
 To those unacquainted with his qualities of mind 
 and will, the early years of Daniel Bliss might 
 appear to be out of harmony with his life-work. 
 But to those who know his character the idea of 
 unity as the key-note of his whole life is not dis- 
 turbed by the story of his youth and early man- 
 hood. Indeed we may trace the way in which he 
 moulded the adverse influences of these periods 
 into a quite direct, if quite unconscious, prepara- 
 tion for the unique work which an unforeseen fu- 
 ture had for him to do. Obliged to earn his living 
 when but a boy, he laid the foundations for a 
 sympathetic understanding of the problems of stu- 
 dents who were to come to him from many a 
 humble home; brought into contact with all sorts 
 of men in business relations, he stored up a varied 
 knowledge of human nature which was later to 
 serve him so well as a practical man of affairs. 
 
 Entering college at the age of twenty-five, he 
 turned handicap into advantage, bringing to his 
 belated studies a seriousness of purpose, a matur- 
 ity of judgment, that extracted from these their 
 
I' 
 
 EDITOE'S INTEODTJCTION 13 
 
 maximum value; having long lacked the oppor- 
 tunities of aesthetic culture, he welcomed their ap- 
 proach with a freshness, an ardour, an appreciation 
 that was to last him all his life; often deprived 
 by the force of circumstances of the "means of 
 Grace," as administered according to any one set 
 rule or formula — ^when religion finally grasped 
 him, he was ready for a view of religion that was 
 singularly fundamental and simple, enabling him 
 in future years to presciut the essence of true re- 
 ligion to the followers of many and diverse faiths 
 and creeds. 
 
 The story of these early years is told in his own 
 words. It was a happy moment when, in the com- 
 parative leisure that followed his retirement from 
 the active Presidency, Mrs. Bliss persuaded her 
 husband to write his reminiscences for his children, 
 grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The early 
 reminiscences they now share almost in 'full with 
 the larger circle of his friends. A preliminary 
 word, however, about his ancestry may be in place. 
 
 In " The Bliss Book," Mr. C. A. Hoppin, a Bliss 
 on his mother's side and one learned in genealogy, 
 points out that the name Bliss is of purely Saxon 
 origin, and that it marks the first possessor as a 
 man in humble circumstances but of a happy dispo- 
 sition. Surnames, he reminds us, were introduced 
 into England by the Normans and were adopted by 
 the common people about the middle of the twelfth 
 century. As in Syria to-day, a surname was sug- 
 gested by the name of the property owned by a 
 
14 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 given individual, by his trade, by Ms father's trade, 
 or by his dwelling-place. When a man had nothing 
 particular to distinguish him, he was apt to receive a 
 nickname, which might stick to the family as a sur- 
 name. Thus, according to the ingenious Mr. Hop- 
 pin, the " first Bliss " owned no land, was skilled in 
 no trade, but was notoriously cheerful. Whatever 
 may have been the condition of this unknown ances- 
 tor, the choice of the name Bliss proved to be fortu- 
 nate for the possessor thereof who came to Syria in 
 1856. In Arabic the word for " Father of Lies," 
 Iblis, is strongly accented on the last syllable. 
 Accordingly, when a Moslem neighbour asked the 
 new Missionary for his name, he was deeply shocked 
 at the word that struck his ear. " Iblis? Iblis? " 
 he said, " That cannot be ! What is themeaning 
 of the word in your own language?" "Happi- 
 ness," said Mr. Bliss. "Ah ! " answered the much 
 relieved Moslem, "then I will call you Khowaja 
 Farah " — ^the Arabic word for Joy. 
 
 Mr. Hoppin, whose speculations as to this first 
 mythical though surely once existent Bliss we have 
 noticed, finds the first actual mention of the name 
 in the " Hundred Rolls " of 1272 and 1273, which 
 recorded the results of a sweeping inquiry made by 
 Edward III into the condition of Land Tenure in 
 England. Two men of the name of John Bliss are 
 mentioned — ^both in humble circumstances. One 
 lived in Tyringham, Buckinghamshire, and it is he 
 who is most plausibly regarded by Mr. Hoppin as 
 the veritable Patriarch of the American line. How- 
 
EDITOE'S DJTEODUCTION 15 
 
 ever likely tMs may be, there is no documentary 
 evidence in the subsequent Parish Becords, which 
 do not begin to furnish an absolutely unbroken 
 chain of ancestry for the American Blisses tiU ,the 
 appearance of the names of the Master-Blacksmith 
 of Daventry, Northamptonshire, William Blisse by 
 name, whose will was proved in 1574, when Shake- 
 speare was ten years old. Three grandchildren of 
 this William Blisse, — ^two brothers, Thomas and 
 Creorge, and their cousin, also called Thomas — 
 Blacksmiths all — emigrated from Northampton- 
 shire to America about the year 1638, and there 
 founded the different branches which produced the 
 thousands of Blisses found in the United States. 
 
 Prom Thomas Bliss, brother of the George afore- 
 said, and from his wife Margaret, through a line of 
 five intermediate Blisses, was descended the subject 
 of this biography. Thomas died in Hartford, Con- 
 necticut, about the year 1650, and his wife at 
 Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1684. From the fact 
 that there are no parochial baptismal records for 
 their children, born in England, Mr. Hoppin infers 
 that their parents were Puritans who had suffered 
 excommunication for their principles. The direct 
 line of Daniel Bliss was long-lived : the average age 
 for the five generations, terminating with himself, 
 is over seventy-five years. The line was also fruit- 
 ful: Daniel Bliss was one of nine children; his 
 father Loomis was one of seventeen; his great- 
 grandfather was one of thirteen; Samuel, son of 
 Thomas and Margaret, was one of eleven. 
 
16 DAJSriBL BLISS 
 
 But it is time to give place to Daniel Bliss' own 
 story of his early years, -written at his home in 
 Beirut, in his eighty-second year. It is indeed a 
 story based on " reminiscences," for, as far as his 
 editor is aware, he kept no journal during these 
 early days. Many of the anecdotes recall to the 
 minds of his children the long, happy evenings, 
 when we heard them from his own lips, as we sat 
 before the Winter fireside in our home by the 
 Syrian sea, 
 
n 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 
 
 I WAS born on the seventeenth of August, 1823, 
 in Georgia, Vermont. My father, Loomis 
 Bliss, was born July 15, 1773, in Western 
 (now Warren), Massachusetts, My mother was 
 Susanna Farwell ; her mother was a Grout, a rela- 
 tive of Mrs. Grout, who was carried off by the 
 Indians in the early history of the Colonies. My 
 father was one of the seventeen children of my 
 grandfather. When an infant, my life was de- 
 spaired of on account of some skin disease. It is 
 said that my mother's hopes revived when old Doc- 
 tor Blair remarked, "A child who can yeU and kick 
 like that will not die yet." Very likely the yells 
 and kicks helped on my recovery quite as much as 
 Doctor Blair's pills — a sort of "mind cure," for 
 no kind of skin trouble has appeared on my body 
 for these eighty-two years. 
 
 When I was a child in arms, my father moved 
 from Georgia to Cambridge, Vermont, and bought 
 a farm of meadow, pasture and wood-lands. My 
 memory goes no farther back than to the sheep, 
 cows, horses, pigs, hens, geese, turkeys, partridges, 
 squirrels, woodchucks and skunks. The most 
 vivid " scenes of my childhood " are the cold spring 
 
 17 
 
18 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 near the tall balsam tree; the gathering of beech- 
 nuts and butternuts in the autumn; checkerberries, 
 blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, 
 in their season. The washing of sheep in the river; 
 before shearing-time can never be forgotten, when 
 the boys from seven to ten years old are allowed to 
 go down into the water waist-deep and wash the 
 lambs. There was great fun also at shearing-time, 
 when we caught the lambs and brought them to 
 have their tails cut off, and their ears marked. Our 
 mark was one hole punched and one notch cut out 
 to distinguish them from Mr. Sears' sheep, which 
 had only one hole punched, and from Mr. Perry's 
 sheep, which had only one notch. The one hole 
 and the one notch in our sheep were on the right 
 ear to distinguish them from Mr, Gilmore's sheep, 
 which had one hole and one notch on the left ear. 
 All owners had their peculiar marks recorded in 
 the town records. When the shearing was over, the 
 wool — each fleece, folded by itself — ^was sent to be 
 carded, and it was soon sent back in the form of 
 white rolls, about as large as your finger and about 
 eighteen inches long. Then commenced the spin- 
 ning and the weaving for the clothing of the coming 
 winter. There were no spinning Jennys then, but 
 spinning Girls. I seem now to see tall, slim, blue- 
 eyed Ann Ober (I was then seven or eight) stepping 
 backward, giving the wheel a turn while she drew 
 out from the roll a portion to be twisted, as the 
 spindle revolved, into a, thread for the warp and 
 the woof of the cloth to be. When the thread was 
 
CHILDHOOD AHD YOUTH 19 
 
 five or six feet long, giving the thread a reverse 
 tarn, she would retrace her steps forward with song 
 and laughter, and wind the thread on the spindle; 
 and then step backwards to repeat the process — 
 cheerful and happy. 
 
 She would thus work, days, weeks and months. 
 The threads were wound from the spindly when 
 full, on to the " swifts " into skeins, and from the 
 skeins upon spools, and from the spools upon the 
 " beam " ; each thread (one by one to its own place) 
 was drawn through a harness and a reed, three or 
 four feet long, looking very much like a great double 
 back-comb, and so on till the warp was formed. 
 Other skeins were wound from the skeins onto small 
 spools, called quills; these were placed in a shuttle 
 to shoot the threads of the woof between those of 
 the warp, and then each thread was brought to its 
 place by a sudden jerk of the frame that held the 
 reed; and thus the woof was formed by repeated 
 ("shoots and jerks." The great inventors have 
 made thousands of adjustments in the manufacture 
 of cloth, but they are all " cunning " applications 
 of the principles that are older than historical 
 times. 
 
 When the weaving was finished, the hired girl 
 (no servants then) went home. The flannel cloth 
 was then in part made into shirts for the boys, un- 
 der-garments for Mother and the girls ; and the rest 
 of the cloth was sent to the fuller's to be thickened, 
 coloured, and pressed; and prepared for making 
 coats, vests, breeches, trousers — called "trouses," 
 
20 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 no piantaloons then. When the cloth came from the 
 fuller's and dyer's, — ^black, brown, blue, butternut 
 or some other colour — then some one who could 
 both " cut out " and sew came to the house and the 
 whole family, from the youngest to the oldest, would 
 be fitted out with warm, home-spun winter cloth- 
 ing. The finest web of cloth, from the fiaiest wool, 
 was coloured blue and from it Mother's dress was 
 made — there was never another dress so beautiful. 
 Ann Ober spun the wool, but there was another 
 wheel of different shape and size for spinning flax. 
 There was no stepping backwards and forwards but 
 a dignified sitting posture with a foot on the treadle. 
 I never saw a hired girl at this wheel, but only 
 Mother with her white ruffled cap, like the women of 
 the olden time. ^' She layeth her hand to the 
 spindle,, and her hands hold the distaff. She mak- 
 eth fine linen. She worketh willingly with her own 
 hands." The cloth made from the flax, some 
 coarser, some finer, was made into bags for holding 
 grain, into sheets, table-cloths, napkins, summer 
 shirts, vests, trousers, etc., under the direction of 
 Mother. 
 
 Also the skins of the animals raised on the farm, 
 when they came back from the tanners, were made 
 into boots, shoes and slippers, in the house. There 
 were shoe shops in the villages, and the owners 
 were called shoemakers. Their hired men were 
 journeymen shoemakers, but the man who went from 
 house to house was called " whipcat," and his occu- 
 pation in going from house to house was " whipping 
 
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 21 
 
 the cat." The proprietor, the journeyman and the 
 "whipcat" belonged to different grades ia the social 
 life. The daughter of the proprietor would hardly 
 accept the attentions of the "whipcat," — she pos- 
 sibly might those of the journeyman. Why the 
 shoemaker going from house to house making and 
 cobbling shoes was called " whipcat," I have never 
 heard; but so he was called, and is now, in many 
 places. 
 
 There were other preparations for the winter 
 which I weU remember : the diggiag and storing of 
 potatoes, the picking and sorting of apples, the 
 making of cider, the killing of pigs and the cow or 
 ox, the salting of pork and beef, the making of^ 
 sausages, the stuffing of the skins with the prepared 
 meat, the cutting off of the sparerib to be used on 
 occasions. The fare was homely: meat and pota- 
 toes; a boiled (biled) dinner of corned beef, pota- 
 toes, turnips, cabbage, beets, and Indian bread; 
 apple-sauce made of apples dried in quarters with 
 boiled cider; bean porridge, — ^not bean soup, but 
 bean poiTidge ; eggs new-laid by chickens, turkeys, 
 geese — ^boiled, baked, fried or roasted; milk, butter 
 and cheese ; and there were healthy stomachs to re- 
 ceive them. That sparerib — ^what eating! Not 
 boiled, not baked, not fried, — ^no pot, no kettle, no 
 ovens needed, — ^but the sparerib is hung up before 
 the great log fire with a dripping pan beneath the 
 rib, and the rib is turned round and round until 
 every part is evenly and thoroughly cooked. Then 
 there were the sweet "johnny cake," thick and 
 
22 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 light, the raised sweet doughnuts, not raised with 
 saleratus, soda, baking-powder, or any other doubt- 
 ful device, but by good honest yeast — the true 
 leaven of old Jewish days ; and there was — ^not the 
 pancake, the griddle-cake — ^but the flapjack, or, 
 better still, the slapjack, buttered and sweetened 
 with honest maple sugar or molasses; then there 
 were potatoes and milk, hasty-pudding and milk, 
 bread and milk with strawberries, bread and milk 
 with raspberries or blackberries, milk from our own 
 cows, bread from our own corn, potatoes from our 
 own field, berries from our own meadow and fields, 
 and sugar from our own maple trees. 
 
 I was never stunted by child labour. Till I was 
 ten years old and more, my work was riding the 
 horse to plough the corn, bringing water from the 
 cold spring, carrying wood to the kitchen, picking 
 up chips, hunting hens' nests. There was plenty 
 of time to play: to chase sheep and to hunt 
 squirrels without a gun but with our old dog 
 Sounder. That old dog Sounder appears before 
 my mind now, tall, black, heavy of limb and slow 
 of movement, for his youthful days were passed. 
 He no longer readily responded to the shout of the 
 boys when they ran to shake oflf the squirrels from 
 the butternut tree for him to catch. I have reason 
 to remember his lack of enthusiasm for the hunt, 
 for in an attempt to rouse him I lost a bone from 
 my left big toe. It seems hardly fair to bring a 
 charge against old Sounder after seventy-three or 
 seventy-four years. He was not the cause but only 
 
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 23 
 
 the occasion of my having one bone less in my body 
 than other men. 
 
 It was this way it happened. We boys, at school 
 one day, ran a woodchuck into its hole under a wall. 
 We stopped up the hole, and I was requested by the 
 other boys to bring " old Sounder " the next day to 
 catch the woodchuck, when we should dig him out 
 of his den. Early in the morning I sought for old 
 Sounder," and found him sound asleep round the 
 corner of the house, basking in the morning sun, 
 lazy as any old dog might be. My brother, old 
 enough to be my father, was hanging a scythe — ^that 
 is, adjusting it to its handle, called a snath. The 
 sharp steel blade extended three feet, more or less, 
 at right angles to the snath. Being ready for 
 school, I ran round the corner of the house, shout- 
 ing " Sounder, Sounder," as was our custom when- 
 ever we found a squirrel in a butternut or an apple 
 tree. Sounder roused himself from sleep and fol- 
 lowed, as, running, I shouted at the top of my voice. 
 Good for the woodchuck but bad for me, the scythe 
 lay in the path to the gate. No time to go round, 
 I leaped over the scythe, my heart bounding on 
 seeing Sounder following, when my brother shouted 
 "Dan, you have cut yourself." I stopped sud- 
 denly, looked down, and saw sure enough the ][)lood 
 was flowing, and a small bone from the big toe of 
 my left foot was hanging down, held by a small 
 fibre of flesh, which some one from the house with 
 a pair of shears cut off, while I yelled, — ^but not to 
 Sounder. 
 
24 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 My grandchildren and great-grandchildren may 
 wonder why my shoe did not protect the toe. 
 Shoes ! Boys and girls from ten to fifteen in those 
 days in the country and on the farm enjoyed the 
 luxury, all summer long, of going barefoot — a 
 luxury which every boy and girl longs for, from the 
 heir-apparent in the King's Palace down to the 
 child in the meanest mud hut of the low-grade 
 Hottentot. At the time of this occurrence I was 
 between eight and nine years old. I must have 
 been more or less taught in the facts of the Bible, 
 judging from the train of thoughts following the 
 loss of the bone. That train of thought was so 
 impressed upon my mind that time and again it has 
 recurred to me during my long life; and it was 
 many long years before it ceased to be a great per- 
 plexity. The question was how this lost bone left 
 in Vermont could be raised with the rest of my 
 body, which might be buried far out West (my 
 father was then talking of moving to Ohio) . I put 
 the question to Father ; he, like a wise man, said it 
 was a great mystery, but that God was able to raise 
 the dead. My difficulty remained. It was not a 
 question of Gk)d's power, for no child ever doubted 
 His omnipotence. I could not see how it was to be 
 accomplished. I seemed to see this bone, cut from 
 the toe, with a multitude of the lost bones of man- 
 kind, flying through the air, rising, falling, crossing 
 ea,ch other, going east, west, north and south, each 
 seeking its own body from which it had been 
 separated, — ^by the scythe or the surgeon's knife. 
 
CHILDHOOD Aim YOUTH 25 
 
 If not then, later on, questions of the Resurrection 
 recurred to perplex the mind- Did the cripple's 
 body, the bow-legged, the hunch-backed, the blind, 
 the deaf, the cross-eyed, the emaciated body of the 
 old man — rise? 
 
 Twenty years after, more or less, while reading 
 a passage in Paul's letter to the Ck>rinthians, it oc- 
 curred to me that he had been asked a multitude of 
 questions of seeming perplexity, founded upon a 
 false assumption. Paul, without maitioning these 
 questions in detail, includes them all in the literary- 
 phrase, " Some men will say, how are the dead 
 raised up and with what body do they come?" 
 Then he burst out almost with impatience, saying, 
 " Thou fool ! these questions and objections are all 
 founded upon the supposition that the x)articles of 
 matter forming the body of flesh and blood are 
 raised in the Resurrection." Not so. The i)ar- 
 ticles of matter forming organized body, whether 
 wheat, grain, animal or fish, bird or man, are in 
 continual flux, — ^appearing now in one form, now 
 in another; — ^to-day in the grass of the fidd, to- 
 mtorrow in the ox, the next day in man, and then in 
 the worm, in an endless round of activity. 
 
 "Where is the dust that has not been alive? 
 The Sfpade and plough distarb our Ancestors, 
 Prom human mould we reap our dafly bread: 
 The moist of hmnan frame the son exhales ; 
 Winds scatter through the mighty void the dry. 
 Earth re-possesses part of what she gives." 
 
26 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 As your soul, spirit, life, your immortal part, 
 call it what you will ; — as your soul, drew to itself, 
 clothed itself with a mortal body from particles of 
 earthly mould, so your soul will clothe itself with a 
 spiritual body, as truly yours and more truly yours 
 than this body of flesh and blood which cannot 
 enter the kingdom of God. " Thou sowest not the 
 body that shall be, but God giveth a new body," 
 " and to every seed his own body." Since study- 
 ing Paul I have never, except ia memory, seen bones 
 flying in space ia search of the old body. 
 
 My mother died when I was nine years and eight 
 days old, yet I well remember sitting on a stool by 
 her side, reading my daily chapter from the Bible. 
 I had diflculty from day to day in finding the place 
 where I had left off ; somehow the mark got out of 
 its place. Mother said to me : " I can tell you how 
 you can always find your place. Remember the 
 chapter and the verse and you will not need any 
 mark." I was delighted, but the Old Adam in me 
 said, " Do not tell Reuben, Mother." (Reuben was 
 my brother, three years older.) "With a look of 
 sweet sadness she repeated : " Whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do unto you," etc., and then fol- 
 lowed loving remarks, full of the spirit of Christ, 
 the words of which have long since faded away, but 
 whose injfluence can never be lost. 
 
 I do not remember farther back than the time of 
 my sister Ann's birth, when I was four years old. 
 When six or seven I had the whooping-cough, and 
 was very ill. Mother, sitting by the cradle and 
 
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 27 
 
 thinking I was asleep, said to some one : " He is a 
 nice little feUov, I shall be so sad to lose liim." 
 She used to call me " My little trout," because I 
 was long, slim, and lively, like the brook-trout. 
 Few indeed are the sayings that remaia in my 
 memory. My aunts, Mother's sisters, said that she 
 was a most loving mother. I remember the last 
 time she went to church. It was communion day. 
 A Mrs. Parker fanned her as she sat in the pew for 
 the last time. Soon after this communion, Mother 
 passed away, sitting in her rocking-chair. I have 
 never since heard the song " My Old Armchair " 
 without seeming to see Mother drawing her last 
 breath in the old rocking-chair. She was only 
 fdrty-two when she died. 
 
 ' After Mother's death, my half-sister Eliza kept 
 house for us during a year or more. Soon the 
 family began to break up. EUza went to Ohio to 
 teach school. The older boys left home. Father 
 changed farms and moved to Jericho, Vermont. 
 Father and we younger boys constituted the family. 
 Finally Father and I were left alone in the house. 
 Once he had to be absent for three or four weeks, 
 and not wishing to leave me alone, dismissed the 
 housekeeper and arranged with a good neighbour 
 across the way to care for me during his absence. 
 Everything went on smoothly for one or two days, 
 but then Chauncy Skinner, son and heir, took on 
 airs, and treated me apparently as a "poor rela- 
 tion " or as an outcast; whereupon I announced to 
 Mr. and Mrs. Skinner that I should return to our 
 
28 DAIHEL BLISS 
 
 house across the way. They protested, but I wenB 
 and slept all alone in the rather big house. We had 
 a cow and hens, flour and meal; so I lived on eggs, 
 milk and johnny cake of my own make. It was the 
 time of berries, red raspberries, black raspberries 
 and strawberries. Well do I remember filling a 
 pail full of the finest strawberries to be found, re- 
 jecting every imperfect berry, placing on the top of 
 the pail a handful of long stems covered with ber- 
 ries and taking them over to the village, a mile 
 away from the farm. 
 
 The first house I stopped at was the village doc- 
 tor's. The doctor's wife came to the door; she 
 seemed to me then the most beautiful woman I had 
 ever seen. She gave me a joyful greeting as if I 
 had been her lost son. She did not know me but she 
 knew that meadow strawberries were more luscious 
 than any cultivated by the devices of man. She 
 said that they were worth more than the straw- 
 berries found on the street. She bought them, or 
 rather she took them, and gave me more than the 
 market price. She added that there was " no other 
 boy that could find such berries," and that I must 
 always, as long as the season lasted, come to her. 
 So for six days a week I carried her berries, always 
 trying that every lot should be better than the previ- 
 ous one. I have often thought of that lady and of' 
 her most gracious manner, but know nothing of her 
 history, before or after. 
 
 It must have been in August, 1836 — I being 
 thirteen years old — ^when Father with his younger 
 
CHILDHOOD AND TOTJTH 29 
 
 children left Vennont for Ohio. There were no 
 railroads then. We went from Jericho to Bur- 
 lington in wagons, to (Whitehall by steamer, to 
 Buffalo by the Erie Canal, and then by steamer to 
 Fairport, Ohio. From Fairport we all went on 
 footj^ten or twelve miles, to Madison, where we soon 
 settled in the only frame house ia that part of the 
 town — all the others being made of logs. After my 
 eldest brother Solomon was married. Father 9,nd I 
 went to live with him on his farm in Leroy. 
 
 In those years I had a great desire for a higher 
 education. There was an academy at Austinburg 
 where boys could pay their way wholly or in part 
 by manual labour. A boy about my age was going 
 to that school, and I begged Solomon, Father and 
 the rest to allow me to go with him. No one 
 favoured my attempting such a wild undertaking. 
 I remember, although fourteen or fifteen years old, 
 I cried and wept like a baby when my way was 
 utterly blocked. I was so foolish as to wish that 
 I might lose an arm or a leg, or in some way be dis- 
 abled for manual labour, and then they would be 
 compelled to allow me to prepare myself for a 
 teacher in view of future support. The boy went 
 to Austinburg, and I fell into the routine of work, 
 play and village school, till I was sixteen. Then 
 came a change, and my sojourn from that day till 
 I had a home of my own — seventeen years after — 
 was among strangers. At the end of summer Solo- 
 mon said to me one evening that his wife was not 
 strong, the children were young, and that she 
 
"30^ DANIEL BLISS 
 
 wished to iSe relieved of extra carei and to be alone. 
 This preamble hardly prepared me for the shock his 
 following words gave me. In a most kind way he 
 suggested that I find a place for the winter where I 
 could do chores for my board and schooling. I 
 passed a most miserable night, realizing that I was 
 without money, without a home, and knowing that 
 there was no one in all our town that wanted a boy 
 to do chores. The next morning Solomon gave me 
 some work to do. I said, " No, I am going over to 
 the South Bidge — the great road leading from Erie 
 to Cleveland — ^to find a place." " So soon," said he. 
 The first home I called at was Mr. Axtell's tavern, 
 Mr. Axtell was a man of considerable wealth for 
 those times, owning the tavern and a large farm, 
 well stocked. The place seemed to me then as a 
 palace would now. Mr. and Mrs. Axtell, their three 
 grown-up sons, two daughters, servants inside the 
 house, and men about the stables were imposing. 
 Mr. Axtell, on hearing what I wanted, asked whether 
 I could milk cows and take care of cattle. Having 
 received a positive, aflrmative answer, he took me 
 into the sitting-room, where Mrs. Axtell and her 
 two daughters were. Then he said : " You are the 
 boy we want; come to-morrow if you are ready." 
 He added : " Your work will be to take care of thir- 
 teen cows; feed, water, and milk them, and bring 
 in the wood for the kitchen and parlour stoves." 
 Then I went to Painesville (five miles) and bought a 
 Kirkland's grammar, slate and pencil, and then re- 
 turned to Solomon's for my last night. 
 
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 81 
 
 The school wMcli I attended while worMng for 
 Mr. Axtell was a good one. I commenced gram- 
 mar in a class of young ladies and boy's, who, most 
 likely, had studied the same books, winter after 
 winter. They would rattle off the rules', and say 
 with almost the same breath : " It is an active, tran- 
 sitive verb; indicative mood, present tense, third 
 person singular, and agrees with so-and-so." At 
 first I hesitated at every description of a word, to 
 their great annoyance. But before spring in "pars- 
 ing " Milton or PoUock's " Course of Time," they 
 hesitated. The winter passed most happily. I 
 suppose that sometimes it was not easy to go 
 through the snow and cold in the early morning 
 from a quarter to a half mile to the barn where the 
 cows were — ^hard or easy I did it, and I did it weU. 
 The Axtells made me one of the family. I spent 
 my evenings in the sitting-room with the ladies, 
 studying my lessons and reading. The daughters 
 treated me as a very young brother, of whom they 
 were very fond. One day Squire Axtell was very 
 angry. He saw me carrying wood into the bar-room 
 and inquired: "Who told you to do this?" I re- 
 plied, "Emery." (His son.) He rushed into the 
 bar-room, and burst out into forcible language, say- 
 ing to his sons : " Daniel is my boy ; you must never 
 under any circumstances ask him to do anything." 
 
 School through, I bade good-bye to the Axtells 
 and went in the spring to live for a few months with 
 my brothers Zenas and Harlow, who had bought a 
 lot of wooded land and were chopping down the 
 
32 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 timber and preparing the land for cultivation. 
 This was in the spring of 1840, the year the coun- 
 try went wUd with boisterous enthusiasm over the 
 campaign, when W. H. Harrison was elected Presi- 
 dent of the United States of America. In clearing 
 the land, the tall white-oak trees — forty or fi^ty feet 
 without a limb — were felled, sawed in sections four 
 feet long, halved and quartered, and then rived 
 with mallet and frow into smaller pieces three- 
 quarters of an inch thick, and carted to Fairport 
 and shipped to be manufactured into staves for 
 hogsheads, barrels, casks, and other cooper work. 
 A part of my business was to drive the oxen that 
 hauled the wagon loaded with these rough staves. 
 During part of the summer I kept house for my 
 brothers, frying pork, ham and eggs ; boiling pota- 
 toes and vegetables; cooking chickens and wild 
 game. At one time I was set to ploughing in this 
 new ground, full of roots. Every few feet the 
 plough would be caught; the oxen would strain, 
 turn round and finally stop. I yelled and screamed 
 at them so that the next day I could hardly speak 
 from hoarseness. Then my brothers relieved me 
 from further work in this direction. The neigh- 
 bourhood was a bad one ; drunkenness and quarrel- 
 ing were common, and, as I learned afterwards, 
 immorality was prevalent. Was it cowardice — 
 moral, physical or both — ^which led me to hide in 
 the bushes behind the house from two fellows, older 
 than myself and twice as strong as I was, who had 
 asked me in the afternoon to join them in stealing 
 
CHILDHOOD AITD YOUTH 33 
 
 a beehive, declaring with horrid oaths that they 
 would Mil me if I refused. I did refuse. They 
 said : " Wait tiQ evening, and you wUl see." They 
 came to the house after dark and found me not. 
 They never after referred to the matter or to any- 
 thiug else of the kind. About this time a good 
 deacon living in an adjoining neighbourhood said to 
 me, " Daniel, I wish you to leave this place." I 
 was frightened lest some one had slandered me, and 
 said to the deacon, "Why, what have I done?" 
 He smiled and said, " Nothing. You are too good 
 a boy to live in such a place. That is all." Thir- 
 teen years afterwards the daughter of the good 
 deacon, about my age, recounted to me what her 
 father and uncle had said, how " Daniel Bliss had 
 escaped uncontaminated from the perils of those 
 former days." Soon after the deacon had ex- 
 pressed his anxiety for my well-being, there was a 
 "logging bee." The men of the place came with 
 their oxen to haul the logs together, and roll them 
 in heaps to be burned. It was a fine sight to see 
 ten or a dozen yokes of oxen putting forth their 
 strength in hauling those huge timbers, and to see 
 forty or fifty men with handspikes and skids, laugh- 
 ing and shouting, each gang vying with the others 
 in making the largest pile in the shortest time. It 
 was a fine sight in the beginning — ^the saddest I 
 ever saw at the ending. Strong drink, the curse 
 of. the world, flowed like water, and changed all 
 good feeling into hate, manly strength into brutal- 
 ity. Men cursed, quarreled and fought. When 
 
34 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 two brothers began to maul eacb other, I ran f roni 
 the field. In the evening, one of the brothers, mad 
 with drink, prowled with gun in hand about the 
 streets to shoot his brother. I had an inde^ribable 
 feeling of sadness mingled with shame that I should 
 be living in such a place. The sadness and shame 
 did not last long, for out of them, before I went to 
 bed, came a determined resolution to leave the 
 place, after seeing Father, who was then living with 
 Eliza. So the next morning I started off but in- 
 stead of going round the road to the bridge, six or 
 seven miles, I went direct through the woods, wad- 
 ing Grand River up to my waist, carrying on my 
 head what clothes I had. Father and Eliza ex- 
 claimed, "How providential that you have come 
 to-day ! " A crisis in my life was at hand and I 
 knew it not. Then Father told me that Mr. Curtiss, 
 part owner and chief manager of the tannery in 
 " Pains-holler," wanted an apprentice ; and that he 
 had, the day before, applied to him for ine. 
 Father added, "You must go." That settled the 
 matter. Father seldom gave positive commands, 
 but when he did he expected to be obeyed. On the 
 whole, I was glad to get back to the old neighbour- 
 hood where I had caught woodchucks, 'possums, 
 and squirrels in the woods, dace from the rapids of 
 the river, bullpouts and black bass from the deep 
 holes under the driftwood, and muskrats along its 
 banks. I remained with Eliza a few days, helped 
 her husband, Mr. Morse, cut and " shuck " his corn, 
 and then went to the tannery. I was to have my 
 
CHILDHOOD AJSD YOUTH 35 
 
 i 
 living, clothing, three niontlis' schooliag yearly, and 
 
 two suits of clothing at the end of four years. I 
 had hardly commenced work before Dr. Merri- 
 man — ^the leading doctor in two counties — asked 
 Father to let him have me to train, to teach, and to 
 make a doctor of. Most of the doctors then (there 
 at least) were trained in that way, and not a bad 
 way either. The offer was a most tempting one, 
 but there wa^ no thought of a change of plan. Our 
 word had been given to Mr. Curtiss, and was as 
 sacred as any indenture. I have often wondered 
 what my life would have been if Dr. Merriman had 
 spoken ten days before be did. It is a foolish won- 
 der ; for the past in any life may be full of " ifs "! 
 
 Mr. Curtiss was a man of sterling integrity, com- 
 mon sense, and of much, wisdom. Without muck 
 education he was fond of debate — especially on re- 
 ligious matters. They called him a Universalist, a 
 Free Thinker, an Infidel. At the close of his life 
 he joined the Methodist Church, but still contended 
 for the Spirit of the Bible, not the letter ; not for 
 the precepts and examples tbemselyes, but for the 
 principles underlying them. His Veproofs were 
 often severe but effective. Soon after going to him, 
 I made some remark about the Bible. He looked 
 up and said, "Have you ever read the Bible 
 through? " On being answered " No," he replied, 
 "Don't make a fool of yourself, then, by talking 
 about it." It was a small matter, but has been 
 useful to me many a time. One day several men 
 were in the shop discussing some weighty thing, 
 
36 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 and I expressed my opinion. When they left, he 
 came by my side and gently parted my hair. I 
 asked what was the matter. " Nothing," said he, 
 " I was only seeing if you had any gray hairs," — 
 thus reproving me for my forwardness. 
 
 He had naturally a refined taste, both in conduct 
 and in dress, and he clothed me in good style. He 
 was very kind, and allowed me often to use his 
 horse and buggy to drive to Painesville — ^ten miles — 
 to hear some famous preacher or lecturer. He 
 would caution me by saying, " Dan, don't drive 
 fast," and then when I started he would call after 
 me, " Dan, don't let any one pass you on the road; 
 keep up the reputation of the gray mare for speed." 
 He was fond of having me read from Pindar — not 
 the old Greek poet — ^but from John Wolcott, a 
 writer in the early part of the eighteenth century, 
 who signed himself " Peter Pindar." Wolcott was 
 a painter, clergyman, doctor and scurrilous poet in 
 turn. He had a broad humour, a keen eye for the 
 ridiculous, and a wonderful diction. His favourite 
 object of satire was George the Third. It is said 
 that he was offered a pension if he would desist 
 from his attacks on kings, bishops and great men. 
 Bible characters did not escape. 
 
 "Did not old Nathan tell King David 
 That buckish youth that he stole sheep," 
 
 and so on in language not to be repeated. He wrote 
 an Ode to the Devil, commiserating him because 
 
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH ' 37 
 
 mankind attributed to Mm all of tlieir own sins. 
 " They make a bridge of thy poor back anc^ damn it 
 wten they're over." The volume is full of wit, wis- 
 dom, satire and scurrility. I have never seen a copy 
 since. It is not found in many libraries. There 
 is too much in it on the wrong side of the border- 
 line of propriety. ' We had not many books — ^none, 
 I might almost say. I read the Bible through more 
 than once, and commenced to commit the New 
 Testament to memory. I am afraid that my object 
 was not of the highest kind; I was fond of contro- 
 versy, and wished to arm myself for the conflict. 
 About this time. Miller, the famous advocate of the 
 coming Millennium, issued a pamphlet on the im- 
 mediate coming of Christ. He set the time in 1843, 
 if my memory serves me aright. Many people ran 
 wild over the question. Some left all business. 
 Some became almost mad. These pamphlets and 
 papers, called " Zion," were circulated widely. A 
 pamphlet was handed me by a "believer." Ee- 
 membering what Curtiss said about expressing an 
 opinion on any subject of which one knows nothing, 
 I went to my room with papphlet and Bible, and 
 sat up till broad daylight, comparing Miller's state- 
 ment with a multitude of quotations from the Bible 
 Intended to establish them. It appeared to me that 
 most of the references were irrelevant, and that if 
 the Millennium was at hand. Miller had not proved 
 it in his pamphlet. 
 
 As I look back, I never opposed what I now be- 
 lieve to be true Christianity, and yet the neighbours 
 
38 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 regarded me almost, if not quite, as an infidel. Old 
 Father Abby often s^oke to me on the subject of re- 
 ligion with tears ia his eyes. One day he said to 
 me, " Dan, you are the most dangerous boy in town. 
 Your influence is very bad." I asked why, what 
 evil I had done. He replied, "None, that is the 
 trouble. If you were drunk half of the time, your 
 influence would not be so bad. You neither lie, 
 swear, drink or quarrel, and others point to you and 
 say, ' Dan Bliss is not a Christian, and yet what 
 a good boy he is.' " After I had been in the Theo- 
 logical Semitiary a year my brother took me to see 
 Mr. Abby. He received Eeuben with hearty greet- 
 ing, and me with respectful but cold courtesy. 
 Eeuben told him that I was to be a minister and a 
 missionary. The old man came forward, took my 
 hand, and with deep emotion said, " I am so glad. 
 Thank God! I was afraid of you. I knew that 
 you had been to college, had become a learned man, 
 and I was afraid that you had come here to des- 
 troy my faith." The sermons I heard in the days 
 of my apprenticeship did not affect me much ; most 
 of them were merely emotional exhortations and 
 doctrinal, — ^which elicited discussion. But now 
 and then some event or a casual remark made a last- 
 ing impression on my mind. There is one story in 
 particular which I relate now to my class in moral 
 philosopher, when discussing the duty of uncon- 
 scious influence. Every class asks, "What is un- 
 conscious influence? " In answer, I tell the story, 
 which in brief is this : Hawley was the village black- 
 
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 39 
 
 smitli, a very good and pious man. - One day 
 Colonel Pain, the most important man in tlie 
 county, came into the shop exclaiming: "Idiot, 
 fool, that Hawley is mad." Then he went on to say 
 that, coming along the road through the wood, the 
 snow knee deep, he heard a man's voice as if in dis- 
 tress. On looking about, he saw tracks leading out 
 into the thick bushes. He followed the tracks, 
 and "then," he said, "what do you think I saw? 
 That fool, Hawley, praying." Others in the shop 
 shouted. I was deeply impressed by Hawley's de- 
 votion. The class see from the story what is meant 
 by unconscious influence. Hawley, not knowing, 
 not intending, all unconscious of it, exerted an in- 
 fluence upon me. 
 
 Soon after commencing m^ trade, I gained a 
 great victory over myself. I knew the proverb, 
 " He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, 
 and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a 
 city," but I failed to put it in practice. The turn- 
 ing point came. I was left alone one day in the 
 shop, charged with a slight but most responsible 
 piece of work. It was this. Fifty or sixty calf 
 skins, each one by itself, were that day to be put 
 for the first time into the bark extract. According 
 to the methods of those days, these skins were taken 
 out one by one, spread out on a platform one above 
 the other, and then, after ten or fifteen minutes, re- 
 turned to the vat, one by one, and sunk beneath the 
 ooze as before. For the first day the skins were 
 very slippery, almost as slippery as a piece of elut 
 
40 DAIJUEL BLISS 
 
 bark soaked in water. I drew up about half of tbe 
 lot, and spread them out: they all slipiDed in. I 
 repeated the process with better success till two- 
 thirds or more were pulled out ; they fell back again, 
 and I yelled and screamed. Again I got nearly all 
 of them on the platform ; they slipped back. I seem 
 to hear now the echo of my voice from every part 
 of that solitary tannery, and I seem to see the hook 
 fly from my hand as I hurled it to the farthest part 
 of the building. I sat down in a great rage, one, 
 two, five minutes, I know not how long. Then came 
 a change; call it conscience, call it reason, call it 
 the better self, call it my good angel, call it the 
 Spirit of God, call it what you will ; I said to my- 
 self, and I said it aloud, " Dan Bliss, this is shame- 
 ful. You have a good place, a good master, he 
 trusts you, — do your duty." I rose perfectly calm, 
 went across the building, picked up the hook, piled 
 up some of the skins — ^they fell back. I said, and 
 I said it aloud, " I can do it again." Once more 1 
 did the same — ^they fell. back. I said, and I said it 
 aloud, " I can do it again." The third time was a 
 perfect success. After ten or fifteen minutes, I re- 
 turned the skins to the bark extract, and was the 
 happiest boy in town. Since then I have had an- 
 noyances far greater than ploughing among the 
 roots in Madison, or piling up slippery skins in 
 Pains-holler, but never have irritations roused up 
 my spirit into fury. 
 
 I learned the trade well, and during the last year 
 of my apprenticeship the establishment was virtu- 
 
CHILDHOOD A2fD YOUTH 41 
 
 ally under my control. Mr. Curtiss had a generous 
 nature and was always ready to commend where 
 praise was deserved. During one stage in the pre- 
 paring of hides for the tanning process, they must 
 be carefully watched. K they remain in a certain 
 emulsion too long, they .are ruined. This emulsion 
 is affected by a thunder-storm as milk is, and acts 
 more powerfully on the skins. One Sunday, at 
 meeting-time, there arose a thunder-storm. I 
 slipped out of the house, hurried to the tannery and 
 commenced to rescue the hides from a perilous con- 
 dition. Curtiss having learned that I was seen run- 
 ning towards home, came on as fast as he could and 
 assisted in the work. He said, " Dan, were it not 
 ■for your knowledge and faithfulness we should have 
 met with a great loss." Such a man never has a 
 strike among his workmen. During my last winter 
 with Mr. Curtiss, a select school was opened for ten 
 or fifteen young men and women. I had in a 
 measure outgrown the district school. It was three 
 miles distant, and although it was more expensive, 
 and the going and coming would take two hours 
 from my work, Mr. Curtiss allowed me to go. It 
 was a good school, and the company delightful. I 
 walked daily those six miles, sometimes through 
 snow and rain. Occasionally I rode the gray mare. 
 The firm of Pain, Curtiss & Co. dissolved six months 
 before the term of my apprenticeship ended. They 
 had a legal right to my services for the following 
 six months, but they generously set me free from 
 further work. So in the early spring of 1844 I 
 
42 DAOTEL BLISS 
 
 was without business and had no abiding place. 
 I was cast down, but for a day or two only. A Mr. 
 Judd, the one who taught school in the Axtell dis- 
 trict when I was there, asked me to join him and 
 his brother in the business of grafting fruit trees. 
 Every spring more than a thousand men in gangs 
 of three or four went from Northern Ohio into 
 Pennsylvania, Southern Ohio, Virginia and Ken- 
 tucky, grafting apple trees with choice fruit. 
 Usually one went in advance to engage jobs, and 
 then the others followed with tools, ladders, and 
 scions. I was sent in advance into Venango and 
 Clarion Counties, Pennsylvania. Besides a pro- 
 spectus and recommendation, I took with me a few 
 specimens of apples. My first application for a 
 job was a flat refusal. It seems that, years before, 
 a party of this kind had cheated the people fear- 
 fully. Having lost or used up their scions, they 
 cut scions from one orchard and grafted the next 
 with them. True or not, this was the reputation 
 of grafters in that place before the word had been 
 degraded to designate certain financiers, as more 
 euphonic than the word " thief." I called on the 
 postmaster and other promiaent men, and they as- 
 sured me that ^though there was plenty of work 
 to be done, no one would allow strangers in their 
 orchards after their experiences. I told them that 
 we were true men, that my recommendations were 
 genuine, and that I would stay in the place till the 
 postmaster could write to Painesville to assure him- 
 self that all was right. They agreed to this and 
 
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 43 
 
 said tlmt if the answers were satisfactory they 
 themselves would recommend us to the farmers. 
 They gave me a conditional recommendation, and I 
 went to work with no loss of time and with success. 
 In due time, the Judds came on and finished the 
 work. In June two of us returned and counted the 
 living scions, receiving at the rate of |40 per thou- 
 sand. My share of the net income was over $100. 
 
 My experience on this trip was new and interest- 
 ing and instructive. I lived with the people. 
 There were no hotels except in the larger villages,' 
 but every farmer was accustomed to entertain the 
 casual stranger, and receive forty, fifty or sixty 
 cents for supper, bed and breakfast. I was a great 
 talker in those days, and entertained the family 
 circle to the best of my ability, and had one night a 
 jolly time at the house of a young married couple 
 with whom was stopping the school " marm." It 
 was the night for the spelling school, and the 
 " marm " insisted that I should give out the words. 
 I did so, and heard on every hand, "It takes a 
 Yankee to teach school." There were no fifty cents 
 to be paid in the morning, but a hearty " Good-bye," 
 " Come again," instead. 
 
 On the trip I saw an illustration of how easUy 
 simple, good people are deceived by "quacks " and 
 charlatans. In fact I once acted the part of a 
 charlatan in spite of myself. ■ A little before night 
 I called on a family consisting of father, mother, 
 past middle life, three daughters of a comely age, 
 and a son. I was made welcome and shown into 
 
44 DANIEL BLI^ 
 
 tlie parlour. I observed that the boy, with, rather 
 a pale face and white hands, was studying his booL 
 The mother and a daughter were busy about the 
 house getting supper, and caring for the milk just 
 brought in from the cow-house. Another daughter 
 made some slight adjustments in the parlour. The 
 third daughter was teasing her mother to permit 
 her to go, that evening, to a party with some one. 
 The mother refused but, after repeated teasing, con- 
 sented. The father came in, and being appealed to, 
 replied with a loud " No." The daughter said no 
 more. After supper, all sitting before the warm 
 coal fire in the parlour, the old man asked me what 
 my profession was. I told him that I was engaged 
 in soliciting jobs for grafting fruit-trees. "Yes," 
 said he, " I know that. But I think that you are 
 a lecturer on phrenology." (They were found all 
 over the West in those days.) I assured him that 
 I was not a lec^ui*er on phi'enology, — that, although 
 I had read some of O. N. Fowler's book, had heard 
 lectures on the subject, had had my head examined, 
 knew where they said some of the bumps were lo- 
 cated, yet I knew nothing about the science, and 
 did not believe much in it. My denial seemed to 
 confirm the old man in his opinion that I was a 
 lecturer on phrenology. They all begged that I 
 would examine their heads. Wishing to be agree- 
 able, I consented, and commenced with the boy. I 
 said, " This boy loves study, has a good memory, is 
 not inclined to hard work, will not be a farmer, will 
 study some profession," and so on. "That is it," 
 
CHILDHpOD AITD YOUTH 45 
 
 said tlie old man; " Mother puts Tn'm up to it; Ms 
 hands are softer than the girls'; he won't work, 
 wants to be a doctor." The daughter that was help- 
 ing her mother to get supper came next. I enlarged 
 upon her domestic virtues. She was her mother's 
 mainstay, always ready to help in all kinds of work. 
 The next daughter was equally useful, — was more 
 artistic, had more taste, was very orderly, could not 
 endure dust, liked to have a place for everything, 
 and everything in its place, and so on. (Applause. ) 
 The last daughter came, and I said, " This girl is 
 fond of dress, fond of society, not quite happy un- 
 less she can go and come and see people and when 
 the time comes, she would not object to having a 
 'beau.'" "Capital," said the old man; "some- 
 thing of that kind happened to-night." To the 
 mother I gave a loving disposition, great love of 
 home, great kindliness of heart, and if she had any 
 fault, it was a lack of firmness, a tendency to yield 
 against her better judgmmt to the wishes of her 
 children- The old man rather sadly said, " Mother, 
 I have often said so." To the old man were given 
 most of the manly virtues, integrity, perseverance, 
 kindness, and especially firmness, and it was added 
 that no child asked the second time, "when you 
 say * No.' " " That is so," said all. The old man 
 remarked when the examinations were over, "Many 
 phrenologists have been around who claimed to 
 know everything, but who got things wrong oftener 
 than right. You claim not to know anything, and 
 have told us exactly what we are." The next mom- 
 
/ 
 
 46 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 ing the old man, Instead of receiving anything, of- 
 fered to pay me for my lecture. I never before or 
 since came so near to playing the humbug. 
 
 Soon after settling up the grafting business, I 
 ■ commenced work with Messrs. Curtiss and Davis, 
 who had bought a tannery in Geneva, Ohio. In the 
 autumn they asked me to go into company with 
 them on equal terms. Each partner was to receive 
 six per cent, on his capital yearly, and the net earn- 
 ings were to be divided equally after the interest on 
 ,, -capital had been deducted. This arrangement 
 seemed to close the door to my old aspiration for an 
 education, but instead of closing the door, it stimu- 
 lated the old desire more and more. Sundays were 
 the saddest days of the week, for after the church 
 services there were the long hours of thinking over 
 what I was, and what I wanted to be. Having 
 heard for years before many orations from eloquent 
 men during the campaign when W. H. Harrison 
 was elected President, and again at this time when 
 James Polk was chosen, and when slavery, the Mex- 
 ican War, and other exciting questions were com- 
 ing to the front, I longed to be able at some time to 
 mingle in public affairs. Well do I remember how 
 I stopped suddenly from scraping the hair off the 
 cowhides and addressed Cook, the hired man. 
 What I talked about has escaped my memory; 
 whether it was politics, religion, life,, or things in 
 general, I know not. But Cook stared with mouth 
 open, and finally said, " Dan Bliss, God Almighty 
 never made you to work in a tannery. Get out of 
 
C3HILDH00D AND YOUTH 47 
 
 this." Well, I was vain enough, then to be a little 
 flattered by this ignorant, feeble-minded Cook. 
 Soon after this my health gave way, and I had a 
 doctor for two weeks or more. As I now look back 
 and remember his treatment, I must have been suf- 
 fering from depression more than from bodily ail- 
 ment, for he gave me more anecdotes and funny 
 stories than pills. Whatever the cause may have 
 been, it was the occasion of bringing on the final 
 crisis. I told my partners that I should withdraw 
 from the firm and sell my interest in it. They ac- 
 cepted the situation, returned to me my few dol- 
 lars of capital, and a portion of the earnings for 
 the past ytear and a half. My social relations to the 
 people of Geneva were few, and had no marked in- 
 fluence upon my life. The young men and women 
 were divided into two parties. The one fond of 
 dancing, card playing, and the like, with which I 
 had no sympathy; we called them the Jumping 
 Crew. The other party was fond of plays, games, 
 and small talk, and was called the String-bean 
 Party. The first was too boisterous, the latter in- 
 sipid. There was little in either to stimulate man- 
 liness or thoughtfulness. I never mingled with the 
 former, and seldom with the latter. 
 
 Creneral Leslie, a man of ability and learning, 
 however, at one time started a reading club and 
 debating society, in which I found much delight; 
 but soon the novelty passed away, and he and I 
 were the only members remaining. On my bidding 
 good-bye to my friend, General Leslie, he informed 
 
48 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 me that a draft might be ordered, as the Mexican 
 War was so unpopular, volunteers would not come 
 forward, and that I would be liable to be called out. 
 He then said that he would be pleased to make me 
 Brigade Quartermaster, so that, if called out, I 
 would not be obliged to enter the ranks. He after- 
 wards send me a letter of appointment. 
 
 In the early autumn of 1846 I entered Kingsvilte 
 Academy, and commenced the study of Algebra, 
 Greek and Latin. On my applying for entrance, 
 Mr. Graves, the Principal, asked my age, attaia- 
 ments and purpose. Being told I was twenty-three, 
 he replied, "A man who intends to go through col- 
 lege should commence Greek and Latiu at a much 
 earlier age." I said to myself, with far more con- 
 fidence than judgment, " I will teach him Greek and 
 Latin before I die." I boarded the first year at 
 Squire Luce's. Mrs. Luce was much surprised 
 (and said so) because I never went out for an 
 evening without telling her where I was going, and 
 when I should return, — ^an old habit from early 
 boyhood. Some of the deacon's remarks were 
 quaint, wise and useful to me. Elder Sacket, the 
 minister, preached on Election, Free Will, Decrees, 
 etc. At dinner a discussion arose on the subject. 
 Finally the good deacon burst out, " Bliss, you don't 
 know anything about it, I don't know anything 
 about it, Sacket don't know anything about it." 
 
 After three months' study, I commenced to teach 
 in a little red schoolhouse on the middle ridge, 
 about a mile from the Academy. The school had 
 
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 49 
 
 a bad reputation- The larger boys had frequently 
 turned the master out of the house, and broken up 
 the school. I was paid so much a month, and was 
 to " board round." The first day or the second I 
 made up my mind who was the ringleader in the 
 school, and said that, if agreeable to his mother, I 
 would go home with him the next night. The same 
 course was taken with the other leaders. It worked 
 like a charm. The historical bad boys were my best 
 friends. The trustees told me not to include in the 
 number of boarding places the family of Mr. 
 Meacham, for he was a quarrelsome drunkard. 
 ^The two Meacham boys, between seven and eleven 
 years, were very tright and lovely. Their clothes 
 were never ragged, but were always patched with 
 different colours. My heart went out towards them. 
 They were very poor, and were looked down upon 
 by the other scholars. One day before closing the 
 school I said to them, "Tell your mother that I 
 will come to your house to-morrow night." Many a 
 boy and girl slightly shook the head. The two boys 
 were much pleased. I found the Meacham house 
 small, two rooms only, with little furniture. The 
 wife was tall, good looking, and evidently by 
 nature capable of great jwssibilities. The hus- 
 band had a sturdy back, a whiskey face, but was 
 then sober. The evening passed off as pleasantly 
 as could be expected. The little boys were treated 
 much better after that. They begged me to come 
 again. Nearly at the end of the term I went. The 
 man was drunk. He was a noted fighter, and, when 
 
60 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 under the influence of liquor, very quarrelsome 
 He had his jjig of whiskey, and as the night ad- 
 vanced became more and more drunk. Finally he 
 insisted that I should drink with him. On being 
 refused, he became angry, and swore that he would 
 thrash me. To show anger would enrage him 
 more ; to show fear would bring on an attack. He 
 rose, struck an attitude, and with clenched fists and 
 a shake of the head, shouted, " Come on." The wife 
 was alarmed. I said in a low tone of voice, 
 " Meacham, I could thrash you if I could get mad, 
 but I can't get mad at you, Meacham." He laughed 
 a drunkard's laugh and said: "You are a blank- 
 blank good fellow," sat down, dozed a while, and 
 then went off to bed. I tried to comfort the wife, 
 the mother, the woman, by talking of her boys. 
 
 The wisdom of the Apostolic injunction, "Let 
 every man be slow to speak, slow to wrath, etc.," 
 was illustrated by the following incident. There 
 was a class of young women from sixteen to twenty 
 years old in the school. While reading, they stood 
 in a row, and I walked up and down in the front of 
 ^he line. On one occasion while nearly at the head 
 of the class and walking towards the foot I said 
 to one of the girls: "Julia, you may commence." 
 She replied: "I won't." Wrath struggled to ex- 
 press itself. Unconsciously the victory over self in 
 the old tan-yard prevailed, and I walked on, then 
 turned back, and repeated, not in a commanding but 
 rather in a commending voice, "Julia, you may 
 commence." She read beautifully. Before leaving 
 
CHILDHOOD AKD YOUTH 61 
 
 the town at tie close of the term, I called at the 
 many homes where I had been made a welcome 
 guest. As I was leaving Julia's house, she said: 
 "Mr. Bliss, I insulted you once and you did not 
 hear me, but I shall feel happier to confess." On 
 learning that I had heard, she shed tears of grati- 
 tude, and thanked me for not disgracing her before 
 the whole school. 
 
 Soon after my return to the Academy, the Priu- 
 cipal asked me to become a pupil teacher, while 
 continuing Latin and Greek. I used to teach iu the 
 Mathematical Department, to receive my full board 
 and tuition in the Principal's or Vice-Principal's 
 family. At the breakfast table after these arrange- 
 ments had been made, Deacon Luce said: "Mr. 
 Bliss, you came to Kingsville a perfect stranger. 
 After three months you were invited to teach in one 
 of the most important schools in the township, and 
 next you are invited by the Principal to become a 
 teacher in the Academy. Now in your prosperity, 
 do not, like Jeshurun, ' wax fat and kick.' " I have 
 never forgotten this advice. Mr. Fowler, my teacher 
 in Greek, was an accomplished scholar and took 
 much interest in my work. Mrs. Graves, the wife 
 of the Principal, was a fine Latin scholar, and as- 
 sisted me much in Virgil, while for six months I 
 was a member of her family. There was a great 
 gathering at Commencement. After many compo- 
 sitions, orations and much music, the Principal 
 announced, "Now the valedictory will be given 
 by Daniel Bliss, who is a candidate for college." 
 It was most natural that I should be given the vale- 
 
62 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 dictory. There were only two of us in the class 
 and the other fellow was at home sick. 
 
 My friend Hawkins and I had received cata- 
 logues from Amherst, Williams, Hamilton and 
 Union Colleges, had studied their courses, the ex- 
 penses and the facilities for earning something 
 during the course. On our journey East we were 
 to decide which one we should make our home. 
 The night before I left Kingsville, Deacon Whelply 
 said many gratifying things, congratulated me on 
 my past success, hoped that my going to college 
 would be a blessing, etc., and then with a loving 
 shake of the hand he said : " Bemember that the 
 fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." His 
 look, his hand-shake, Ms words impressed the great 
 truth upon my mind more than all of Sacket's good 
 and great sermons. 
 
 Hawkins and I started East by steamer as far as 
 Buffalo, and then proceeded by the Erie CanaJ. 
 On the way we discussed the question which college 
 we would choose. We soon eliminated Hamilton 
 and Williams from the list. There remained Union 
 and Amherst. At Schenectady the baggageman, 
 in sorting the trunks, came to mine and asked: 
 " Where does Bliss' trunk go? " I replied : " To 
 Albany." He came to Hawkins' and asked : "Where 
 does Hawkins' trunk go? " " To Albany," replied 
 Hawkins. The question was settled. My choice of 
 Amherst was probably owing to the fact that when 
 I had looked over the catalogues, the unconscious 
 impressions in favour of Amherst were greater 
 than those which were consciously received. 
 
m 
 
 COLLEGE AND SEMINARY DAYS 
 
 THE decision to study at Amherst was destined 
 to influence the life of Daniel Bliss not only 
 for the next four years but for all his days. 
 In Amherst Village he found the wife without whom his 
 life-work could not have had its rounded symmetry. 
 The ideals of Amherst College furnished the inspiration 
 and suggested the model for the great Eastern University 
 which developed under his care. To his death he re- 
 mained a member of the First Congregational Church 
 at Amherst, which his wife had joined on profession of 
 faith as a girl, and with which he connected himself on 
 his departure for Syria. To Amherst College he sent 
 his three sons, and at Amherst his oldest grandson, 
 Daniel Bliss Second, was matriculated a few weeks before 
 his grandfather's death. 
 
 Amherst College has greatly altered in appearance 
 since that Autumn of 1848, but the beauties among 
 which it lies are unchanging. In his missionary home 
 in Syria, Dr. Bliss ever cherished loving memories of 
 the hills that form its surrounding crescent. What a 
 variety of loveliness this crescent shows ! Beyond the gen- 
 erous apple-orchards to the south rises, in angular out- 
 line, the abrupt wall of the Holyoke range ; to the south- 
 west, over against Mount Holyoke proper; and separated 
 from it by the broadly-flo^^g Connecticut, stands soli- 
 
 53 
 
64 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 tary the ample-skirted mass of Mount Tom; to the east 
 extends the long line of the Pelham Hills, with dense 
 forests, touched in Spring with tender green, brilliant in 
 Autumn with scarlet and gold, or smouldering in the 
 lambent crimson after-glow of a Winter sunset; to the 
 north towers the rounded top of Mount Toby, sylvan 
 haunt of Summer pickniekers; while in the northeast 
 distance, beyond Sugarloaf, loom the pale and mysterious 
 Ashfield Hills, outposts of the more distant Berkshires. 
 
 When Daniel Bliss entered Amherst College it was en- 
 joying a new period of prosperity under the presidency 
 of Reverend Doctor Edward Hitchcock, who also held 
 the chair of Natural Theology and Geology. This com- 
 bination marks the tendency of the colleges of that time 
 to "reconcile" Science and Religion. This tendency is 
 also illustrated by the list of works by this learned and 
 godly man of Science. Besides his purely scientific 
 books we find such titles as "Religion of Geology and 
 its connected Sciences. ' ' Dr. Hitchcock's relations to the 
 students were eminently human. His patience was in- 
 exhaustible. His faculty often thought him too tolerant. 
 He relied more on moral suasion than on strict discipline. 
 By receptions given to the Freshmen and Seniors he 
 sought to bring the students in contact with the families 
 of the faculty and with the towns-people. President 
 Daniel Bliss seems, consciously or unconsciously, to have 
 copied the best features of his own President's methods. 
 
 In his devotion to the total welfare of the students, 
 mental, moral and social. Dr. Hitchcock had the support 
 of the small faculty, numbering not over a dozen mem- 
 bers, of whom eight were full professors. The splendid 
 team-work, the spirit of sacrifice, making it impossible 
 for a professor to confine his interest to his own depart- 
 ment, which so long continued to be characteristic of 
 
COLLEGE AND SEMINAET DATS 65 
 
 Amherst College, were then in full play. Towering 
 above his colleagues of that time, or indeed of any time, 
 was William Seymour Tyler, Nestor of lAmerican 
 teachers of Greek, affectionately known to thousands of 
 Amherst men as "Old Ty." For fifty-nine years he 
 taught in the College as Tutor and Professor; and as 
 Professor Emeritus, he was connected therewith for 
 six years more. For him a student was not simply the 
 bearer of a brain to be saturated with Greek culture — 
 and he was always that — ^but a soul whose various powers 
 were calling for development. He was perfect Greek 
 and perfect Puritan, inspired by Homer and Moses, 
 Theocritus and St. Paul. His ideal was Socrates, whom 
 indeed he resembled, being ungainly of body and beauti-" 
 ful of soul. Severe or gentle, as the occasion required, 
 ironic or urbane, uncpmpromising or sympathetic, he 
 was always respected, often feared and inevitably loved. 
 As a teacher he was both critical and inspiring. As a 
 preacher he was forceful and convincing. His style, 
 always classic, sometimes rose to pure eloquence. His 
 theology was sternly Calvinistic: his religion was that 
 of a simple child of God. Whether in this case his 
 Hellenism triumphed over his Hebraism, or whether he 
 trusted th those "uncovenanted mercies" in which his 
 fellow Calvinists found excuse for their humaner feel- 
 ings. Professor Tyler firmly .expected to meet Socrates 
 in (heaven. Dear old teacher and friend ! Met him you 
 surely have, and rare talks you must be having together. 
 Would that all of your pupils could share at a respectful 
 distance in that celestial symposium. 
 
 The relations between Professor Tyler and Daniel 
 Bliss were not only exceptionally close during the latter 's 
 college days, but the friendship thus formed lasted till 
 the (dder man died, forty-one years after the graduation, 
 
66 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 of his pupil. Many letters passed between them. Visits 
 were exchanged, for not only did Dr. Bliss seek out his 
 old teacher whenever he returned to America, but Pro- 
 fessor Tyler visited Syria, sharing in an adventure to be 
 later related in Dr. Bliss' own words. 
 
 Next to Professor Tyler the greatest impression made 
 on Daniel Bliss while at Amherst was by Professor Snell, 
 who had the chair of Mathematics and Natural Philos- 
 ophy, which was the name then given to Physics. Acute 
 and exact, he was gifted with a quaint humour that has 
 been likened to that of Charles Lamb. His class-jokes 
 were none the less enjoyed for being stereotyped and ex- 
 pected, but one day he took both himself and the class by 
 surprise with a sudden witticism, which caused him to 
 murmur "that's new" to the infinite delight of the stu- 
 dents. The following anecdote was often repeated by 
 Dr. Bliss. A knotty mathematical problem that had 
 been passing from college to college was presented by 
 Professor Snell as a challenge to his class. At the next 
 meeting various solutions were offered, including a some- 
 what lengthy one by himself. Later he showed this to 
 Mr. Bliss in his copy-book, and underneath was given an- 
 other with the comment "A shorter and better solution 
 by Daniel Bliss of the Class of fifty-two." Dr. Bliss 
 told this anecdote to illustrate the modesty of his teacher 
 and his desire to give credit where it was due, but it 
 illustrates much more than that. It throws a light on 
 those far-off days when inter-cdlegiate rivalry did not 
 centre in athletics but actually recognized the glory of 
 solving a problem in Mathematics or Physics ! 
 
 The curriculum of studies was rigidly fixed, offering 
 no electives, save for the alternative of French and Ger- 
 man for one term of Sophomore year. Latin, Greek, and 
 Mathematics, with exercises in Elocution, were the main, 
 
COLLEGE AND SEMINAEY DAYS 57 
 
 staple of the studies for the first two years with one 
 term's instruction in the History of the English Lan- 
 guage and Literature. Mathematics and the classics con- 
 tinued into Junior year, and it is interesting to note that 
 Homer's Iliad was left as the crown of Greek culture, 
 instead of being associated in the mind /of the students 
 wit^ their early preparatory drudgery. Into this year 
 were crowded the scientific subjects : Physics, Chemistry, 
 Anatomy and Botany. There were also courses iu 
 Rhetoric and in the history of classical literature. His- 
 tory, as such, did not appear anywhere in the college 
 course. Senior year was mainly devoted to the so-called 
 Mental and Moral Sciences iacluding Evidences of Chris- 
 tianity and Biblical Theology. Constitutibnal Law and 
 Political Economy were also introduced. During the 
 last term Dr. Hitchcock taught his Geology. A review of 
 Latin and Greek gave a final emphasis to the importance 
 of the classics. This curriculiun looks meagre besides the 
 scores of courses offered by any modern college, but it is 
 , safe to say that those who had mastered it were at least 
 as weU equipped with general culture as is the average 
 college graduate of to-day. 
 
 Amherst College owed its origin to the daring ambition 
 of its founders to train men for "civilizing and evan- 
 geli2dng the world." With such an aim in view the im- 
 portance of religion became paramount. The spiritual 
 development of the students was a trust handed down 
 from President to President. This tradition was mighty 
 in the days of Daniel Bliss. It was still potent when his 
 sons went to college. The effect of this atmosphere of 
 religion and culture on a student who breathed it for the 
 first time is well described in the following letter written 
 to Professor Tyler njany years after graduation: "First 
 impressions are lasting and my first impressions of Am-. 
 
58 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 lierst College have never left me. I arrived at the Col- 
 lege about the middle of the Fall term in 1848. We 
 (Hawkins and myself) had come from Ohio by way of 
 Lake Erie and the Canal, and had seen not a little of 
 rough and profane society on our journey. What wte 
 witnessed, on entering tJie College, was such a contrast to 
 all this, and indeed to all that we had been accustomed to 
 in our own previous observation and experience, that it 
 seemed as if we had passed into another world! The 
 solemn, cheerful and intellectual air of the President and 
 the Professors at morning and evening prayers, and the 
 religious tone, not of voice but of heart and life, of the 
 majority of the students, led me into a new train of 
 thought, gave me new views and made me e'er long a 
 new man." Going on to speak of the special seasons of 
 religious interest, he adds: "These revivals stamped 
 upon my brain the conviction that Amherst College be- 
 lieved in the reality of the religion of Christ. There was 
 no diminution of the usual amount of study; hence the 
 excitement — for there was great excitement — ^was ra- 
 tional, the heart and the intellect moved on together. 
 Twenty years have proved that those who then embraced 
 the truth were sincere, for they were found, many of 
 them, in various parts of the world, spending their ma- 
 ture years in preaching Christ.'" 
 
 The writer of this letter was President Bliss, who had 
 just graduated his first class from the Syrian Protestant 
 College — the small class of 1870, which included a man 
 who became one of the prominent physicians of Palestine, 
 and another who is the editor of the most serious period- 
 ical in the Arabic language: Christian gentlemen both. 
 
 Mr. Bliss joined the College Church in January of his 
 
 'See "History of Amherst College" (1873) by W. S. Tyler, 
 page 353- 
 
COLLEGE AND SEMINARY DATS 69 
 
 Freshman year and soon after the Missionary Band. He 
 was always reticent about his own inner religious experi- 
 ences, but it would appear from the above letter that his 
 entrance into the conscious Christian life was marked by 
 no sudden crisis, such as was expected if not demanded 
 by the religious conceptions of the time, but that it was 
 rather the result of quiet deliberation. To be sure what 
 he has told us of the dramatic moment in the tan-yard, 
 when he gained an ethical victory over himself, is a de- 
 scription of sudden conversion, and was in fact his real 
 conversion, but it would hardly have passed the orthodox 
 tests of that period, when rigidly moral men of religion 
 spoke slightingly of "mere morality." In the main the 
 religious tone at Amherst was sane and true. The voices 
 that Daniel Bliss heard there had far-reaching echoes. 
 The especial services for prayer and conference, which 
 to this day supplement but never interrupt the work of 
 the first week of January at the College in Beirut, reflect 
 the best that there was in the religious life in Amherst, 
 while they seek to avoid whatever narrowness that may 
 have held; aiming to turn to God the followers of' many 
 creeds, not interfering with their own ways, but ever 
 pointing out the perfect way through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Many of Mr. Bliss' college companions became promi- 
 nent and useful in their day and generation. Two of his 
 classmates, Allen and Bamum, were his feUow-laboxirers 
 in the Turkish Empire, though not in the same mission- 
 ary field. Of George Washburn mention will shortly 
 be made. Five of Mr. Bliss' college mates became 
 the teachers of his sons at Amherst. No Amherst teacher 
 is better remembered or was more universally loved than 
 Dr. Edward Hitchcock, who placed physical education 
 and training on a permanent basis, not only for Amherst 
 but for aU the colleges of America. Ever the interme- 
 
flO DANIEL BLISS 
 
 diary between Faculty and students, a thoroughly re- 
 spected moral police-man ; alert, strong-willed, brusque, 
 indulgent ; impulsive, jocular, evangelical — above all in- 
 tensely human, "Old Doc" fused in his extraordinary 
 personality all sorts of contradictory qualities. One 
 wonders what sort of a "grave and reverend Senior" he 
 was, when his friend, Daniel Bliss, was a Freshman! 
 Grave and reverend Julius Seelye must have been all 
 through his college days, if not in childhood. Both in 
 body and mind he was of heroic mould. He was Presi- 
 dent when Dr. Bliss' three sons were in college. Surely 
 no more stately form ever presided at Commencement; 
 surely no voice rolled out the Latin phrases in more 
 sonorous tones! With Hitchcock and Seelye may be 
 linked George Washburn in a trio of men who, with 
 Daniel Bliss himself, lived to become ^widely known in 
 the academic world. He was Freshman when Mr. Bliss 
 was Senior. As they roamed together through the woods 
 or over the hiUs, little did they realize that their names 
 would be joined as pioneers of University education for 
 the youth of Turkey, Egypt and the Balkans,.and all the 
 Near East. Theirs was a lifelong friendship. Each 
 was proud of the other's work. Robert College at Con- 
 stantinople and the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut 
 stand as monuments to this pair of friends, and perpetu- 
 ate the ideals with which they were together inspired at 
 Amherst. 
 
 Daniel Bliss strongly objected to the Secret Societies 
 of his day on the groxmd of their exclusiveness and of 
 their entering into cliques and combinations in class- 
 politics. Accordingly, he joined the Delta Upsilon Fra- 
 ternity, which was then frankly anti-secret. Many of his 
 closest friends, however, were members of the Secret 
 Societies. 
 
President Bliss and President Washburn. 
 
COLLEGE Amy SEMINAET DATS 61 
 
 He saw little of the social life of the town. When it 
 is remembered that he entered with defective preparation 
 and that he had to earn every cent he spent during the 
 f onr years, it will be seen that he had little time for out- 
 side diversion. During the last two years he became in- 
 timate with Miss Abby Maria Wood, who had lived at 
 Oak Grove with her unde, Mr. Luke Sweetser, ever since 
 she was eight years old. She was bom in Westminster, 
 Massachusetts, and was sometimes playfully called by 
 her friends ' ' Westminster Abbey. " Her mother 's father 
 was Mr. Samuel Sweetser, one of the most prominent 
 sheep-farmers of the State. Her father, Joel Wood, died 
 when she was a child. From liim she inherited her tal- 
 ent for music. Her voice was well trained by a method 
 which now seems to be forgotten, capable of produdng 
 flexibility without destroying natural sweetness. Long 
 after middle life her tones retained a bright and haunt- 
 ing loveliness. She was refined and delicate in form eind 
 in spirit ; with brown hair, transparent complexion and 
 clear, blue eyes, which grew dim neither in sickness nor 
 iu old age. Her health was uncertain : her will indom- 
 itable. Her mercurial charm of manner was no less 
 characteristic than her relentless sense of duty. She had 
 wit and she had wisdom. Unlike Mr. Bliss, she had been 
 bred under the full Puritan tradition, which dictated to 
 all, no matter what their condition of character, the 
 stages of conversion appropriate only to hardened sin- 
 ners: conviction of deep guilt, a period of despair and 
 struggle, surrender of will, the sudden benediction of 
 peace. Under this tradition she was "converted" at the 
 age of sixteen during a revival that was upheaving the 
 community. But even then her independence of mind 
 asserted itself, though unawares. In a letter to a friend, 
 written during the midst of her "crisis," she referred in, 
 
62 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 great distriess to s. sin that was holding her back. At the 
 end of the letter it transpires that this terrible sin was 
 her inability to realize her own guilty condition! What 
 was this but the unconscious protest of an honest mind 
 that revolted at calling white black? 
 
 The future Mrs. Bliss was educated at Amherst 
 Academy and at Maplewood Academy, Pittsfield, Massa- 
 chusetts. To the end of her days our mother used to 
 speak with love and pride of "my set of girls." And a 
 remarkable set it was, including names that have become 
 famous. Mrs. Bliss herself was destined to influence the 
 lives of hundreds of Orientals. The Sweetser mansion 
 was set on a hiU amid a grove of splendid taU oaks. Be- 
 low Oak Grove was the home of Edward Dickinson, for 
 long treasurer of Amherst College. Thus Emily Dickin- 
 son — ^beloved to-day by the curious in poetry — ^was Abby 
 Wood's near neighbour and constant companion, Emily 
 was always an original, but her girlhood gave no hint of 
 the recluse that she was to become within the bounds of 
 that house and lovingly tended garden, where came to 
 her those quaint thoughts that she put into somewhat 
 lawless verse. When Mrs. Bliss made her second visit to 
 America from Syria in 1873, Emily Dickinson had be- 
 come the village mystery, inaccessible to all but an elect 
 few, who were admitted to the sanctuary with appropri- 
 ate preliminaries and ceremonies. The good-natured 
 refusal of Mrs. Bliss to approach her old crony as a 
 Sibyl finally resulted in her being received on the old 
 basis. 
 
 Another member of this "set of girls" was Helen, the' 
 daughter of Professor Fiske, of Amherst College, after- 
 wards Helen Hunt Jackson — delicate lyrist and strenu- 
 ous defender of the rights of the Indians. As a young 
 lady she had a reputation for innocent mischief, and 
 
COLLEGE AIJD SEMINAET DATS 63 
 
 ■when years later she published in the Saint Nicholas an 
 account of a childish escapade, under the title of "The 
 Naughtiest Day of My Life," Mrs. Bliss was mightily 
 amused at the comment of the Springfield Republican, 
 which asked, "Was it really the naughtiest, the very 
 naughtiest day of your life, Helen Hunt?" 
 
 It will be better not to interrupt Dr. Bliss' own story 
 of his college and seminary life, to which these pages 
 form merely a complement, accordingly brief mention 
 may here be made of the quartette of remarkable men 
 who made a strong impression on him in the Seminary. 
 Andover was then the leading Theological School of the 
 United States, the last stronghold of New England The- 
 ology. Its great exponent was Professor Park, who died 
 in 1900, at the age of ninety-two. Dr. Bliss' children 
 well remember his visit to Syria in 1871, recalling his 
 dome-like forehead, his clear-cut features and his massive 
 jaw. As a teacher, he is said to have been second to 
 none in his generation. To Mr. Bliss he extended his 
 confidence, often inviting him to walk. The Chair of 
 Church History was occupied by W. G. T. Shedd, that 
 versatile scholar and editor of Coleridge, who later in- 
 structed Dr. Bliss' sons at Union in a Calvinistie Theol- 
 ogy that dared to face the consequences of its own stem 
 premises. With all his gentle dignity and calm urban- 
 * ity Dr. Shedd appeared to be himself a divine decree per- 
 sonified. When he taught Daniel Bliss he was barely 
 thirty-five years old, but his photograph of the time 
 shows that expression of sleepless watchfulness against 
 theological "error" which had not left his countenance 
 thirty years later. 
 
 The fame of Professors Stowe and Phelps has been 
 eclipsed by that of the women of their households, 
 but they were themselves sufficiently distinguished. Dr. 
 
64 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 Stowe had long been known as a strong Abolitionist. 
 For eighteen years he had taught at Lane Theological 
 Seminary at Cincinnati, living with his wife in the midst 
 of a circle that continually harboured runaway slaves on 
 their way to Canada. He began his teaching of Sacred 
 Literature at Andover the year Mr. Bliss entered the 
 Seminary. In March of that same year, 1852, the world 
 had been startled by the publication of Harriet Beecher 
 Stowe 's "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Later he shared the 
 notable reception accorded to his wife in England. The 
 chair of Rhetoric was held by Professor Austin Phelps, 
 of whose beautiful English style Dr. Bliss was ever a 
 great admirer. He wrote many books of value for a day 
 that has passed. At that time his daughter, Elizabeth 
 Stuart Phelps, had just entered her teens. Time alone 
 can show whether the slight but true vein of genius run- 
 ning through the stories which she began to write a very 
 few years later wiU be preservative. 
 
 We may now give place to Dr. Bliss' own reminis- 
 cences of these college and seminary days, as he takes up 
 the story where it was left in the last chapter. 
 
 Hawkins and I arrived at Amherst on November 
 7, 1848, after dark, and then commenced a new ex- 
 perience. We called at Dr. Hitchcock's, and he 
 sent Tutor Henswaw with us to find a boarding- 
 place. He took us back of the village Church, now 
 College Hall, to the house of the Misses Kingsbury, 
 two New England old maids, such as one reads of in 
 books, but seldom meets in real life. We boarded 
 there the rest of the term. One morning at the 
 breakfast table, Hannah — she of the big head — said 
 'in the now lost drawl of the Yankees : " Mr. Bliss, 
 
COLLEGE AlfD SEMINARY DATS 65 
 
 where are you from? " Being answered that I was 
 born in Vermont but had spent most of my life in 
 Ohio, she said : " Wal, I thort you had all the energy 
 of a Vermonter and aU the awkwardness of a Buck- 
 eye." 
 
 The next morning the President sent me to Pro- 
 fessor Snell to be examined in Mathematics. The 
 Professor was pleased, for I had studied all of the 
 Freshman and part of the Sophomore studies. 
 Then Professor Tyler, of blessed memory, examined 
 me in the Classics. I hesitated, faltered, stumbled, 
 and fell at times. By way of 'excusing myself, I 
 said the methods of pronunciation in the West differ 
 from those in the East, " Yes," said he, " but you 
 do not seem to have any method." Dear old man ; 
 like Coriolanus, — " what his breast forges, that his 
 tongue must vent." I took Professors Snell and 
 Tyler's notes to the President. He read them, and 
 with his own Mnd smile said, "Mr. Bliss, the re- 
 ports are favourable. You can enter the Freshman 
 Class." Hawkins and I bought some second-hand 
 furniture and moved into Middle College, North 
 Entry, First Story, Front Middle. Two serious 
 questions confronted me. First, could I keep up 
 with my classes? And second, how could I sup- 
 port myself? Amherst at that time, in order to 
 enable students to teach, gave six weeks' vacation, 
 from Christmas on, so that one could teach three 
 months, and be absent from his classes only three 
 weeks. This I clearly saw could not be done on 
 my part, on account of my imperfect preparation 
 
66 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 for entering college. I wrote on the fly-leaf of my 
 account-book, " The way looks dark, but I must and 
 wHl press on. I have only sixty-five dollars now, 
 and forty dollars due me from Ohio." At the end 
 of the term I obtained an agency for some magazine 
 and travelled as far as Northern Vermont, and vis- 
 ited my brothers in the meantime. The agency paid 
 all expenses, and a little over. On returning, 
 Mason Moore, nephew of Miss Lyon of Mt. Holyoke 
 Seminary, and I boarded ourselves in our own room 
 (Hawkins had left College). We had an air-tight 
 stove, with a moveable top, in which we roasted 
 potatoes and boiled water. Bread and milk, pota- 
 toes with milk or without, baked pork and beans, 
 roast beef (cooked by the Misses Kingsbury in their 
 own house), constituted our substantials. At the 
 end of the term my weight was 161 pounds, which 
 was more than at any other tinae. Our entire food 
 expenses amounted to |8.26 each for the term. On 
 the other side of the account, my saw-horse and 
 wood had brought me in $17.60. Those who re- 
 posed confidence in my abUity to saw and carry up 
 wood two to four stories were seven Freshmen of 
 my own class, two Juniors and one Tutor. If they 
 looked down on me because I was doing manual 
 work, I did not look up to them because they were 
 not. Herein lies a principle on which I enlarged 
 on a certain occasion. During my Senior year a 
 young man came to me saying that the President 
 had sent him to me for information and advice. 
 He stated his case. His means were small. I went 
 
COLLEGE AND SEMINAEY DAYS 67 
 
 over the various ways in which a few men could 
 help themselves, and said : " There are recitation 
 rooms to be swept; Chapel to be cared for; fires to 
 be built in wiuter; lamps to be kept in order; bell 
 to be rung ; sawing wood for students ; various odd 
 jobs ; helping janitor ia vacation, etc." His counte- 
 nance fell. He looked sad. And then I added: 
 "You can do several of these things on condition 
 that you can do them openly, joyfully, feeling that 
 you are just as good and noble and more noble un- 
 der your circumstances than if you did them not." 
 He left College. 
 
 I looked after Professor Tyler's garden, more or; 
 less. A few weeks after I arrived at Amherst, Mrs. 
 Tyler invited me to the Thanksgiving dinner and 
 they were my dear friends as long as Professor 
 Tyler and she lived. I weeded the flower-beds, hoed 
 the vegetables and cared for the fruit-trees. I soon 
 had charge of a Boarding Club which continued 
 under my care till the end of Junior year, for which 
 service I received my board. My duties were look- 
 ing after the accounts and presiding at the table. 
 During the first term of Sophomore year Dr. Hitch- 
 cock urged me to apply to the Education Society for 
 its usual grant. I told him I would rather stay out 
 a year and earn some money. He referred to my 
 age, the need of men in the mission field, etc. The 
 application was made, and the grant ordered. I 
 helped the janitor, never in term time but during 
 vacation, when he put the buildings in order for 
 the following term. Junior year I rang the bell, and 
 
68 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 was librarian of tlie Eclectic Society. For thesd 
 services I received $200. This ofice was muclf 
 sought after, and was in the gift of the Society. 
 The only time I did any work that interfered with 
 my studies was during haying time. The examina- 
 tion in German took place soon after my return. 
 The German teacher examined all of the class ex- 
 cept me. I reminded him that he had forgotten 
 me. He looked over his glasses and said : " You, — 
 you doii't know one t'ing, you not here, you von 
 ignorance." Finally he heard me and said, " Veil, 
 veil, you did know one t'ing, two t'ings, some 
 t'ings, — ^1 give you goot mark." 
 
 The whole expense of my four years' course, ex- 
 clusive of tuition, which was remitted, was $807.44. 
 Of this I must have earned, in the way indicated, 
 over 1350.00, having been absent from my class, in 
 earning this amount, only eight and one-half days. 
 It was difficult in Senior year to meet expenses, and 
 I did not. There was no bell to ring, no library 
 fee, and most likely I was bitten with the feeling 
 that a " grave and reverend Senior " ought not to 
 saw wood for another. Then again, Dan Litchfield 
 appealed to me to give up my club to him ; saiithat 
 he must leave college unless he could have it, etc. 
 Though I knew that I could not get through with 
 t^e means at my command or in sight, I gave the 
 club up. During the long vacation, Senior year, I 
 obtained an agency for selling Bill's History of the 
 World, made some money beside all expenses, went 
 through Dutchess County and vicinity, and had 
 
COLLEGE A2!ID SEMINAEY DAYS 69 
 
 various experiences. Having canvassed and ob- 
 tained all ttie orders I had time to fill I remained 
 several days at a hotel in Dover Plains, which was 
 then the terminus of the Harlem BaUroad, waiting 
 tUl the books arrived from Norwich. One day the 
 most disreputable mob I ever saw before or since 
 arrived from New York for a prize-fight. The hotel 
 people seemed to wonder that I did not go to the 
 field to see the contest. There was an old stage 
 driver at the hotel, a hard drinker. I said to him, 
 ♦'You * steam' yourself too much." He replied, 
 "Yes, I steam myself too much, and you esteem 
 yourself much too highly." My remarks did not 
 help him. His did me. 
 
 I had planned to teach school before entering the 
 Seminary, if one could be obtained. The question 
 for ready money in the meantime was soon solved. 
 George Baker, farmer, knowing me very well, and 
 my status in the College, offered, of his own accord, 
 to lend me money enough for Senior year and 
 graduating expenses. I told Mm that I would not 
 ask any one to endorse my note, and that a note 
 with my signature only would be worthless in case 
 of my death. He said that he would take that risk. 
 Without his knowledge I insured my life for a 
 small amount, and gave it to him for security. In 
 the spring of Senior year I ascertained, through my 
 cousin, that a select school was desired in Shrews- 
 bury, Massachusetts, and Professor Tyler assisted 
 in drawing up a circular to the effect that " Daniel 
 Bliss, graduate of Amherst College, would open a 
 
70 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 school at such a time and place," etc. Here fol- 
 lowed Professor Tyler's recommendation, and those 
 of others. It was a comfort to feel that if the 
 school were a success, I could pay off aU obliga- 
 tion, and enter the Theological Seminary free of 
 debt. Senior year was a very pleasant one. I was 
 elected First .^resident of the Eclectic Society. 
 From the first 1 had taken a very active part in all 
 the events of the Society, especially in the debates. 
 Seldom did a meeting pass without my taking part. 
 In my Junior year we had a famous debate, which 
 was adjourned from week to week. Other stu- 
 dents, not members of the Society, came in, and 
 sometimes a few people from the town. I wrote to 
 Wendell Phillips, and received documents from him 
 on Abolition. The question was this : " Ought we 
 to obey the Fugitive Slave Law? " One provision 
 of the law required of every citizen, under penalty, 
 to assist, when called upon, the constable, sheriff 
 or marshal in arresting and returning any slave, 
 held to bondage, back to his master. According to 
 that law, no one could give a runaway slave a 
 night's lodging, a meal of victuals, or a cup of wa- 
 ter, without exposing himself to fine or imprison- 
 ment. Henry Moore and I were the chief speakers 
 on the negative side. The great majority of the 
 Society, especially the best speakers, were on the 
 other side., They had on their side Law, Order, 
 Duties to Government, Injunctions of the Old and 
 New Testaments to obey those in authority, etc. 
 Moore and I must have said some extravagant 
 
 I 
 
COLLEGE AND SEMINARY DATS 71 
 
 things. Stebbins was in the chair. He repeated 
 to me — it must have been twelve years after or 
 twenty--one or two of my sentences. This was 
 one : " Did I desire to make an acceptable sacrifice 
 to. the Prince of DarMiess, I would take this Fugi- 
 tive Slave Law, embody it in the form of a North- 
 em ' dough-face,' and sacrifice him on the altar of 
 expediency, erected upon the demolished ruins of 
 moral principle." And another: "At the sight of 
 the marshal or the sheriff, the minister of the Gos- 
 pel must leave his sacred desk, the lawyer his study, 
 the doctor his patient, the merchant his counter, the 
 farmer his plough, the mechanic his shop — ^yes, and 
 more — ^the old man must start stafEless and the 
 cripple hobble crutchless at the call of this ac- 
 cursed Fugitive Slave Law." Bombast it was, but 
 bombast carries with it something like argument. 
 
 I look back with satisfaction to the great pleasure 
 Dr. Hitchcock gave me by inviting me. Junior year, 
 to accompany him on a private geological trip to 
 the White Mountains. We went in his own one- 
 horse carriage, stopping at country hotels, driving 
 slowly or more quickly as inclination or circum- 
 stance demanded. Sometimes we left the horse and 
 carriage for a day or two, and made side excursions 
 by train or stage coach. The object Dr. Hitchcock 
 had in view was to ascertain, if possible, any trace 
 of the glacier period, or terraces made by the re- 
 ceding water. At one time we ascended Jit. Lafay- 
 ette. Mr. Carter, the Amherst postmaster, joined 
 us. About to descend, I suggested that we go down 
 
72 D4NIEL BLISS 
 
 not the way we ascended, but by another road- 
 The Doctor protested, saying, "You know not where 
 your road will lead us ; never ^eave the known path 
 unless you have a competent guide," etc. Carter 
 started down before us. While standing for a few 
 moments, the Doctor saw, far to the right of us, a 
 wide bare rock extending out of sight down the 
 mountain side. He exclaimed, "We must go 
 there — ^that is something " — " run after Carter, and 
 meet me there." We met on the bare rock. There 
 were the marks of a glacier. The old geologist was 
 delighted. He himself proposed that we follow 
 down a certaiu valley, which " must pass near our 
 hotel." We walked on ^nd on two or three hours. 
 The Doctor took out his compass and exclaimed, 
 " We are lost, we are going almost in an opposite 
 direction to our hotel." Soon the Doctor saw a 
 cast-off fish-pole and said, " Thank God, this is a 
 sign of civilization." We walked on ; it was nearly 
 sunset. The Doctor said that he would perish if he 
 were obliged to spend the cold night in the woods. 
 Soon he saw above the steep banks a light indicat- 
 ing an open space void of trees. He hurried me up 
 the bank. I shouted back, " I see a house in. the 
 farther end of the field, and smoke coming out of 
 the chimney." The hotel was four miles away. 
 He sent me on to the hotel to find means of getting 
 him and Mr. Carter home. They were both almost 
 exhausted. The landlord soon sent for them, and 
 they arrived about ten o'clock at night. In the 
 meantime a good supper was prepared. When the 
 
COLLEGE AND SEMINAEY DATS 73 
 
 Doctor was refreshed by rest and food, lie ex- 
 patiated on the great discovery, — the undoubted 
 signs of the glacier. Finally the landlord said, " I 
 can remember my father telling me when it took 
 place, a hundred years ago." You can imagine the 
 Doctor's feelings. The marks of a land-slide a hun- 
 dred years old had been attributed to a glacier a 
 hundred thousand years old. I have often thought 
 since that the conclusions — ^not the facts — of scien- 
 tific men are sometioies 99,999 degrees from the^ 
 truth. I 
 
 I look back also with some satisfaction to a stand 
 I took Sophomore year on the subject of hazing. 
 We called it "rowing." Our class had suffered 
 fearfully. Sometimes we were in danger of losing 
 life or limb. I was never molested. Whether it 
 was because I came later, or because I had a hickory 
 club in my room, or whether it was because I had 
 long hair and was supposed to be strong — ^whatever 
 the reason, I was never molested. At the com- 
 mencement of our Sophomore year the class began 
 hazing in a degree unknown. In the morning I 
 requested the President of the class to ask the mem- 
 bers to stop a monient after prayers. They stopped. 
 I said : " Fellows, I have one request to make, that 
 if you do any hazing, you will do it behind my back ; 
 for if I see you hazing, I will go directly over to the 
 President and give him your names, and you can 
 call me a Faculty Dog as soon as you like." I ex- 
 pected hisses and shouts of dterision, but instead 
 Grassie jumped up and shouted: "Bliss is right! 
 
74 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 You may call him Faculty Dog and you may call 
 me Faculty Cat, but I am with him ! " There must 
 have been a Faculty Dog in the class, for the next 
 day Professor Adams thanked me for the stand I 
 had taken on hazing, and said : " Now if you will 
 
 take the opportunity to watch " He never 
 
 finished the sentence, for I interrupted him by say- 
 ing : " I will not be a spy and I despise the tell-tale." 
 The next Sabbath H. B. Smith preached upon the 
 text, " Whatsoever things are honest, etc.," and re- 
 ferred to the stand John C. Calhoun took on hazing 
 at Yale College during his generation. It was em- 
 barrassing to see so many heads turned towards me. 
 In those days many graduates came on the stage 
 and spoke at Commencement. The name of the 
 address indicated in a measure the standing of the 
 student in his class-work. There were first-class 
 orations, second-class orations, disquisitions and 
 dissertations. I had a second-class oration. There 
 were six first-class orations and I was told that my 
 name stood first <in the list of second-class orations. 
 So I must have been the seventh in scholarship out 
 of a class of forty-two. These were days of great 
 political excitement. Congress had passed a reso- 
 lution, that there should be no agitation of the slave 
 question during the session. Mr. Nash, one of the 
 townspeople, who had heard the debate on the 
 Fugitive Slave Law, asked me to choose my sub- 
 ject for Commencement from the great questions of 
 the day, adding, " You are the only one to handle 
 them." My subject was "Agitation." Dr. Warner, 
 
COLLEGE Aim SEMINAEY DATS 7B 
 
 the Professor of Elocution, heard the oration, com- 
 mended the style, diction and the address as a 
 whole ; but added, " I cannot allow it to come on at 
 , CJommencement." He gave as his reason for re- 
 fusing it the fact that there would be present many 
 Ainmni from the South, and others sympathizing 
 with them ; adding that " they were all our guests, 
 and to have your oration delivered as you would de- 
 liver it, would be lite a man who had invited a 
 friend to dinner, and then kicked him out." I 
 asked the Professor if he would regard it as dis- 
 courteous if I should appeal from his decision to 
 the Faculty. He said that he would be delighted to 
 be relieved of the responsibility. Professor Tyler 
 heard the oration and brought his hand down with 
 vigour, and said, " It shall come on." The papers 
 praised and blamed about equally. The next day,^ 
 or soon after, I took my autograph-book to Pro- 
 fessor Warner, and I find in it now the name of 
 that perfect gentleman written beneath the words : 
 "Agitate till your spirit finds perfect rest in God." 
 Here is the address : 
 
 "Motion is the law of the material universe. 
 The agitation of the earth, air and sea escapes not 
 the observation of the grosser senses, while only re- 
 sults tell us of the imperceptible commingling of 
 minute particles. The element, seen in the rock to- 
 day, to-morrow appears in the tender plant, and the 
 next day is a part of our own being. Morning and 
 noon joyfully sip from land and sea vapours, which 
 gentle nighWgain distills in the dews of evening. 
 
76 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 The fire-god, riding on the burning wave, throws 
 from the interior of the earth the melted lava, 
 wjiich, worked by the rains of heaven, descends into 
 the rippling streamlet, is borne to the ocean, crowd- 
 ing from their bed the waters, forming new conti- 
 nents for the habitation of man. The planets, as 
 they revolve around the sun, and the ^olar system 
 about a greater centre, and that around the great 
 intelligent first cause, tell us plainly that rest be- 
 longeth not to material things. 
 
 "As motion is the law of matter, so activity is 
 the law of mind. When God first breathed into 
 man the breath of life, he became a sentient, feel- 
 ing, active being. He drank in thought, filling the 
 memory and furnishing the fancy with materials 
 for a new creation of its own, when the bodily 
 senses should sink to rest. Activity is the law of 
 min^. When repose comes over the watchful senses 
 the mind sleeps not. In dreams we love and hate, 
 make peace and war, and do battle for truth. We 
 will to speak, but the tongue stirs not; we will to 
 go, but the limbs move not. The will remains in its 
 strength and energy, only that mysterious link 
 which gives it power over the mental and physical 
 frame is broken. Not inactive then but unobeyed. 
 Motion and activity are laws superinduced by 
 Deity up6n the world of matter and upon the world 
 of mind — and also in the world of principles there 
 are agitation and conflict. Truth and error, in na- 
 ture opposite, are strongly commingled in all that 
 is human, and it is the life-work of man to separate 
 
\ 
 
 COLLEGE AJTO SEMINAEY DAYS 77 
 
 the one from the other. Truth -will conquer. Error 
 must be exiled. The history of the past tells us 
 that the most successful in this war of extermina- 
 tion have, in their day, been branded with the op- 
 probrious name of Agitator, Kadical, Enthusiast, 
 Fanatic. Yet the following age has revered their 
 memories, celebrated them in song and handed them 
 down to their children in lasting remembrance. 
 
 " Truth has ever been the aggressive and Error 
 the conservative principle. And why not? Truth 
 can lose nothing by agitation but may gain all ; and. 
 Error can gain nothing but lose all. It was the 
 Ark of God that came to Ashdod and challenged 
 false Dagon. It suffered no harm but Dagon fell. 
 He was set up again but again he fell with loss of 
 head and hands, and then that Agitator the Ark 
 was removed to another place and Dagon prospered. 
 Tyrant, Despot, Pope and Priest are ever the 
 enemies of agitation, and, when in their domains 
 ^a master spirit arises and disseminates freedom and 
 truth, the rack and inquisition clutch another vic- 
 tim. There can be no quiet when antagonistic prin- 
 ciples meet. The great model Agitator brought not 
 peace to human society but a sword. Children 
 fought with parents and parents with children; 
 pallid fear shook the limbs of kings, jealousy black- 
 ened the face of monarchs, envious priests shook 
 their skinny fingers, and the gaping multitude 
 hooted and mocked. Society was aroused from its 
 stupor — ^no longer did the angel of moral death flap 
 his blackened wings over the stagnation of cor- 
 
78 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 rupt humanity. But a change came. The wise 
 man and the -sober-minded man and the very con- 
 servative man declared that the peace and union of 
 society required that all agitation should stop. 
 Then Truth slept in the tomb and Error unrivalled 
 reigned — ^but reigned not long — for Truth came 
 forth and with a weapon sharper than a two-edged 
 sword marched on from agitation to conquest and 
 shall march tiU 
 
 " 'Error's monstrous shapes from earth are driven, 
 And Truth again shall seek her native heaven.' ^ 
 
 " There wUl be agitation in religion till supersti- 
 tions and forms and dogmas shall give way to piety 
 and sound doctrine — in morals till the lion and the 
 lamb shall lie down together — in politics till aris- 
 tocracies and oligarchies and democracies shall 
 end in one grand Theocracy. Agitation in politics? 
 — No: the edict has gone forth, and finality is 
 now written on Agitation legislation. Finality! 
 Strange word in the vocabulary of political lan- 
 guage, doubly strange in the light of the nineteenth 
 century, and triply strange in the land of the free. 
 Has a nation attained to perfect legislation or is it 
 satisfied with less? Has Kepublican America lately 
 communed with the shades of the past and caught 
 the spirit of the Mede and the Persian? O! tell 
 it not lest the crowned heads of Europe rejoice. 
 Finality ! There is no finality this side of the gates 
 of the New Jerusalem or the brazen bars of Hades. 
 Chain the lightning in its track and hold the thun- 
 
COLLEGE AND SEMINAET DATS 79 
 
 der still, brlt freemen «n?Z discuss and agitate prin- 
 ciple as long as 
 
 " 'Liberty like day 
 Breaks on the sonl and by a flash from heaven 
 Fires all the faculties witli glorious joy.' 
 
 " The patriot and the philanthropist will apply 
 the caustic and the knife till the hideous ulcer is re- 
 moved from the body-politic, 
 
 "'O, not yet 
 May'st thou unbrace thy corselet nor lay by 
 Thy sword, nor yet, O Preedom, close thy lids 
 In slumber,, for thine enemy never sleeps. 
 And thou must watch and combat tiU the day 
 Of the new Earth and Heaven.' " 
 
 After Commencement I left Amherst for Shrews- 
 bury to take charge of the school already referred 
 to. The school opened prosperously with more pu- 
 pils than were expected. So many came in fact that 
 my cousin was employed to assist me. The school 
 was a success. The boys played Julius Caesar, and 
 there were readings and lectures from time to time. 
 Old Dr. Brigham, in expressing his satisfaction, 
 said : " I do not know, or much care, how much you 
 have taught them, for you have brought harmony 
 into the village, and cast out discord, which is 
 worth more to us." I made |200 in eleven weeks, 
 returned to Amherst and paid my debts. 
 
 In the Autumn I went to Andover, presented my- 
 self to Professor Stowe, who examined me in New 
 
80 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 Testament Greek. He opened tlie book to a chap- 
 ter which I knew by heart in the English. I ap- 
 plied the King James Version to the Greek' Text and 
 was admitted to the Seminary. I boarded at Mr. 
 Eaton's, Vice-Principal of the Academy. After a 
 few days Professor Park sent for me, and in his 
 inimitable style said that he was much distressed 
 for the welfare of the Seminary because the price of 
 board was advancing so much that students would 
 be deterred from coming to Andover; that he had 
 heard that I had much experience in forming asso- 
 ciations where the students could obtain good board 
 for about cost price. He did not use the word 
 " club " as being too common. The r^ult was that 
 he went in person with me to Salem Street, and in- 
 troduced me to the Misses Phelps. Arrangements 
 were made for a club over which I presided through 
 my whole course at Andover. At ^ the end of the 
 first year I visited my father in Ohio. I saw him 
 for the last time. One Sunday we walked to a 
 meeting in the red schoolhouse, which stood in place 
 of the old log schoolhouse. Walking silently along 
 he abruptly said : " Daniel, are you going to be a 
 missionary?" After the answer he walked on a 
 space and slowly with trembling lip said : " I would 
 not, unless you can say with one of old, ' O Lord, 
 send me not unless Thy Spirit go with me.' " 
 
 In due time I was licensed to preach and supplied 
 several pulpits. The Society of Enquiry appointed 
 me at Commencement to give the Annual Oration. 
 I chose for my subject, " The Claims of the Mission- 
 
Dr. and Mrs. Bliss. 
 
COLLEGE Aim SEMnTAET DATS 81 
 
 ary Work upon tie Mental Strength of the Minis- 
 try." Professor Park asked me to attach an appro- 
 priate text to the discourse, and to deliver it on the 
 Sabbath in Park Street Church, Boston, which he 
 was to supply that Sabbath. I did so. ^After- 
 wards the piece was published by the American 
 Board and is known as Number 14 in their Tract 
 Series. I was ordained to the Gospel Ministry by 
 a CoxmcU Meeting at Amherst. Dr. Woodbridge 
 was Chairman at the first sitting. He finally with- 
 drew from the Council on account of a disagree- 
 ment between him and the candidate on some theo- 
 logical question. The Council reassembled, or- 
 dained me, and Dr. Stearns gave his approval of the 
 ordination by asking me to preach in College Chapel 
 the next Sabbath. Good old Dr. Woodbridge, on 
 leaving, met me in the hall below, put his hand on 
 my shoulder, and said : " I hope that you will do 
 well, young man, but I can't lay hands on you! " 
 
 On the twenty-third of November, 1855, I was 
 married to Miss Abby Maria Wood, of Amherst, 
 and thus my single life ended — I being thirty-two 
 years, three months and six days old. 
 
rv 
 
 THE FIRST yOYAGE TO SYRIA 
 
 ON December 12, 1855, Mr. and Mrs. Bliss left 
 Boston on the Sultana, a sailing ship of three 
 hundred tons burden. Mr. Bliss, who had ex- 
 pressed no choice as to his field of labour, had been ap- 
 pointed to Syria by the American Board for Foreign 
 Missions, — ^popularly known as the A. B, C. F. M. — 
 which directs the missionary activities of the Congrega- 
 tional Church of the United States. The Sultana car- 
 ried also six other missionaries, including Mr. Tillman 
 Trowbridge, who many years later became the first Presi- 
 dent of the Central Turkey College at Aintab, and Mr. 
 H. H. Jessup, whose "Fifty-three Years in Syria" gives 
 a fascinating account of his work in that land. 
 
 The first long letters describing the voyage to Malta, 
 written by Mr. and Mrs. Bliss, were lost in a shipwreck. 
 Fortunately Mrs. Bliss kept a journal and some months 
 later was able with its help to supplement in a letter to 
 her mother and sister, her recollections of the trip. The 
 following account we have woven, in Mrs. Bliss' own 
 words, from these two sources: 
 
 I assure you those lost letters can never be re- 
 written with a tithe of the interest to you or me, for 
 they were written in the freshness of a new experi- 
 ence and with feelings which, only such circum- 
 
 82 
 
THE FIEST VOYAGE TO STEIA 83 
 
 stances could inspire. I found tlie distance widen- 
 ing between us as we sailed from your sight, and 
 ere long, we could not distinguisli you two from the 
 crowd — and then for a moment I strained my eyes 
 and an almost supernatural sight was given me as 
 you stood distinctly from the rest to my view. I 
 felt it was the last look and asked my husband to 
 take me below, for I was almost perishing with cold. 
 It was very sweet in our stateroom to commend you 
 once more to God and then leave you in His hands 
 feeling that His grace would be sufficient for you. 
 My husband cheered me with many comforting re- 
 flections and interested me in putting our room in 
 order for the voyage, so we were soon cheerfully 
 busy. 
 
 In five hours with our favourable wind we were 
 out of sight of land, which we did not see again for 
 twenty days. There was no one to answer the sum- 
 mons to tea, we were all tucked away in our berths 
 in a state of " expectation." 
 
 After the first day we had constant gales for three 
 weeks, not one clear day. The vessel was in con- 
 stant motion. We could not stay on deck without 
 being tied to a mast, or to the sides of the vessel, and 
 without blowing about with every gale. We were 
 in imminent danger if we walked in the cabin — we 
 often fell headlong against the stove or table or 
 perhaps into a stateroom under the berths. We 
 were black and blue for bruises. The water got 
 into my berth and wet it through and through and 
 there was no earthly way of drying it — ^no sun, a^dr 
 
84 • DANIEL BLISS 
 
 the stove had fallen down twice in the night with all 
 the fire in it, thereafter we had no fire. But all voy- 
 ages are not like ours. The Captain had been at 
 sea twenty-five years and never had so uncomfort- 
 iable a passage. The night of the twentieth of De- 
 cember will never be forgotten by us. About four 
 o'clock in the morning, the day before, the wind had 
 changed to the southeast. Such a day ! The wind 
 howled and whistled and shrieked in at every crev- 
 ice and with increasing violence as the day went on. 
 We could hear the water washing constantly over 
 the decks. The voices of the Captain and thje mates 
 mingled with the howling of the storm. We grew 
 sicker and sicker and more forlorn and before night 
 the cabin was nearly deserted. About sis o'clock 
 an immense wave struck the fore part of the vessel, 
 submerging her entire decks with water and setting 
 afloat water-casks, boxes and everything not made / 
 fast. The vessel seemed to sink to a great depth, 
 then to settle with a sort of tremulous motion as 
 though she could never rise again. The Captain 
 said she must have had fifty tons of water upon the 
 deck at that time. At the moment of the crash 
 came the cry to the cabin " Man overboard ! " 
 Those who were able rushed to the entrance and 
 found the wave had struck the second mate and 
 thrown him overboard. But his arm caught on a 
 rope or chain and the return wave threw him with 
 great violence upon the upper-deck. He started to 
 go down to the fore-deck, but the stairs had been 
 washed away and he was hurled down by a sudden 
 
THE PIEST VOYAGE TO SYEIA 85 
 
 lurch, severely cutting Ms face and hands. He was 
 carried senseless and bleediug to the Captain's 
 room, where the passengers took care of him. 
 
 The Captain took ia aJl the sails save the main 
 top-sail, but it was torn in shreds by the wind and 
 a part of the yard-arms broken off, and this prob- 
 ably saved the vessel. The scene upon deck was ter- 
 rible. The man at the wheel was often knocked down 
 and finally lashed there to keep him in his place. 
 At about nine tiie Captaia "hove to," tied the 
 wheel, and said there was npthing more that earthly 
 power could do. 
 
 The sailors were much alarmed. We heard more 
 than one cry, " Lord Jesus, have mercy on me." In 
 the cabin all was quiet. Once we sang " Bock of 
 Ages " and then each one seemed communing with 
 his own heart and his Grod. We all found after- 
 wards that the same thought had come to each one 
 of us, that no missionary had ever been lost at sea 
 on the way to his station, and we felt God would not 
 permit so many to be swept away at once. 
 
 After twelve the wind abated a little and died 
 gradually away through that night and the next 
 day. 
 
 For days we were often meeting vessels more or 
 less , dismantled by this gale. And here I must 
 speak a word for our noble Captain; he was exceed- 
 ingly kind and attentive duriug the whole voyage 
 and always a perfect gentleman. He is a Dane and 
 a man of good education and extensive reading, and 
 much general intelligence. He presided at table 
 
86 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 and always sustained his part in conversation upon 
 every topic. I really loved him and was sorry to 
 part with him. The first mate, too, was a real sun- 
 beam. "Eain or shine," windy or calm, he had 
 always a pleasant smile and word of encourage- 
 . ment. The sailors were a very " hard " set, though 
 kind to us. But there was always order in the 
 vessel. There is something sublime in the compo- 
 sure of a sea-captain in all circumstances. Cap- 
 tain Watson never seemed to waver or fear. At the 
 time of that fearful gale he said not a word of dan- 
 ger, but used to speak of it often afterwards. 
 
 The first two Sabbaths no one was able to preach, 
 but afterwards we had services, though some- 
 times the preacher had to hold on with both 
 hands to keep straight. After we were able, 
 we had prayers every morning in the cabin 
 and studied familiarly the Book of the Acts 
 in the evening. We were a musical company and 
 passed many pleasant hours in singing. Mr. Jes- 
 sup was the life of our part/ and we should have 
 been quite dull without him. He is a splendid man. 
 He can do anything he fancies to do. We had 
 much fun Christmas morning. We found stock- 
 ings hung upon our door-knobs filled with knick- 
 knacks. I had really a beautiful present from the 
 Captain — a pair of black silk mitts, knit by hand in 
 Malta. We had a great dinner — indeed we had a 
 fine table all the time — all kinds of meat and vege- 
 tables, plenty of apples, nuts and raisins, and most 
 delicious puddings ; light, fresh bread every day, and 
 
THE PIEST VOYAGE TO SYEIA 87 
 
 tlie butter was good all the "Wjay. You may think 
 tMs a minor matteivbut one has a dainty appetite at 
 sea, and food makes much of comfort and discom- 
 fort. 
 
 The passengers were a very pleasant company. 
 We did not once " fall out by the way." Mr. Pol- 
 lard's stateroom was opposite ours, and one night, 
 there being much motion, their half-barrel of apples 
 tipped over and the apples rolled over into our room 
 (we slept with all our doors open). Our cracker 
 box followed and apples and crackers promenaded 
 the cabiu with great unanimity. Mr. Bliss has a 
 fondness for apples, and the first thing I saw was 
 him sitting on the floor eating an apple at dead of 
 night! I laughed till I almost cried. We had 
 much fun over our misfortunes. 
 
 We reached Gibraltar New Year's Day. When 
 we arose that morn the coast of Spain was just 
 coming into sight. Land to our sea-weary eyes was 
 a welcome sight. I kept running down every little 
 while that day to write you what we were passing, 
 but I have forgotten now. We saw old Cadiz in the 
 distance and many other walled towns, but the 
 vision has mostly faded from my mind's eye. At 
 noon the rock of Gibraltar came in sight. When 
 we had our first full view of it, the sun, shining 
 upon it through a mist, covered it with a thousand 
 rainbows. I hardly ever saw a more glorious sight. 
 All day we were seeing strange sights and hearing 
 strange sounds, and at night we had such a magnifi- 
 cent sunset behind Apes Hill opposite Gibraltar, 
 
88 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 The next morn we were again within a watery hori- 
 zon but in a few days were among the islands of the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 In the following letter Mrs. Bliss continues her ac- 
 count of her trip : 
 
 Malta Harbour, January IJfth. 
 
 You see we are still at anchor before Valetta, the 
 principal city of Malta. We entered this harbour 
 last Thursday morn at ten o'clock and anchored 
 about two rods from the shore. It seemed strange 
 to be near the land again and everything looks so 
 unlike our own America, we began fully to realize 
 we had left that blessed land. 
 
 The Island is said to be more densely populated 
 than any similar extent of land, one hundred and 
 twenty thousand souls. Two thousand of these are 
 priests and you meet them at every step. We are 
 told that Komanism has a stronger hold here than 
 even in Kome herself. There are one or more 
 priests connected with every family. 
 
 Thursday after dinner, a little boat came along- 
 side the vessel and rowed us to the wharf. The 
 harbour is full of these little boats of all forms and 
 colours, gliding noiselessly about, — some of them 
 very pretty and all of them forming quite a pic- 
 turesque feature in the scenery. Mr. Jessup had 
 letters for Mr. Winthrop,our American Consul, and 
 we took up our line of march for his house with a 
 Maltese named Antonio, for our guide. We found 
 .him a very pleasant affable man of fifty or there- 
 
THE PIEST VOYAGE TO SYEIA 89 
 
 abonts. He has been here twenty years and seems 
 quite weaned from Americji. Then we went to St. 
 John's Church, which contains the finest mosaics in 
 the world- The whole floor is mosaic, representing 
 various scenes in history, all formed of different 
 coloured stones. La Valette is the great hero of 
 battle in the Island. He is buried under this 
 church and his effigy is over this tomb. The city 
 of Valetta is named for him. Then we went shop- 
 ping at some of the bazaars where you find every- 
 thing that you could get at home and many articles 
 much cheaper. 
 
 The houses are very comfortable, high and airy, 
 built in blocks with green balconies over the second 
 and third story windows. Valetta is built upon the 
 sides of a hill and you ascend and descend the 
 streets, moving over it by flights of steps. These 
 make walking a long distance quite fatiguing. It 
 seemed good to tread terra firma once more, though 
 we all came home quite tired from our unusual ex- 
 ertions. .After tea we had a serenade from a band 
 of music in a little boat under our bows. They 
 played some of our national airs, though not very 
 well- 
 Friday mom we started out in two carriages for 
 a tour around the Island. We first went to the city 
 of Vecchia, about five miles from Valetta, where 
 we visited what is called " St. Paul's Cave," where 
 he is said to have lived for some time. There is 
 little foundation for this tradition. There is a 
 fimely carved statue of Paul here. A Church of 
 
90 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 Eome is erected over the spot and we were showed 
 about by a monk in his robes, each of us carrying a 
 lighted taper in our hands. Then we went to the 
 catacombs, where it is supposed the early Chris- 
 tians took refuge for a time from persecution.. The 
 entrance is about four feet high and the descent 
 nine feet underground. We then came upon a 
 number of rooms supported by pillars with numer- 
 ous inscriptions upon them. The air in these exca- 
 vations was very damp and impure. From these 
 dark abodes we proceeded to visit the gardens of St. 
 Antonio, which belong to the Government. Such 
 flowers and fruits our eyes never beheld before. 
 Boses, heliotrope and jessamine in great profusion 
 and many other flowers which were new to us. 
 Long lines of orange and lemon trees bordered the 
 beds, full of rich, ripe fruit. Oh! it all seemed to 
 us like Fairyland ! All this time you at home are 
 walking in Polish boots through snowdrifts and rid- 
 ing in sleighs and thawing out frozen pumps. Am 
 I dreaming? Of course, we might not lay a finger 
 upon fruit or flower in this Paradise, so the sign- 
 boards warned us, but through our good Consul we 
 had invitations to another garden near by, where 
 were eight hundred orange trees in full perfection 
 of fruit. Luigi Debono owned this garden and 
 bade us welcome with all the hospitality of these 
 Eastern people. The fruit was so delicious, fresh 
 from the trees. We regaled ourselves here for a 
 while, and then proceeded on our way. After a 
 WhUe we stopped under the shadow of an old mon- 
 
THE FIEST VOYAGE TO STRIA 91 
 
 asterj, drew our carriages side by side, and pro- 
 duced our lunch which the steward had provided 
 for our excursion. Six fat, burly monks leaned 
 over the "wall the whole time, watching us and 
 laughing as heartily as their indolence would allow. 
 The beggars, of which Malta is full, gathered 
 around us in a perfect crowd, and when we were 
 through we distributed the "fragments" among 
 them. One boy had followed us all the way from 
 Valetta calling every now and then for "bak- 
 sheesh." Even the babies in their mothers' arms 
 stretch out their little open hands calling " cavita," 
 which signifies a small piece of money. 
 
 After this primitive style of dining we proceeded 
 some miles in another direction to visit St. Paul's 
 Bay. We enjoyed this very much, the day was so 
 fine, the water so beautifully clear. We read the 
 twenty-seventh chapter of Acts and found so much 
 coincidence in the description and the scene before 
 us. Captain Watson, says there is no place in the 
 Mediterranean where "the two seas could meet" 
 as they do here. Mr. Jessup climbed a high rock 
 and took a sketch of the scene while we brought 
 away stones and shells as mementos. Our ride 
 home was delightful. The roads in Malta are all 
 macadamized and smooth as glass,, so there is no 
 jolting. The fields are very highly cultivated; 
 wheat, cotton and barley are the principal products. 
 We saw many women hoeing in the fields. The 
 country people live in little square stone houses per- 
 fectly flat upon the top and with no windows in 
 
92 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 Bight. Our attention was attracted by seeing all 
 the labourers (who were returning home at night) 
 raising their hats. Upon looking out we found that 
 the carriage of the Bishop was just behind us, and 
 all this reverence was paid to him. The carriages 
 in Malta are the most comical specimens. There 
 is no seat for the driver, but he runs along by the 
 donkey and helps hold the tongue up. We had 
 English carriages and Barbary horses, who were 
 lazy enough. But oh! the mules and donkeys — 
 they are the last specimens of awkwardness. They 
 are literally made beasts of burden. I saw one 
 carrying a woman, three children and three bags of 
 grain upon its back. It was almost all covered over. 
 
 The following extract from Dr. Bliss' Eeminiseences 
 supplements his wife's account of the stay in Malta: 
 
 We arrived at Malta on January 20, 1856. The 
 place was filled with British soldiers, some on their 
 way to England and others on their way from Eng- 
 land to the Crimea. Peace had been made be- 
 tween Kussia and Turkey a few days before our ar- 
 rival and the war was over. They were the first 
 soldiers armed and equipped that I had ever seen, 
 for I had never lived near a garrison of American 
 soldiers. While at Malta the Rev. Mr. Wisely, 
 agent of the British Foreign Bible Society, invited 
 us to dinner to meet Lady Parry, the wife of an ex- 
 Mayor of London, and others. All seemed to be full 
 of the military spirit. One of the guests asked me 
 about our navy and army. I replied that our navy 
 
THE FIRST VOYAGE TO SYEIA 93 
 
 was very small and that our army was still less, 
 only a few thousand men for the whole country. 
 He was inclined to depreciate America and extol 
 England, and finally asked what we could do in 
 case of a war with England. I replied, more 
 promptly than courteously, that we should do about 
 as we did in 1776. The conversation took a turn 
 at this point. We met a Dr. Keith, the author of a 
 small work on Prophecy used at Aadover in my 
 day. He unfolded to me some of his interpreta- 
 tions and said, " You see how clear and simple they 
 are." I was glad that he did not put this statement 
 in the form of a question, for my answer might have 
 embarrassed us both. "We visited Malta College, 
 which was founded a few years before and dis- 
 banded a few years after. When the ship was in 
 Valetta harbour " there arose against it a tempestu- 
 ous wind, called Euroclydon," which forced many 
 small vessels landward, dragging their anchors, 
 and ours among them. Captain Watson cast out 
 the sheet-anchor, attached the great hawser to the 
 capstan, and we men, all but one, threw off our 
 coats, threw our strength upon the levers, and 
 slowly the hawser coUed around the capstan and 
 drew back the ship to its place of safety and held it 
 there. We were in danger, but the event would be 
 hardly worth mentioning, were it not that during 
 the scene there was an exhibition of " a zeal of God 
 but not according to knowledge " and of following 
 literally Paul's advice to Timothy: "Eead the 
 word ! be instant in season and out of season " ; for 
 
94 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 in the midst of our dangers and labour, one of the 
 passengers solicited from the Captain a contribu- 
 tion for buying tracts for the sailors, most of whom 
 were on shore off duty. The Captain was indig- 
 nant at the time but afterwards thanked us for our 
 timely aid in hearty sailor-language, but in view of 
 the inopportuneness of the tract-man, he para- 
 phrased the imprecatory psalms in the dialect of 
 seafaring men. He was a good man and spoke out 
 so freely that we were relieved. Otherwise some of 
 us might have spoken " unadvisedly with his lips " 
 and grieved our zealous brother. 
 
 In a letter to Mrs. Bliss' mother and sister, Mr. Bliss 
 gives a description of the Malta College, referred to 
 above. 
 
 We are now about three hundred miles east of 
 Malta, but you will allow me to go back to that 
 Island and speak of things there. I suppose that 
 my wife will tell you of the thousand boats curi- 
 ously made and curiously propelled which filled the 
 harbour. She will tell of beggars dressed in rags ; 
 of Arabs with their long, filthy, loose gowns; of 
 Turks with high turbans ; of the Maltese lady with 
 her neat Omella thrown gracefully over her head ; 
 of countrymen and women with sandals bound to 
 their sunburnt feet ; of priests with long black coats 
 and hats peculiar to themselves ; of monks with long 
 brown cloaks and little caps on close-shorn heads ; 
 of English soldiers with red coats; of donkeys, 
 horses, mules; strangely built carriages; of men, 
 
THE FIEST VOYAGE TO STEIA 95 
 
 women and children of aU sizes, colours and lan- 
 guages under Heaven (except English). She will 
 tell you of all these, for she wished me to commence 
 with an account of the Malta College. The object 
 of this College is to educate young men for teachers, 
 preachers, Bible-readers, etc. Many of the scholars 
 receive their education free of expense. But all 
 such pupils must be natives of some of the countries 
 around the Mediterranean and must come well rec- 
 ommended and must agree to settle in their native 
 country or in the East, as preachers, schoolmasters 
 or religious teachers of some kind. You under- 
 stand, of course, that it is a Protestant college and 
 is supported by contributors from England and 
 elsewhere. Rev. Mr. Carr is at the head of the in- 
 stitution, a man of great learning, and I should 
 judge that he is very devoted. There are only 
 about fifty scholars connected with the College at 
 present. We dined with Mr. Carr and with the 
 scholars, for all board together, pupils and pro- 
 fessors. There are boys there from ten or eleven 
 different nations — Greeks, Armenians, Arabs, 
 Turks, Jews, Abyssioians, etc., etc. You must 
 know that it is very expensive to carry on the course 
 of instruction here, for often the professor (or mas- 
 ter as he is called in the College) must be obtained 
 to teach one pupil. At dinner Mr. Carr told me 
 that as many as chose on leaving the table retired 
 into a small chapel for prayers. Some one of the 
 advanced class offered a short prayer and then all 
 returned to their rooms. This was their dailj 
 
96 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 habit after dinner. How interestingT THen, too, 
 their custom is to remember the different nations on 
 particular days — Monday they ask God to bless 
 America ; Thursday was the day when they prayed 
 for Malta and Italy. Mr. Oarr asked me to lead 
 the devotions, so we knelt and prayed to our com- 
 mon Father. We did literally come from the East 
 and the West, from the North and the South, and 
 offered our petitions. Tes, there are a few names 
 in Malta that remember to call upon God. 
 
 On January 16th, the missionaries left Malta for 
 Smyrna, where they arrived on the twenty-second of the 
 same month. Here they said good-bye to the Sultana, 
 and, after a week there, proceeded to Beirut by French 
 steamer. The account of the voyage in a letter from 
 Mrs. Bliss to a cousin might pass for a description writ- 
 ten to-day, so little has the daily life of the East changed 
 in these sixty years ! 
 
 "At Sea, January SOth. 
 
 You see we have commenced our travels again. 
 This is a French steamer and the officers can speak 
 nothing but French. I am the only lady among the 
 cabin passengers and have plenty of attention from 
 this polite nation, I have a maid in rather too con- 
 stant attendance, for she seems to think I am very 
 young and delicate and will not let me stir on deck 
 without much extra wrapping up, etc. 
 
 Mr. Bliss and I have the Ladies' Cabin to our- 
 selves, a fine large room, with Turkey carpets, vel- 
 vet divans, etc., and a very good piano. This we 
 
THE FIEST VOYAGE TO STEIA 97 
 
 enjoy very mach and there is scarcely any motion, 
 so things are not all tmnbllng about as on the 
 Atlantic. We rise about seven and as soon as we 
 are ready the waiter brings us a cup of tea to our 
 room. Then we walk a little on deck and at half- 
 past nine we are called to breakfast. At one we 
 can have lunch if we wish, which we do not. At 
 five we dine — ^we have about seven meat courses and 
 pudding, cake, nuts, etc. About half -past seven we 
 have simply a cup of tea. This is in honour of my 
 presence and was not practised untH I came on 
 board. I must say all this form is very tiresome. 
 Such a motley crowd as fills the deck. Turks, 
 Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Arabs, Abyssinians, and 
 I know not how many other nations. Many of 
 them are pilgrims going to Jerusalem and many are 
 feeble soldiers from the Crimea. They are a pitiable 
 looking set. It is among such as these we are to 
 labour. It is hard to realize that some of them 
 have souls. Their faces are so entirely devoid of 
 expression. There is one Turk on board, evidently 
 a man of rank. He has a train of servants. Two 
 of them are always near him, and watch every mo- 
 tion and look. He has a beautiful, benignant coun- 
 tenance, a long- gray beard and such agreeable man- 
 ners. He gave us some delicious oranges last eve 
 and came in to hear me sing, expressing much pleas- 
 ure and beating time with his fingers. Of course, 
 he would not eat with us. But he drank wine and 
 coffee at our table. He smokes a pipe three feet 
 long. He offered this to Mr. B. yesterday, which 
 
98 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 was a mark ol high respect. His dress is very rich 
 and costly. The weather is very delightful and 
 growing warmer all the time. We were a whole 
 week at Smyrna. Five of our Atlantic party left 
 Thursday for Constantinople. We had been to- 
 gether so long it was quite a trial to be broken up. 
 
 Smyrna is a very disagreeable city. The streets 
 are so narrow that if you meet a camel or donkey 
 you must dodge into a niche in the wall or doorway 
 while they pass. Then they are paved with little 
 round slippery stones which make walking quite a 
 perilous thing. There is a little stream of water 
 constantly running through the centre of the street, 
 which is not always very pure! Such mud and 
 filth I never dreamed of. I longed for stilts or 
 seven-leagued boots to raise me out of it. There 
 has been a band of robbers about the town for a few 
 months and a few days before we arrived three of 
 them were taken and executed. There are parts of 
 Smyrna where it would not be safe for an English- 
 man to go alone. H. lost his way one day and some 
 Turks set seven or eight dogs upon him. He was 
 frightened out of his seven senses and arrived at 
 Mr. Parsons' in a state of excessive pallor and per- 
 spiration. Poor H.! All the misfortunes of our 
 whole party seemed to be concentrated upon him, 
 and yet, Micawber-like, in half an hour all his trials 
 vanish before a mutton chop or plum-pudding. . . . 
 The missionaries in Smyrna employ Greek men to 
 do their cooking and work. So we had some of the 
 native dishes. Pillaffe of several kinds, or ricei 
 
THE FIEST VOYAGE TO SYEIA 99 
 
 cooked in the gravy of tie meat in dififerent ways, 
 which is much used in all the East and is very good. 
 
 Beirut, February 11th. 
 Here we are in Beirut, our home, where we ar- 
 rived last Thursday morn at sunrise. Scarcely was 
 our anchor dropped when three missionaries were 
 on board to welcome us. All the places along the 
 coast had looked so miserable that I had felt heart- 
 sick, but the view of BeirM from the vessel was 
 perfectly enchanting. A brisk little donkey awaited 
 me at the landing, which proved as easy as our pony 
 in riding. The streets of the city are much wider 
 and cleaner than iu Smyrna. The missionaries live 
 outside the city-walls among beautiful gardens. 
 Mr. Hurter's, where we are, is really a mile from 
 the landing. Mrs. Hurter gave us a cordial wel- 
 come and we sat down to a real E"ew England break- 
 fast of slap-jacks, which seemed so good after our 
 French cookery. Thus we were brought to the end 
 of our travels. 
 
 Here the letter breaks off, as the last sheet is missing. 
 The glow of that homelike welcome never faded from 
 the heart and life of Mrs. Bliss. For more than fifty 
 years it was her especial delight to prepare her breakfast 
 table for persons newly coming to Syria, or for friends 
 returning from a furlough. The anniversary of that 
 first landing was ever a high festival in our family. On 
 that long-ago morning of Februai^ seventh the almond 
 trees were in blossom. The delicate pink and white 
 flower became an emblem of the festival, and in our 
 minds will never cease to be associated with its memory. 
 
MISSIONARY LIFE IN THE LEBANON 
 
 IT is no wonder that Mrs. Bliss found that first view 
 of Beirut from the ship's deck "perfectly enchant-^ 
 ing. ' ' No matter how often one returns, the beauty 
 of the town's setting awakens a fresh surprise. In the 
 Crystal air of a cloudless winter's morning, it is a gleam- 
 ing panorama of vivid though delicate colouring. For 
 almost a hundred miles stretch the lower seaward ranges 
 of the Lebanon, with a waving sky-line about three thou- 
 sand feet above the sea, dipping down to promontories to 
 north and south. No thick forests clothe the slopes, but 
 the bare soil and rocks are tinted with hues of gray and 
 violet, shading into mauve or deepening into purple. 
 Immediately behind these ranges appear, here and there, 
 the snow-clad summits of the backbone of the mountain- 
 system. At the head of the Dog Eiver gorge, Sunnin 
 lifts its splendid white mass to a height of 8,500 feet 
 above the sea. Further to the south is Keniseh, some 
 2,000 feet lower. Above the mountains is the blue sky, 
 below the blue sea. Countless villages catch the eye. 
 Here one flashes out from the sea-border ; another climbs 
 a slope; another lies along a ridge. Monasteries perch 
 on the high crags. iVaUeys open out. Eavines cleave 
 the slopes. The city of Beirut occupies the tip of a fer- 
 tile triangular plain, jutting out from the base of the 
 hills. When our missionaries first saw the town, it had 
 
 100 
 
MISSION AEY LIFE IS THE LEBANON 101 
 
 barely thirty thousand inhabitants, most of whom were 
 crowded within the city walls. It must have presented 
 but a drab appearance. Since then it has more than 
 quintupled in population, the walls are gone, while a gay 
 note of colour has been added by the red tiles on the 
 houses, which are often painted light-blue, or yellow, or 
 green, or pink. Then as now the town was surrounded 
 by gardens. 
 
 The Beirut Station had been occupied for the Ameri- 
 can Board for Foreign Missions by Pliny Fisk in 1823. 
 He was soon followed by other pioneers : Isaac Bird, Wil- 
 liam Goodell and Jonas King. Work from this centre 
 had thus been prosecuted in Syria for thirty-three years 
 before Mr. Bliss arrived. Systematic efforts for eon- 
 verting Moslems were practically impossible, as, accord- 
 ing to Moslem law, apostasy from Islam means death. 
 The Turkish Government had indeed given equivocal as- 
 surances of toleration in religious matters, but without 
 clear guarantee of immunity for Moslems who might 
 propose to change their faith. Hence missionary labour 
 had been, necessarily, almost exclusively directed to 
 members of the Christian Churches which were largely 
 in a superstitious and unspiritual condition, and under 
 the domination of a worldly and ambitious hierarchy. 
 At first there was no plan or desire to form a native 
 Protestant community. The hope was that, through the" 
 presentation of a pure Gospel and by the example of a 
 nobler code of ethics, these churches might be led to re- 
 form themselves. It was hoped that such vitalized 
 bodies might have a profound influence on the Moham- 
 medan communities among which they existed, commend- 
 ing Christianity as a religion that offers what is wanting 
 in Islam, instead of shaming it by a life and teaching iij 
 some points inferior to the life and teaching of Moslems. 
 
102 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 The chief churches of Syria and Palestine are three: The 
 Maronite, the Greek and the Greek-Catholic. The Greek 
 Church in the Turkish Empire forms an independent 
 branch of the Holy Orthodox Church, which may be con- 
 sidered to be in a historic sense as the most lineal repre- 
 sentative of the Church as organized at the time of the 
 Council of Nice, and which now includes the national 
 churches of Russia, Bulgaria, Servia, Greece, etc. The 
 Greek-Catholics split off from the main body of Syrian 
 Greeks about a century before Pliny Pisk came to Beirut. 
 They differ from the Greek Orthodox solely in their ac- 
 knowledgment of the supremacy of the Pope, with some 
 slight ecclesiastical modifications therein logically in- 
 volved. Otherwise in ritual, in the main points of the- 
 ology, in ecclesiastical discipline, such as the ordination 
 of married men to the priesthood, they are the same. 
 Both use the Arabic language in their services. 
 
 The Maronite Church has always been regarded as the 
 National Church of the Lebanon. As the Greek Church 
 follows the Byzantine tradition, so the Maronite repre- 
 sents a local Syrian ecclesiastical development, differing 
 but little originally from the Syrian Church in Mesopo- 
 tamia in ritual and practice. Its services are in Syriac 
 and Arabic. "While it forms a compact unit with strict 
 home rule it has been firmly Papal since Crusading times 
 when submission was offered to Rome. It has adopted 
 many Roman practices, thus placing itself in contrast 
 with the Greek Catholics and other Uniate Bodies. How- 
 ever, ordination of married men is permitted. It may 
 be said in a word that these three churches with aU their 
 mutual antagonisms have infinitely more in common with 
 each other than any one of them has with Protestantism, 
 which often fails to distinguish between their slight dif- 
 ferences of doctrine and practice. The organization of a 
 
MISSIONAET LIFE IN THE LEBANON 103 
 
 native Protestant Church, which took place in Beirut in 
 1848, was forced upon the missionaries by the logic of 
 circumstances. Though not in their programme, it 
 might have been foreseen. The preaching of "truth" 
 was inevitably followed by the exposure of "error." 
 The famous "thirteen letters" written by Mr. Isaac 
 Bird in 1833, and directed against the main points in 
 which Eomanism differs from Protestantism, were a 
 straight challenge to opposition. Even earlier than this, 
 persecution of those who accepted the evangelical teach- 
 ing had been instigated by Eoman Catholic missionaries, 
 and actively endorsed by the aU-powerful Maronite 
 Patriarch. Turned out of their own churches, many 
 individuals were received, one by one, into the Protestant 
 communion. Finally their numbers became large enough 
 to warrant the granting of their demand for organiza- 
 tion into a distinct native body. In the seventy years 
 which have since elapsed, several other churches have been 
 organized. After the Presbyterian Board took over the 
 Syrian Mission, these were grouped in Presbyteries. The 
 total church-membership of the American Mission now 
 includes about three thousand individuals. These num- 
 bers, however, present but a false gauge of the result of 
 these seventy years. The leaven of Protestantism 
 has worked quietly though powerfully in the other 
 Churches, so that to a certain extent the purposes of the 
 pioneers are beginning to be carried out. A better un- 
 derstanding between the old Churches and the American 
 Mission has terided to substitute mutual toleration for 
 mutual opposition. 
 
 On the day of their landing the new missionaries had 
 an opportunity of meeting the chief men among the na- 
 tive converts, gathered in Beirut from many different 
 parts for a business meeting. It was a group of serious. 
 
104 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 dignified, thoughtful men. They were Protestants by 
 conviction: their attitude had cost them something. 
 Many of these men became lifelong friends of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Bliss. A few weeks later the members of the Mis- 
 sion assembled for their Annual Meeting. What a 
 notable company was ttere ! From Abeih came Mr. Cal- 
 houn, the Saint of Mount Lebanon, whose holy life was 
 felt to be so potent a force, that a poor woman once 
 begged his servant for a bit of his clothing that she 
 might burn it and with the smoke of its incense cure her 
 sick child. From the neighbouring Deir-al-Qamr came 
 Mr. William Bird, bom the same day with Daniel Bliss, 
 son of one of the pioneer missionaries, loved no less for 
 his own sake than for his father's. At Beirut lived Mr. 
 Ford, father of Dr. George Ford, of Sidon ; and also the 
 noted scholar. Dr. Eli Smith. As a travelling companion 
 of Dr. Edward Robinson in 1838, Dr. Smith, by his 
 knowledge of the Arabic and the mentality of the people, 
 had contributed very materially to the success of the 
 journeys which resulted in the brilliant and scholarly 
 "Researches in Palestine" of the American Professor. 
 But Dr. Smith's great work was the translation of the 
 Scriptures into Arabic, which, however, he did not live 
 to complete. He was just then beginning to print Gene- 
 sis. "He was delighted," says Dr. Bliss in his Remi- 
 niscences, "when told that I had brought with me Dean 
 Alford's recent text. He asked me at once to let him 
 have it. A few days after Dr. Thomson said: 'Brother 
 Bliss, you have put off the translation two or three 
 years.' Somewhat perplexed I askpd why. He contin- 
 ued, 'You have brought out a new text and Dr. Smith' 
 will go through it all before proceeding in his transla- 
 tion.' " 
 Dr. William M. Thomson and Dr. C. Y. A. Yan Dyck 
 
MISSIOFAET LEPE DT THE LEBANON 106 
 
 were then stationed at Sidon. Dr. Van Dyek was a 
 many-sided genins; linguist, teacher, preacher, physi- 
 cian, astronomer. He came to Syria in 1840, at the age 
 of twenty-one, as a medical man with no academic train- 
 ing behind him. But after his arrival he so mastered 
 Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac that on the death of 
 Dr. Smith he was thoroughly equipped to complete the 
 translation of the Bible. No missionary in Syria was 
 ever more admired than he by the natives themselves. 
 His knowledge of the colloquial Arabic was so great that 
 he was sometimes taken for a Syrian; his fluency in 
 quoting the classical literature gave infinite delight to 
 this poetry-loving people. Dr. Thomson had been a 
 faithful missionary for twei^ty-three years when Mr. 
 Bliss came to Syria. While on his many journeys up 
 and down the land, he had collected the material for his 
 "The Land and the Book," published a few years later 
 and destined to become perhaps the most popular book 
 on Palestine ever written. 
 
 The other members of the Mission were Eddy of Kefr 
 Shima, and Benton of Bliamdun, both villages of the 
 Lebanon; Wilson of Hums, the ancient Emesa; Lyon 
 of Tripoli ; and Hurter, the lay printer of the Press at 
 Beirut. Dr. Eddy spent his later years in compiling 
 Scripture commentaries. Mr. and Mrs. Aiken had just 
 come out and at this meeting were assigned to Himis. 
 Mr. Bliss was stationed at Abeih, as this salubrious 
 mountain village was supposed to be the best suited to 
 so delicate a lady as his wife. Li their old age when Dr. 
 and Mrs. Bliss had retired from a life of eminently prac- 
 tical service, having survived inost of their contempo- 
 raries, our father loved to quote the following opinion 
 written to the Board at about this time by one of his col- 
 leagues, "The Blisses have arrived. Mrs. Bliss will not 
 
106 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 live a year and Mr, Bliss is not a practical man." At 
 the meeting was present Mr. Bliss' old friend and col- 
 lege teacher, Professor Tyler, who with his companions 
 had been visiting the Holy Land. Mr. Bliss had shared 
 with them an adventure which he thus describes in his 
 Reminiscences. 
 
 A few weeks after our arrival Professor Tyler, 
 George Washburn, Kichard Mather and Edward 
 Strong, all friends of ours, called upon us and in- 
 vited me to accompany them to Damascus and 
 Baalbek. As I had nothing to do but study Arabic, 
 Dr. Smith advised me to go with them, saying that 
 more Arabic could be learned from muleteers and 
 others than by studying with a teacher. We went 
 to Damascus by the old mule road; the carriage 
 road was 'not commenced till four years later. 
 From Damascus we went to Baalbek by way of 
 Blud^n. On our leaving Baalbek for Beiriit it 
 snowed and on our arrival at Muallaka, below Zah- 
 leh, it was more than a foot deep. Here we were 
 snow-bound for two days, suffering from filth, cold, 
 and from the fumes of charcoal. Saturday the sky 
 was perfectly clear, the sun intense in heat and daz- 
 zlingly bright, and we proposed to start for Beirut. 
 An experienced dragoman, also snow-bound, with 
 his party, scouted the idea of any one attempting to 
 cross the Lebanon that day, protested in the name 
 of humanity against our going, said it was impos- 
 sible, absurd, wicked, and finally turning to me he 
 said : " You Americans think that you can do every- 
 thing, and you can do everything that money can, 
 
MISSIONAET LIFE IN THE LEBANON 107 
 
 buy, or that strength can accomplish, but you can- 
 ttot conquer Ahnighty God. God says here and 
 now you cannot cross Lebanon to-day. Go, but you 
 go against God." I commended these words of the 
 dragoman and commend them to any traveller who 
 under similar conditions, boldly and foolishly con- 
 templates crossing a mountain five thousand feet 
 high, over a road where the mule tracks are oblit- 
 erated and without a sign or post to indicate where 
 it lies five or ten feet beneath the blinding snow. 
 We mounted our horses ^nd turned them towards 
 the mountains. Arriving at Khan Mur^d we found 
 the place filled with horses, donkeys, mules, camels, 
 and men unable to proceed on their way over the 
 mountains. We were perplexed. No places for 
 our horses ; no shelter for ourselves. Some advised 
 returning to Muallaka, others, remaining in the 
 open. Not one of the caravans gathered there 
 dared move on over the trackless snow. Beyond 
 the Khan some five thousand feet above the sea, not 
 a footprint of man or beast could be seen, not a rock 
 or stone uncovered, but a shining sameness of daz- 
 zling snow, almost blinding to the eyes. We all re- 
 called the advice of the dragoman. To spend the 
 night at the Khan was impossible; to return to 
 Muallaka or to go on were the alternatives. Per- 
 haps because I had been very quiet, or perhaps be- 
 cause I had had three weeks' experience in the coun- 
 try, Professor Tyler said to me : " Bliss, we will 
 follow your lead." In reply I said, " Come on ! " 
 and started upon the untrodden snow. For two 
 
108 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 hours or more we floundered througli the snow, 
 sometimes on our horses, sometimes off. Horses 
 fell, rolled over, righted themselves and fell again. \ 
 Men dismounted or were thrown and led their 
 horses. Men and beasts were getting weary and 
 some of us thought of the dragoman's words : " God 
 
 says here and now " I had a strong horse and 
 
 was far in advance of the rest of the party. ' From 
 an elevated spot I shouted out at the top of my 
 voice, " I see a thousand camels coming." There 
 were no camels there, but a long line of horses, doji- 
 keys, mules and men loomed up in the distance and 
 appeared in the clear mountain air like a "thou- 
 sand camels." "We thanked God and took cour- 
 age." The caravan which had been gathering on 
 the west side for two or three days had started that 
 morning to cross and had made a fairly good path 
 for us. Without much dif6.culty we Reached the 
 junction to B'hamdto about the setting of the sun. 
 It was still over six hours' ride from this place to 
 Beirdit. It was taken for granted that we should 
 spend the night and Sunday at this Mission Station. 
 After having reached the trodden path my horse fell 
 behind, and Washburn, Mather, and Professor 
 Tyler in their order led the way. On arriving op- 
 posite B'hamdftn they turned off towards the village. 
 I shouted out : " I hope you will have a restful night 
 and a pleasant Sunday. Good-bye, for I am going 
 to Beirut." All protested ; " it was late " — " it was 
 dark" — "the road stony and muddy" — "you are 
 tired out; it will be after midnight before you ar- 
 
MISSIONARY MFE IN THE LEBANON 109 
 
 rive," etc., etc. My only reply was " Good-bye." 
 No other reply could have been made, for their ar- 
 goments were sound and rational and should have 
 prevailed. Professor Tyler, in silence, heard the 
 conversation and finally said, " Bliss, you shall not 
 go alone. I •will go "with you." We went. 
 
 In the meantime, while we were slumping through 
 the snow on the slopes and top of Lebanon, Mrs. 
 Bliss was fully expecting to see me before night. 
 The missionaries told her that her expectations 
 were wholly groundless. Even Dr. Eli Smith 
 called and assured Mrs. Bliss, in his courtly man- 
 ner, that it was impossible to cross the mountains 
 and that it was almost wicked to hope that the at- 
 tempt had been made. He said that we were all 
 safe on the other side of the mountain and in a few 
 days would come over. Mrs. Bliss thanked bini for 
 his comforting words that we were safe, but added 
 that her " husband had not the experience of the 
 older missionaries and perhaps he would come after 
 all." We never knew how " x»erhaps " struck Dr. 
 Smith after his " Impossible " and " almost wicked 
 to hope." He was a courteous man. Night and 
 darkness came on; so did Professor Tyler and I. 
 Mrs. Bliss kept on her evening dress until twelve 
 o'clock. Still hoping, she laid it aside and put on 
 her dressing gown, with a lingering hope, and threw 
 herseM upon the bed. At one o'clock Sunday morn- 
 ing the clattering hoofs on the stone pavement an- 
 nounced that the " impossible was possible." We 
 were in Beiriit, having been in the saddle eighteen 
 
110 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 hours. Looking back after the knowledge of fifty- 
 three years, the protest of the dragoman was not too 
 strong. Although successful, the attempt was no 
 less dangerous and foolhardy, and should never be 
 repeated, — ^and yet your wife expected you! 
 
 It was the fifteenth of April, 1856, when Mr. and Mrs. 
 Bliss left Beirut for their mountain home. All travel 
 was then on horseback, as there were no carriage roads 
 in the land. Household goods were carried on the backs 
 of mules or camels. A mule-load might consist of a 
 bureau on one side and an organ on the other, with a 
 table waving its legs in the air in the middle, itself per- 
 haps supporting a coop of chickens. Small children de- 
 lighted to ride in boxes fastened to each side of a mule. 
 A family moimted on horses and donkeys, followed by 
 the pack-animals, made a long cavalcade. The annual 
 summer journey to the mountains was an event ever full 
 of romance to us children. Once outside the town, the 
 train plodded through the broad, sandy paths in the 
 pine forest, vocal with the metallic chirp of the crickets ; 
 and then wound along the lanes, hedged with cactus or 
 with the sweet musk-like acacia. In places these lanes 
 were sunk below the gardens of the Beirut plain, rich 
 with silvery olive trees, gay pomegranates and lofty 
 palms. At last we began to mount the steep and stony 
 bridle-paths of the foot-hills: fantastic rocks on the one 
 side, fertile terraces on the other. At noon a halt was 
 made for lynch at a picturesque fountain while the mules 
 went on. "How clear and cold the water gushed from the 
 spout in the high recessed wall, where delicate maiden- 
 hair waved, and clean little black shells might be spied ! 
 Already the air seemed cooler, after the heat of the plain 
 
MISSIONAEY LIFE IN THE LEBANON 111 
 
 ■which glowed and simmered below, and if the sun were 
 strong did not the great oak tree give a beautiful shade? 
 How far we seemed from our home town, but there it was 
 fifteen hxmdred feet below, spreading its glittering houses 
 along the broad, blue band of the sea ! Pleasant was the 
 rest, and pleasant it was to get once more into the saddle, 
 or into the box, and to climb up another thousand feet to 
 a point from which the road ran leyel for several nules to 
 the village of Abeih. 
 
 Owing to the terrace walls, the Lebanon slopes, when 
 seen from below, always appear bare, but when one looks 
 down upon them in the Spring-time, which was the sea- 
 son when Mr. and Mrs. Bliss first saw them, the vegeta- 
 tion shows a marvellous fertility. There are indeed many 
 long, barren stretches; there are tail cliffs and confused 
 masses of fallen rocks where nothing can grow ; but there 
 are also fields of wheat and barley ; orchards of mulberry 
 and olive and fig; groves of stately Italian pines, with 
 cushioned tops ; grape-vines, trailing their leaves of ten- 
 der green ; rich nests of foliage near some hidden valley- 
 spring, dusky golden in the mingled shade and sunlight ; 
 terrac^ made white as snow by a thick carpet of daisies, 
 or turned into a vivid pink by a solid mass of tiny blos- 
 soms. And all this vegetation springs from a soil that 
 seems to be entirely covered with stones ! 
 
 For about two years and a half Abeih was the" home of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Bliss. This mountain village was the 
 cradle of higher education in Syria. In 1843, Dr. Van 
 Dyck established there a high school which in three years 
 developed into the locally famous Abeih Acadepiy, a train- 
 ing school for teachers and preachers, whose influence ex- 
 tended far beyond the confines of the American Mission. 
 As a forerunner of the Syrian Protestant College it de- 
 mands brief notice. At that time the students numbered 
 
112 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 twenty-four. The chief attention was paid to the study 
 of the Bible, very little to the English language; among 
 other branches were taught Geography, Algebra, Geom- 
 etry, Trigonometry, Logarithms, and Physics from 
 Arabic text-books prepared by Dr. Van Dyck himself. 
 In 1849 he was succeeded in the Principalship by Mr. 
 Calhoun, who had charge till 1875. In the town was a 
 small native Protestant congregation and an elementary 
 school for boys. The Stations of Sidon and Tripoli 
 called for extensive touring in far distant out-stations, 
 but the work of the Abeih Station was concentrated in a 
 more limited area, with preaching and elementary schools 
 in a few neighbouring villages. 
 
 Abeih is situated on a slope about 2,500 feet above the 
 sea, but so near to it that the waves may be heard when 
 the surf is high. Beyond the red sand-dunes and the 
 olive forest of the plain may be seen Beirut. From the 
 bare ridge above the village, the coasts of Tyre and Sidon 
 are visible. In the centre of the town is the "midan" 
 or level field where once the Dtuse nobles used to hurl 
 their lances in sport as they dashed across it on horse- 
 back. Their fortress-like dwellings, whose foundations 
 were laid many centuries ago, are still standing near the 
 "midan." To-day the village shows many large red- 
 tiled houses, but in 1856 most of the dwellings were small 
 and mean — mere square blocks, with hardly an opening 
 to let in the light. The population of a few hundreds 
 was half Christian and half Druse. The Christians were 
 mainly Greek Orthodox and Maronites. The Druses will 
 be more fully noticed in the next chapter. When Mr. 
 and Mrs. Bliss came to Abeih, their nobles, some of whom 
 lived in that village, exercised feudal power over the 
 southern part of the Lebanon. They were greatly feared 
 by the peasants both Christian and Druse, who in return 
 
MISSIONAET LEFB IN THE LEBANON 113 
 
 for protection, against outside enemies rendered free 
 service, but often had to submit to oppression and extor- 
 tion from their protectors. Maronite nobles exercised 
 omilar power in the Northern Lebanon. The climate of 
 Abeih is on the whole delightfuL Mrs. Bliss notes that 
 during their first Summer, the thermometer seldom rose 
 above seventy-five degrees, though the Autumn was hot- 
 ter. One July they suffered from a prolonged spell of 
 Sirocco wind when the day temperature rose to eighty- 
 eight or ninety, with little relief at night. Practically no 
 rain falls from May to October. In Spring the air is 
 wonderfully bracing. In Winter snow occasionally falls 
 but soon melts. In February, 1857, a storm of wind and 
 rain raged for twenty-four days with ever-increasing vio- 
 lence. In those early days the roofs were of earth over 
 timber and as a refuge from the leaking the missionaries 
 had to sleep under umbrellas ! Mr. Bliss had hardly set- 
 tled in Abeih when he was called upon to perform a 
 painful service for a colleague. He thus describes the 
 matter in the Beminiseences : 
 
 Early in June a messenger from Hums brought 
 the sad and distressing news that Mrs. Aiken was 
 very ill indeed and that Mrs. Wilson, the only other 
 Frank lady, was confined to her bed. Neither Mr. 
 CaUionn nor I could see any way to help in the case, 
 but, thanks to the female mind, Mrs. Calhoun and 
 Mrs. Bliss said at once that Miss Cheney and Mr. 
 Bliss should go, start immediately, taking with 
 them our cook, Jirjius. In a few hours we were 
 well on our way to BeirAt hoping to find a chance 
 sailing vessel to take us to Tripoli that night. We 
 found one and were safely landed in Tripoli the f ol- 
 
// 
 
 114 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 lowing morning. Saleh, a good Moslem friend, 
 found for us three horses and a mule for the tent , 
 and the luggage, and we soon started on the long 
 journey for Hums. We camped for the first night 
 at the " Fountain of Bobbers " and had a refreshing 
 sleep and were not robbed. We started early in 
 the morning and rode on in the broUitig sun tUl ten 
 o'clock, when we saw a man approaching us, walk- 
 ing at full speed. We thought that he might be a 
 messenger and we hailed him. He was a messenger 
 and said that he had letters from Americans at 
 Hums to Americans at Tripoli. Miss Cheney sat 
 silent and anxious on her horse while I read the 
 letter and then she said, " What is it? " I replied, 
 " Mrs. Aiken will have died before we reach Hums." 
 We rode on and on for hours with scarcely a hope, 
 yet we did not quite despair of seeing our friend 
 till the horses' hoofs, resounding on the pavement 
 of the outer court, brought Mr. Aiken out, bare- 
 headed, with a wild, almost frantic look, shouting 
 out, "Dead and buried!" It was true. That 
 beautiful, charming Mrs. Aiken, the daughter of 
 Judge Cole of Albany, from whom we had parted 
 a few weeks before in perfect health, was " dead and 
 buried." Mr. Aiken (he was a classmate of mine 
 at Andover Seminary) continued shoutiug, " Bliss, 
 I expected you ; I knew that you would come. It is 
 just like you. Dead and buried ! " I remained a 
 few days in Hums trying to comfort my old class- 
 mate and then returned to Abeih, leaving Miss 
 Cheney to care for Mrs. Wilson. 
 
MISSIONAEY LEPB TS THE LEBANON 115 
 
 I came back by land in two days from Hums to 
 TripoH On tbe way to Beirut I slept a night at 
 Batrto and arrived at Kefr Shima about dark, 
 slept tiU two or three o'clock in the morning, and 
 then continued on to Abeih, arriving at the door of 
 Mr. Calhoun's house (Mrs. BMss was there) just 
 as he was saying in his morning prayer, " Oh Lord, 
 bless the absent one, and bring him back in safety in 
 Thine own good time." " Before they call I wiU 
 answer, and while they are speaking I will hear." 
 
 The main work of Mr. Bliss in Abeih was the stndy of 
 Arabic which he and his wife had already begun at 
 Beirut. " It is a terrible language!" wrote Mrs. Bliss 
 after trying to speak and to read it for nine months. 
 The difficulties it presents to a foreigner are certainly 
 formidable : strange gutturals, a novel syntax, and a be- 
 wildering distinction between the written language, used 
 also in formal discourse, and the speech of ordinary con- 
 versation. To master both the spoken and the written 
 forms seems at first almost like learning two different 
 languages. Owing perhaps to a lack of linguistic talent, 
 perhaps to the lateness of his academic training, Mr. 
 Bliss made comparatively slow progress. His wife in a 
 letter complains of his lack of self-confidence in this mat- 
 ter. As long as he was in Abeih he did not feel himself 
 competent to preach in Arabic. But he kept steadfastly 
 at his studies with a teacher for five hours a day, also 
 spending much time going about to talk with the people. 
 In the Reminiscences his modesty greatly underesti- 
 mates the proficiency which he finally acquired. With 
 (expert native assistance he prepared Arabic text-books in 
 both Moral and Natural Philosophy, which he used in the 
 
116 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 classroom for years. During those early days of the 
 College all Ms intercourse with the students was carried 
 on in Arahic. He certainly showed no lack of fluency in 
 the long stories with which he entertained his Arab 
 guests! 
 
 Taken in the mass, the Lebanese are the most intelli- 
 gent of all the Syrian folk. Quick, receptive, adaptable, 
 keen in judging character, they show many of the traits 
 of their Phoenician ancestors. Like them they have trav- 
 elled far and wide in other continents, seeking by trade 
 and other means to better their condition. This tend- 
 ency, which has developed in comparatively recent 
 years, has been one of the factors which make life in 
 Lebanon to-day very different from what it was when 
 Mr. and Mrs. Bliss first lived there. Almost in every 
 village there are found returned emigrants who have 
 brought back with them new ideas and customs. A more 
 important factor in this transformation is the religious 
 and educational work of American and other mission- 
 aries, Protestant and Roman Catholic, who have raised 
 the intellectual, social and ethical standards. Of course, 
 much of the old remains, but the picture we are about 
 to give of the Lebanon of 1856 should by no means be 
 taken as adequately representing the life of to-day, either 
 on its economic or ethical side. 
 
 Life was then both simple and complex : simple, in that 
 the people's .wants were few, and were mainly supplied 
 from the resources of their own village ; complex, by rea- 
 son of the elaborate social code, inherited from a p^st 
 rich in the nice appreciation of manners. If civilization 
 consists in appliances for making home-life comfortable, 
 agriculture intensive, travel easy, and communication 
 rapid — then the Lebanese were most uncivilized. Their 
 rude houses had little or no furniture; the roads were 
 
MISSIONAET LIFE IN THE LEBANON U7 
 
 often hardly better than watercourses; agriculture fol- 
 lowed Biblical methods of plowing and sowing and reap- 
 ing; of grinding the wheat for flour; of pressing the 
 olives for oil and grapes for wine. But if civilization 
 takes account of an elaborate etiquette covering speech as 
 well as conduct ; delicately adjusting the laws of prece- 
 dence ; furnishing the lowliest peasant with a stereotyped 
 phrase, always polite and often poetical, for every pos- 
 sible event or act — a birth, a death, a marriage, eating, 
 drinking, bathing, hair-cutting — ^the wearing of a new 
 coat or gown — surely the Lebanese possessed a highly 
 complicated civilization. As to education, the mass of 
 the people did not know how to read or write. Then as 
 now individuals of true virtue and piety were found in 
 every community, but in general the ethical plane was 
 low, though certainly higher than in many other parts of 
 the land. The far pleasanter task of rehearsing the good 
 qualities of the Syrians, with whom the missionaries 
 came in contact, we may undertake before enumerating 
 the bad. Family ties were strong ; reverence for the old 
 was unfailing; courtesy and politeness were ingrained; 
 hospitality was a beautiful and shining virtue ; patience 
 and endurance were a common heritage ; temperance, to- 
 gether with industry and frugality, formed the rule; 
 chastity among unmarried women was universal; the 
 peace-maker was indeed regarded as "blessed" and 
 every one felt incumbent upon him to adopt the role 
 when occasion arose; there were violent quairrels but 
 there was far less petty irritation over trifles which the 
 Syrians rightly ascribe to "Western temper." To turn 
 to the other side of the balance-sheet, lying was held to 
 be a venial fault, justifiable at convenience or by neces- 
 sity; profanity was almost universal; revenge was re- 
 garded as a right — sometimes as a duly; envy plotted for 
 
118 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 the fall of its object; men laid traps for tlie innocent 
 persons against whom they bore a grudge; infidelity 
 among the married of both sexes was not uncommon; 
 murders were frequent and often went unpunished. The 
 people of the Lebanon were fairly honest, but few could 
 resist the temptation which the handling of large trust 
 funds presents. The ethical standards of the powerful 
 clergy were little raised above those of the people. Su- 
 perstition, natural and religious, had a strong grip. In 
 a word, while the moral evils which confronted the mis- 
 sionaries were mainly the old, old sins which work in all 
 lands, civilized and uncivilized, neither religion nor so- 
 cial tradition had in Syria as strong an influence in re- 
 straining human nature as obtained in the homeland. 
 Fear is the father of much moral weakness, hence a cor- 
 rupt, tyrannous government must share the responsibility 
 for many items in the above list of vices. Missionary 
 work in the Lebanon, even among the Christian sects, 
 thus had its ample justification. On the whole, Mrs. 
 Bliss found the surroundings depressing. "It may seem 
 to some," she wrote, "that it is easier for the missionary 
 to be good and to possess a spiritual mind from the na- 
 ture of his employment. But there are as many outside 
 worldly matters in his profession as in any other — per- 
 haps more — for there is no one to do these for him ; and 
 there is nothing in his intercourse with the people to ele- 
 vate his piety and to further his religious zeal." 
 
 Through further extracts, woven together, from Mrs. 
 Bliss' letters to her family in America, we may obtain a 
 few random glimpses into that early life in Abeih. 
 
 At last I am in my home and I snatch a few mo- 
 ments from putting a new house in order to tell you 
 
MISSIONAET LIFE IN THE LEBANON 119 
 
 of its situation. At the General Meeting of the 
 Mission held two weeks since, we were appointed 
 to Abeih, the finest station for situation and the 
 most healthy in the Mission. We left BeirM last 
 Tuesday. Two-thirds of the way was like riding up 
 your stone steps. I had a man to walk beside me 
 and put his hand on my back when it was so steep. 
 I can't say I felt any fear, for the horses here hardly 
 ever slip. We went by invitation to Mr. Calhoun's 
 for the first night. Our house was built several 
 years since by the Mission and is of rough-hewn 
 stone> drab-colour. The outside stairs lead to a 
 court, open in front ; into this open five rooms four- 
 teen feet high. The upper ceiling is of wood like a 
 barn in America, the joists plain and bare. The 
 floors are of cement. The walls are nearly four feet 
 thick, which make pretty recesses for the windows. 
 We have a full view of the Mediterranean and can 
 see the steamers come and go, although we are some 
 miles from the water. The whole view from the 
 front of the house is very beautiful We often see 
 clouds piled upon clouds upon the sea and in the 
 valley, all below us. I have to stop and think to 
 realize at all that I am living upon " Lebanon, that 
 goodly mountain," so often the theme of David, so 
 often mentioned in the Bible. There is a pretty 
 little garden before the house. There are more 
 roses than you have in your garden at Amherst — 
 white, blush, monthly, and tea-roses in great pro- 
 fusion. Bushes of the same size bear much more 
 luxuriantly than in America. One of the students 
 
120 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 of the Seminary lias just brought a bunch of wild- 
 flowers which are exceedingly delicate and varied. 
 We have excellent water here, clear and cool. 
 
 We have visits from a good many people. They 
 go round looking into all the rooms but seldom 
 touch anything, I mean any of the furniture. They 
 seem to feel I am their personal property. Three 
 ladies of rank called the other day. I was busy 
 putting the house in order and had my white hood 
 on. They took it off and felt of my hair and my 
 shoulders and talked all the time among themselves. 
 One day twelve women came together, all Druses. 
 I gave them the usual \salutations in Arabic, and 
 then, when they asked me some questions, told them 
 in Arabic I did not know the language. They all 
 laughed and said, " She tells us in Arabic she does 
 not know Arabic ! " Soon Mr. Bliss came in and 
 they drew their sheets over their heads at once. 
 They looked so funny, like twelve poles with sheets 
 thrown over them. Some of them had horns upon 
 their heads like a farmer's dinner-horn under their 
 veils. These are regarded as a great ornament and 
 signify that they are married. I find the Arabs 
 more honest on the whole than I had supposed. 
 Jirjius, our servant, is very faithful. We pay him 
 ninety piasters, or about $3.60, a month. Eggs are 
 very cheap here, six cents a dozen, and growing 
 cheaper still. We take three quarts of milk per 
 day at two cents a quart. We have good bread. 
 The flour is raised in Damascus and is like Indian 
 meal in substance. 
 
MISSIONAEY LIFE IN THE LEBANON 121 
 
 The first Sabbath in July was conmnmion here. 
 I attended the service and sat with twenty-seven na- 
 tive converts around the table of our Lord. Al- 
 though the service was in an unknown tongue, it 
 was deeply solemn and impressive, and when I 
 looked upon those converts and realized from what 
 depth of ignorance and superstition they had been 
 raised and to what they had been raised, I could but 
 feel this work a glorious, noble one. Only a few to 
 be sure, a mere handful among multitudes, but 
 these in turn will exert an influence the results of 
 which we cannot calculate. Mr. Calhoun has usu- 
 ally an audience of seventy to eighty. That Sab- 
 bath ninety were present. This is the most flour- 
 ishing church of the Mission. But there are very 
 few women in it. Their minds are so little dis- 
 ciplined, so untrained to thought, impressions are 
 very weak and transient, indeed they have so little 
 education, they understand but little of the preach- 
 ing. 
 
 I often make plans for doit^ this or that, but am 
 interrupted by the Arabs, who make very long 
 visits. I am, of course, glad to see them as long as 
 I can talk with them or understand them, but my 
 stock of Arabic is very limited. They have a great 
 many salutations, all of which have their appropri- 
 ate answers. I am learning these slowly. Some- 
 times when a woman has been here half an hour 
 and everything has been said which we can think of, 
 she will rise, touch her forehead and breast and go 
 through all the salutations again. I have hard 
 
122 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 work to maintain my gravity. Thursday p. M. I 
 attended the examination of the boys' school under 
 a native teacher. It was in the chapel. I counted 
 thirty-nine boys between five and fifteen years. For 
 once they all looked clean and were dressed in their 
 best. Their dress is very pretty, mostly white : full 
 trousers, and red jackets embroidered with black. 
 They all wear red caps with black tassels, both in 
 and out of doors. It was as bright a looking school 
 as ever I saw in America and the answers were 
 prompt and distinct. I did not hear a whisper or 
 see a sign of restlessness during the whole time. 
 Much religious truth is taught them and it cannot 
 be God will permit it all to be lost. The very 
 waking up of their minds, giving them a desire for 
 knowledge will do much towards breaking their 
 chains. But there is much more hope for them 
 than for the women. Every influence around them, 
 social and civil, is to degrade them. Their faces 
 wear a monotonous expression and their minds are 
 really not capable of the simplest mental process. 
 Before they know how to walk or to talk they are 
 often betrothed, and they are married from the age 
 of twelve to fourteen. Then they are perfect slaves 
 to their husbands. If they offend him they are 
 beaten like children. Among the Druses a man 
 has only to say to Ms wife, " Go to your father's 
 house," and she is divorced. The wives of the 
 Druse nobles can never leave their houses save at 
 night, enveloped from head to foot, and then a man 
 goes before to see if any men are in the way. It 
 
MISSIONAEY LIFE IN THE LEBANON 123 
 
 seems very important that the girls' school should 
 be renewed, for these young men in the Seminary 
 will soon need wives and there are none for them. 
 The subject looks very dark to all the missionaries 
 here just now. My heart is full upon this subject. 
 
 There have been many deaths here recently, 
 though there is no prevailing disease. The wailing 
 often continues for several days and is really ter- 
 rible. It can be heard all over the village. My hus- 
 band has now gone to attend a Druse f uneraL Two 
 women of rank have lately died, who lived near 
 here, and the wailing for a week has kept up day 
 and night. Women come by scores from a distance. 
 They bury the dead almost immediately, without a 
 cofBn, merely throwing a cloth over the body. One 
 of these women was buried in a dress which cost 
 hundreds of dollars and the grave is watched day 
 and night lest the dress may be stolen. The whole 
 idea seems to be to draw off the mind from the sub- 
 ject of death. After the ceremonies are over it is 
 never mentioned even in the family. 
 
 January, 1858. We have lately opened a new 
 girls' school. The schoolhouse is in our yard. The 
 teacher is a young lady brought up in Mr. Whiting's 
 family. Her name is Rufka, the Scripture name 
 Eebecca. She is a member of our family. She has 
 thirty-four scholars from five to fifteen. They are 
 bright girls and seem eager to learn. In them is 
 our hope for the females of this dark land. I went 
 yesterday to see a neighbour who has a babe five 
 days old. The woman's thin mattress lay on the 
 
124 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 floor and she sat upon it, while the room was filled 
 with smoke from the fire built in the middle of it, 
 on the floor. It was a wretched, comfortless look- 
 ing place, and yet the family are weU off, able to 
 live as well as we do if they chose. They brought 
 me a dish which they always prepare for visitors 
 upon the birth of a child, water flavoured with 
 anise-seed and cinnamon, with nuts floating on the 
 top. The baby was bound up in strips of cloth 
 from head to foot, and tiecj into a cradle, its feet 
 and hands tied down separately. Infants are al- 
 ways rubbed over with salt and water for a week 
 after their birth and then rubbed with oU every 
 day for a month, and after that they are seldom or 
 never washed. They are kept in their cradle nearly 
 all the time, lying flat on their backs. Their heads 
 behind become flattened and have a very ugly shape. 
 They are only taken from their cradles two or three 
 times in the twenty-four hours. Poor little things ! 
 I really cried the first time I saw one tied so, and 
 the idea is dreadful to me now. 
 
 Though almost thirty-five years had passed since the 
 American missionaries had first come to Syria, there x^as 
 still considerable opposition to their work on the part of 
 both clergy and people, naturally attached to t)ieir own 
 religious forms and suspicions of innovations. Owing to 
 the prestige then enjoyed by aU foreigners, this opposi- 
 tion was chiefly felt by their native followers. None of 
 the missionaries on the seaward slope of the Lebanon ex- 
 perienced the fate of Mr. Benton and family, who, as late 
 as 1859, were forcibly driven out of Zahleh (a town on 
 
MISSIONARY LIFE IN THE LEBANON 125 
 
 the eastward slope) by an angry mob, armed with clubs 
 and stones, supposed to be acting for the Greek-Catholic 
 Bishop of the place. Mr. Bliss relates that a native Prot- 
 estant, prevented from burying his son in the church- 
 yard, was obliged to watch a grave which he had dug 
 near his house, as the men of the village had threatened 
 to dig up the body and let the wild beasts devour it. 
 The head of a monastery, wealthy in lands, declared he 
 would evict his tenants in the depth of the Winter if they 
 permitted their children to attend a Protestant school. 
 Mrs. Bliss' maid-servant, a member of the Greek Church, 
 was threatened with death by her own famfly when she 
 encouraged a Protestant suitor. Nor was persecution 
 confined to the Christians. A delegation of Druses 
 called on the wife of a Druse Seminary student, who was 
 seeking admission to the church, and asked her permis- 
 sion to kill him. This she refused saying that she had 
 always liked him and that being a Christian did not make 
 him any worse. 
 
 Sometimes the opposition took an amusing form. 
 From the diary of Mr. Bird we learn that the Sunday 
 service in the village near Abeih was interrupted by a 
 woman who entered the school with a stick, bent on get- 
 ting her son away. Failing in her attempt, she went off 
 for her husband, who proved to be equally unsuccessful 
 in removing the obstinate seeker after truth,, whom he 
 then and there cursed and disinherited. The following 
 letter of Mr. Bliss to his mother-in-law shows the shifts 
 to which the clergy were sometimes put in their dealings 
 with Protestants. 
 
 Not long since Mr. Bazook, our second teacher in 
 the Seminary, was talking in his village with a 
 
126 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 priest on the subject of religion. There were pres- 
 ent ten or fifteen individuals who were interested in 
 the conversation, Bazook, it seems, had pressed 
 the fellow pretty hard, and appealed to the Bible in 
 support of all his propositions. Whereupon the 
 priest took the Bible and pretended to read some- 
 thing as follows : " Behold it shall come to pass in 
 the nineteenth century, that men shall come 
 from the lands of England and America, teaching 
 false doctrines and turning men away from the 
 truth — of such be afraid." This was too much for 
 Bazook; he leaped to his feet and cried out, " You 
 are a liar ! There is no such thing in the Bible ! " 
 The company broke up. Perhaps some believed the 
 priest had read what was written, for they were 
 wholly ignorant of the Scriptures. The next day 
 the priest saw Bazook — they were alone — and said 
 to him, " You must excuse me for doing what I did 
 last night, for what else could I do — there were 
 those men who belong to my church, and they would 
 not respect me if I did not defend J;he Church." 
 So you see that lying is allowable, provided that it 
 be in defence of the Church. I hope that priest 
 may not realize the fulfillment of the saying, " If 
 any man shall add unto these things God shall add 
 unto him the plagues that are written in this book." 
 
 Housekeeping in that Lebanon home was pretty stren- 
 uous, but it agreed with Mrs. Bliss wonderfully. Her 
 first child, Mary Wood, was born in January, 1857. A 
 few months later Mr. Bliss writes to Ms mother-in-law: 
 "You ask about Abby's health. You must know that 
 
MISSIONARY LIFE IN THE LEBANON 127 
 
 she is much better than, when she was in America, for 
 could she then take care of a large baby, keep a house 
 and attend to a houseful of company, make clothes for 
 hei" husband, self and baby, besides fitting dresses for 
 others, and in addition to aU this carry on a correspond- 
 ence extensive enough to weary out a common mind!" 
 One of the pleasantest duties of that life was the enter- 
 tainment of guests. Even after the spread of hotels had 
 rendered a general hospitality no longer necessary, Dr. 
 and Mrs. Bliss delighted in keeping an open house, and 
 in this delight they indulged all their long life. Some- 
 times for weeks together that little house in Abeih would 
 hold from four to six guests. Much of the care and 
 much of the charm of hospitality lay in the surprise of 
 unheralded company. We children have never forgotten 
 our thrills of excitement at seeing a white sun-umbreUa, 
 followed by others, appearing over the hilltop, a mUe 
 away from our Abeih summer home. We at once carried 
 the cry of "company" among the housekeepers. Guesses 
 as to which home was to be honoured mingled with anx- 
 ious calculation relative to the extent of the larder. 
 Neither the quantity nor the quality of the visitors ever 
 daunted Mrs. Bliss Or found her unprepared. One blaz- 
 ing July noon in the midst of a fierce Sirocco, there sud- 
 denly appeared six English friends, at whose Beirut 
 homes of comfort and luxury Mrs. Bliss had been enter- 
 tained. Through some mistake the visit had been unan- 
 nounced. How the crumpled, yellow sheet in which Mrs. 
 Bliss described the event takes us into the heart of the 
 scene! "At first I was in despair. Our own simple 
 dinner was nearly ready. But I got them a lunch of 
 lemonade and cake and put off dinner till two o'clock. 
 While they washed their faces and ate their lunch, I gave 
 orders in the kitchen for a new dinner, whipped up some 
 
128 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 boiled custards, changed my dress, and appeared without 
 even a red face. All went off nicely." 
 
 All through the Summer of 1858 Mr. and Mrs. Bliss 
 felt unsettled in mind in view of the possible changes 
 that might be made at the Autumnal Meeting of the Mis- 
 sion. When the Meeting took place they were assigned 
 to Suq-al-6harb, where no missionary had ever been sta- 
 tioned before. To this village they moved on October 
 16th, and this continued to be their home for almost four 
 years, though for four months of the year 1860 the Leba- 
 non War forced them to live in Beirut. At first they 
 occupied a house, 2,700 feet above the sea, built on the 
 edge of a precipice with a magnificent outlook over the 
 plain and the Mediterranean which seemed directly be- 
 low. The house was not well built, and proved to be 
 most uncomfortable for Winter. After a long storm, the 
 walls of the room, soaked through with moisture, became 
 clammy. In the general leaking, paifs and basins and 
 tubs gave forth sounds varying in pitch and quality with 
 the material of the receptacle. The second Winter was 
 more uncomfortable as, in the previous August, a change 
 had been made to a better built house. 
 
 Notwithstanding that first Winter's discomfort, the 
 change to Suq-al-Gharb was never regretted. Writing on 
 Thanksgiving Day, which fell about a month after their 
 transfer, Mrs. Bliss says: "We have much to be thankful 
 for to-day. My husband has at last been enabled to 
 enter upon the great work of his life. ' ' To this work the 
 two and one-half years spent in Abeih by Mr. Bliss had 
 been but apprenticeship. There he had studied the lan- 
 guage, there he had learned to know the people, there 
 with the wise example of Mr. Calhoun constantly befare 
 him he had become initiated into the peculiar duties of 
 missionary life, sharing in a minor degree its responsi- 
 
MISSIONAEY LIFE IN THE LEBANON 129 
 
 bilities. In Suq the fuU immediate responsibility for all 
 local branches of the work fell upon himself. A mission- 
 ary in those days, — as indeed often in these days — fiad to 
 be a Jack-of-aU-trades. , To the ordinary life of preacher 
 and pastor he was obliged to add the function of a law- 
 yer, in case members of his flock were denied their legal 
 rights ; he daily acted as School Superintendent ; he had 
 to understand the arts of land purchase, building, car- 
 pentry ; he was indeed often helpless if he did not know 
 something of medicine. In dealing with the government 
 he could hope for little success if he were not a bit of a 
 diplomat. Mr. Bliss showed prophetic vision in his 
 graduating address at Andover, in which he plead for 
 men of the highest and most varied talent as recruits for 
 the missionary work. Of course amidst all this inci- 
 dental labour the work of preaching the Gospel, directly 
 by sermon, or indirectly by conversation and by example, 
 kept the first place. Mr. Bliss preached his first regular 
 Arabic sermon on December 12, 1858, from the text: 
 "Jesus answered and said unto him. Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you, except a man be bom "again he cannot see the 
 Kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Practical texts were 
 often chosen, such as "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou 
 shalt not kill," "Lie not one to another." 
 
 The main reason for locating the Blisses at Suq-al- 
 Gharb was that they might superintend the Girls' Board- 
 ing School which was formerly situated in Beirut and 
 was to be reopened in this mountain village. We have 
 already seen in a letter of Mrs. Bliss' how close to her 
 heart such a work would be. For several njonths the 
 school was merged with her household. She had charge 
 of the boarding department. She felt that this had been 
 run on too extravagant a scale and her ambition was to 
 cut the expenses in two. There were always two sets a& 
 
130 daniiJl bliss 
 
 meals to order, one for the five Americans, ineluding the 
 two young ladies who were to have charge of the school, 
 one of native food for the five little pupils, the one 
 Syrian teacher and the servants. The flat round loaves 
 of bread, of which fifty a day were eaten by the Syrian 
 family, were all made in the house, though baked at the 
 public oven. Mrs. Bliss enjoyed the work, but found it 
 taxing. After nine months of it, her relief was great to 
 live alone with her family in another home, while Miss 
 Temple took entire charge of the school. Only Wo or 
 three months later, however, she took into her home two 
 little girls to educate. Two sons were bom in Suq, 
 Frederick Jones, in January, 1859, and Howard Sweet- 
 ser, in December, 1860. Rev. D. Stuart Dodge made his 
 first visit to Syria, forming with the Blisses the begin- 
 nings of a friendship, fraught with momentous conse- 
 quences to the whole East, as these pages will show. 
 
 We may now listen to Mr. Bliss' own account of his 
 work in the Suq, first as told in the Reminiscences. 
 
 In the Autumn of 1858 we were removed to S<iq, 
 about five miles to the north of Abeih. Although, 
 still connected with Mr. Calhoun, my responsibili- 
 ties and labour were increased, as I had oversight 
 of the schools in Sftq and vicinity. Of course my 
 study of Arabic continued and I began to preach in 
 a feeble way. I may as well mention the fact at 
 once: I have never acquired the Arabic language 
 so as to use it fluently or correctly. I have never at-. 
 tempted to deliver a sermon extemporaneously, yet 
 I preached in Stlq, Deir Qobel and other places al- 
 most every Sabbath during 1859-61. My plan was 
 
From a Daguerreotype. 
 
 The Young Missionary. 
 
MISSIONAEY LIFE IN THE LEBANON 131 
 
 tMs — ^not the best plan, but my plan — ^to write out 
 in full the sermon in English with as much care and 
 thought in it as if it were intended for an English 
 audience. Then I would translate it, sentence by 
 sentence, into Arabic and my native teacher would 
 correct it and write it out into Arabic. 
 
 There was much opposition to our work in the 
 Sftq from the monks occupying a large monastery 
 in a village near us. We opened a night school for 
 boys and young men. At first it was well attended, 
 even crowded. Soon, however, onlj^ one boy pre- 
 sented himself at the appointed hour. He informed 
 me that the monks had forbidden every one in the 
 village to attend the "missionary school." This 
 boy continued to come, bringing with him a lantern. 
 I asked why he did this. He explained : " At first 
 I came in the dark; now I bring a light that the 
 monks may know and see that I come." This boy, 
 at that time ten or eleven years old, finally came to 
 the College, studied medicine and became a Judge 
 in the Lebanon Court. He was a Protestant, pro- 
 testing against all assumed authoritywhether it was 
 claimed by Pope, Bishop, village Priest, or by a 
 Congregational Minister or Presbyterian Session. 
 He was examined two or three times for church 
 membership and each time was told by the examin- 
 ing committee or session, who were very conserva- 
 tive, to wait a while. He said that he would like to 
 unite with the Protestant Church, but he thanked 
 God that the gate of Heaven was always open and 
 that all who loved the Lord Jesus could enter, who 
 
132 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 never said, "Wait a while." He was admitted, 
 lived and died a consistent Christian. When the 
 school was broken up by the monks, I kept on with 
 the one boy, bnt soon several others came in. In 
 the meantime there was much talk in the village. 
 I took the ground that if the monks objected to our 
 school they should open one for themselves, so that 
 the children should not grow up in ignorance. This 
 seemed reasonable to the people, and public opinion 
 influenced the authorities of the convent, and a 
 school was opened by them and taught by an intelli- 
 gent monk named Jerasmus. He was a bright 
 young man, had a fine figure, graceful manners and 
 a beautiful countenance. He came to me almost 
 daily, or more correctly, nightly, for instruction. 
 His school prospered for several weeks till finally 
 he was called to leave the convent and proceed to 
 some place on the Upper NUe. It was said, truly 
 or falsely I know not, that the authorities felt that 
 Jerasmus' views were not in accord with the creed 
 and practice handed down to them for more than a 
 thousand years and that if made known would dis- 
 turb the peace of the more stupid " holy " men of 
 the convent. Many years after this I heard that 
 he had died far away in Upper Egypt. I loved 
 Jerasmus. 
 
 When we first settled in the Stlq, we were re- 
 ceived with polite coldness by some and ignored 
 with equal politeness by others. We accepted the 
 politeness in each case, and ignored the coldness 
 and slight in both. Soon a few of the children of 
 
MISSIONARY LIFE DT THE LEBANON 133 
 
 the better classes were attracted by Mrs. Bliss' 
 music on the melodeon, began to learn Arabic 
 hymns and to sing them too, not only in our house, 
 but in their own homes. The leading man ia the 
 village, a member of the Greek Church, intolerant 
 of other religions, had three little girls who learned 
 many Gospel hymns and the father was so proud of 
 their attainments that he used to call upon them to 
 entertain his many guests. These three little girls 
 who sang to their father fifty years ago became the 
 wives of three leading Protestants, one a preacher, 
 another an assistant editor iu the American Press, 
 and the most learned Arabic scholar in the East, 
 and the youngest is the wife of a most influential 
 man in Egypt, and editor and proprietor of many 
 publications. All these three girls have large fami- 
 lies, all of whom are Protestants; several of their 
 children are graduates of our College. The father 
 lived to an old age. He always remained a member 
 of the Greek Church. He read his Bible through 
 many^times and when he came to die they asked him 
 if he wanted the priest, but he said, " No. I have 
 the Bible and God. It is enough." My teacher, 
 while I was studying Arabic, was something of a 
 poet and took a great fancy to the tune " Home, 
 Sweet Home," and wrote a hymn based upon the 
 words of that beautiful song. He obtained from 
 me the meaning of the English words and then 
 found equivalents in the poetical language of the 
 Arabs and wrote out the rhyming couplets. Not 
 being musical myself I would send him to Mrs. 
 
134 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 Bliss for the rhythm. He often returned to me 
 crestfallen, tried again and again tiU finally we 
 have one of the most popular hymns in the Arabic 
 language set to the tune of " Home, Sweet Home." 
 Those three little girls sang it and so have thou- 
 sands of others and millions will yet sing it, for the 
 poet brought in it the idea of the everlastiag love. 
 Coldness and slight began to disappear on the part 
 of the people. " A little child shall lead them." 
 
 During the first Winter and Spring of our stay 
 in Stiq-al-Gharb, the measles broke out in the vil- 
 lage. Almost every house had one, or two, and 
 sometimes three sick children at once. Although 
 the women had not called on Mrs. Bliss, she, con- 
 trary to the etiquette of the place, called At every 
 house where there was sickness or had been a death. 
 She was welcomed by all, for she not only in- 
 structed them how to care for the children in keep- 
 ing them warm and in giving them proper nourish- 
 ment, but she also took with her a sympathizing 
 heart, and often, when there was need, creature 
 comforts. Sympathy and calves' foot jelly are no 
 part in the " Plan of Salvation," but a great help in 
 illustrating it. 
 
 To the above Reminiscences, written almost fifty years 
 after the events so vividly described, may be added some 
 impressions sent by Mr. Bliss to the Missionary Herald 
 during his sojourn in Suq-al-Gharb. The first incident 
 tells how the violent opposition of the head of the convent 
 reacted upon himself. 
 
MISSIONAET LIFE IN THE LEBANON 135 
 
 During a rainy day not long since several young 
 men ia a village belonging to the convent were as- 
 sembled to read the Scriptures. A man, not of the 
 Protestant faith, came in, and with irony which the 
 English language can hardly convey, said, " Young 
 men, it is a sacrilege to read the Bible; cursed is 
 the man that reads the Word of God. Infamous 
 wretches, why do you go to hear the Scriptures ex- 
 plained! Stay at home; learn nothing; be beasts; 
 lie, steal, curse, swear, and abuse everybody, and 
 then you will be good men." So you see the old 
 monk outwitted himself this time.' 
 
 About two and a half years since, Mr. Eddy com- 
 menced a school in Deir Qobel, which is, as many 
 schools in Syria have been, a kind of John the Bap- 
 tist, "A voice crying in the wilderness. Make 
 straight the way of the Lord." We were invited to 
 preach in the schoolroom on the Sabbath. We 
 opened services there and for the last ten weeks 
 there has been an attendance on the average of 
 twenty-two persons. . . . This movement at 
 Deir Qobel did not originate in a quarrel [in the 
 Church of the place] but seems to have sprung out 
 of the natural longing after light; after something 
 better than the dead forms of'these dead Churches. 
 The children had been reading in the New Testa- 
 ment for nearly two years. They committed many 
 passages to memory; they learned the catechism 
 and the Ten Commandments, and must have re- 
 peated them before their parents; and is not the 
 
 ' Missionary Herald, 1859, p. 42. 
 
136 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 word of the Lord " like a hammer that breaketh the 
 rock in pieces"? Few rocks are broken at one 
 blow, and no heart has been crushed at Deir Qobel 
 as yet. They are all stony, flinty and may remain 
 adamant to all eternity; yet they have received 
 some hard raps. The hammer of God's word has 
 come down upon them. Many a man not only in 
 Deir Qobel but in the villages of the Lebanon, in the 
 cities by the sea and in the hamlets of the " south 
 country " feels uneasy as he bows the knee to the 
 image of the Virgin, or kisses the image of some 
 dead man called a saint. He feels uneasy, yet he 
 knows, not why ; he feels ashamed and knows not the 
 reason. But the secret of his feeling is this ; he has 
 heard the children at their task repeating, " Thou 
 Shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any 
 likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or 
 that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water 
 under the earth ; Thou shalt not bow down thyself 
 to them or serve them." ' 
 
 A priest, my neighbour, was taken sick and, be- 
 ing an old man, it was thought by many that he 
 would not recover. Men and women, from this and 
 the other village, came to see him according to the 
 custom of the land in the case of, sickness. They 
 thronged his room, drank coffee, and smoked their 
 pipes. Sabbath evening I was invited by one of the 
 principal men of the village, a member of the Greek 
 Church, to spend the evening at the house of the 
 priest. I went and found about twenty persons 
 'Missionarx Herald, i860, p. 166. 
 
MISSIONARY LIFE IS THE LEBANON 137 
 
 present, only two of whom made any pretensions 
 to Protestantism. The priest's bed was spread on 
 the floor. The rug upon which I sat was near his 
 head, and the company was seated on mats around 
 us. In a few minutes some one remarked, "We 
 must all die." All eyes were turned upon me. It 
 was evident that the remark was intended for a 
 text, and that a sermon was expected. After a few 
 words about the life* and death of the body we 
 passed to the momentous subject of the life and 
 death of the soul. The text was repeated, " Verily, 
 verily I say unto you, except a man be born again 
 he cannot see the Kingdom of God," and from these 
 words I talked nearly two hours upon the nature 
 and necessity of the second birth. At the close of 
 the remarks a prayer was asked for and offered, and 
 thus ended another day of missionary life. It was 
 a new experience, to be invited to a priest's house 
 and have the way opened there for preaching the 
 Crospel. . . • 
 
 We have great reason to hope that a better time 
 is coming for Syria. I do not know of a village in 
 which there is not some light. This is a peculiarity 
 of our work here. There are not many conversions, 
 not many places where the majority of the people 
 have embraced the truth even in theory; but the 
 light, the truth, is found in some measure every- 
 where. Let us pray that the Spirit may descend, 
 and fan into flame the sparks that have fallen 
 among the thousand villages of this goodly land.' 
 
 * Missionary^ Herald, i860, pp. 167-168L 
 
138 - DANIEL BLISS 
 
 In such endeavours to let in the light was Mr. Bliss 
 occupied for six and a half years. But though his daily 
 / / routine pressed him hard, his mind was ever on the 
 future. He saw visions and he dreamed dreams. How 
 these dreams came true, largely through his own agency, 
 will be seen in the following chapters. 
 
VI 
 
 THE MASSACRES OP 1860 
 
 THE summer of 1860 was remembered by Dr. 
 and Mrs. Bliss to the end of their days, even to 
 the minutest details. "Tell us about the Mas- 
 sacres," was the constant demand of our childhood. 
 The dangers of that year, when aU the local passions 
 were let loose, were felt as a constant menace during the 
 Great War, sixty years after. Not till the peaceful occu- 
 pation by the Allies of Beirut and the Lebanon in Octo- 
 ber, 1918, was there any assurance that the peculiar hor- 
 rors of 1860 would not be added to the horrors of starva- 
 tion which then ravaged the same district. The story of 
 that year has been well told by Colonel Churchill ' and 
 others. But the Reminiscences of Daniel Bliss furnish 
 many picturesque and illuminating incidents which are 
 not only personally interesting but which have their 
 value for the history of the period. 
 
 It may be well before presenting his account to state 
 the causes of the friction between the Maronites and 
 Druses which led to the tragedy. For about eight hun- 
 dred years the Southern Lebanon had been practically 
 controlled by the Druses, who constituted the bulk of the 
 population, though the rulers (sometimes nominal) had 
 been successively Druse and Moslem. Historically con- 
 
 'See Churchill's "Druses and Maronites,'' being the fourth 
 volume of his " Mount I<ebanon." 
 
 139 
 
140 DAOTEL BLISS 
 
 sfdered, the Druses are an offshoot of Islam, but they 
 have actually as little in common with the Moslems as 
 they have with the Christians. While their theology, 
 compiled in the eleventh century by their Ismailian 
 founders, was drawn from many sources, Neo-Platonism 
 appears to be the basis. The Druse population, male 
 and female, is divided into two classes, usually referred 
 to in English as the Initiated and the Un-Initiated, but 
 to be named more literally as the Wise and the Foolish, 
 or the Instructed and the Un-Instructed. The distrac- 
 tion is based on the axiom that the Pear of God is the 
 beginning of Wisdom. A stem Puritan morality is the 
 real line of cleavage. All children have the right of ad- 
 mission to the Friday-Eve meetiags ; they therefore have 
 a chance to learn the doctrines which are kept with jeal- 
 ous secrecy from the non-Druse world.' On arriving at 
 years of discretion it is for them to choose whether they 
 will continue in the way of religion or go the way of the 
 world. If they make the latter choice, they are debarred 
 from all further participation in the Means of Grace. 
 Of course many children never form the habit of attend- 
 ance and hence have but the haziest idea of Druse doc- 
 trine. Individuals from the class of the Foolish, on 
 showing proper proof of moral conduct, are admitted to 
 the ranks of the Wise, but only after a period of strict 
 formal probation. 
 
 Among the Druses of the Southern Lebanon there have 
 always dwelt many Christians, both Greek-Orthodox and 
 Maronites. For centuries these lived in harmony with 
 their Druse chieftains, who, on the whole, made no dif- 
 ference between them and their Druse vassals. Many 
 
 ''The "Religion des Druzes" published by De Sacy in 1838 
 gives an admirable account, following closely the Sacred Books. 
 
THE MASSACRES OP 1860 141 
 
 of the Maronite families had emigrated from the North- 
 em Lebanon, where their sect formed the bulk of the 
 population.' The friction between Druses and Maron- 
 ites, which resulted in the wars of 1841, 1845 and 1860, 
 had as its determining cause the ambition of the locally 
 all-powerful Maronite Patriarch, whose seat was in the 
 North. Not content with his legal rights to control his 
 co-religionists in the Southern Lebanon in matters spiri- 
 tual, he now claimed jurisdiction over them in temporal 
 matters as well. His pretensions were bitterly resisted 
 by the Druse chieftains, who saw their Feudal rights 
 threatened. This is not the place to recount the result- 
 ing tale of intrigue and counter-intrigue ; of the turning 
 of harmony into discord ; of French and British partisan- 
 ship — ^the French actively backing the Maronites and the 
 British sympathizing with the Druses; — of the harmful 
 results of this foreign interference; of the attempts of 
 the Turks, following their usual policy of ruling by 
 dividing, to inflame the mutual antagonisms to such an 
 extent that they might triumphantly declare that, as 
 Lebanon could not rule itself, Lebanon must at last 
 come under the direct rule of the Porte. That the seeds 
 of the Lebanon wars were political rather than re- 
 ligious is further proved by the fact that the Orthodox 
 Greeks took the side of the Druses as against that of the 
 Maronites. The successes of the Druses, who were 
 numerically inferior, were not due to their superior 
 bravery but to their military solidarity, organization and 
 discipline, which stood out in striking contrast to the 
 disintegrating dissensions among the leaders of the far 
 more numerous Maronites. It may be added that 
 Colonel Churchill estimated the total number of Chris- 
 
 * For a brief account of the Maronites, see page loi. 
 
142 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 tians massacred in 1860, by Druses and Moslems, in the 
 Lebanon, the vicinity of Hermon and Damascus, at over 
 10,000. 
 We may now give place to Dr. Bliss' own story. 
 
 The last half of the year 1859 and the first half 
 of the year 1860 were anxious times. Lawlessness, 
 quarrels and even murders were frequent. The old 
 feu4s between the Maronites and the Druses were 
 revived. Everybody went armed. The Maronites 
 were boastful and the Druses were preparing. Siiq- 
 al-Gharb was near the storm-centre, Abeih. on the 
 periphery. We heard more and saw more of the 
 coming storm than they did in Abeih. I was young 
 and Mr. Calhoun thought I was over-anxious, even 
 an alarmist. One day in June he and Mr. Ford 
 of Sidon called at our house in Sftq and jocosely 
 greeted me before they dismounted from their 
 horses, saying, '< Brother Bliss, where is your civil 
 war? " They came in and I told them what I had 
 seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears. 
 -They were alarmed. The next day, not far from 
 Mr. Calhoun's house, the first man in the long 
 struggle was shot. The strife had commenced. A 
 day after this I went to BeirM. On my return I 
 found at the first khan a short way above the plain, 
 a large number of men, horses and mules. The men 
 were very much frightened and informed me that 
 a messenger had been killed at Ainab, a village 
 about two hours up the mountain, and that the 
 Druses had obstructed the road at that point. This 
 
THE MASSACRES OF 1860 143 
 
 was disquieting, for I liad seen^in Beirtlt a mes- 
 senger with, letters from Dr. Thomson to Mr. Bird. 
 As I approached our house about sunset a large 
 number of our neighbours met me and confirmed 
 the report of the killing of the messenger, and added 
 that he was Mr. Bird's messenger and that his body 
 was thrown out for the dogs to eat. On my reach- 
 ing home Mrs. Bliss suggested a plan, which had 
 been running through my mind in a less definite 
 form on the way, viz., that I should go over to 
 AJnab, about a mile distant, get the letters, for they 
 might be most important, and demand the body and 
 bury it for the comfort of his relations. He was a 
 Protestant church member. So after supper a 
 dozen or more of our villagers came with their guns 
 and pistols to accompany me, all of whom were dis- 
 missed with thanks. Then I and my helper, who 
 carried the lantern, proceeded on our errand of 
 peace and mercy. When within a quarter of an 
 hour's walk of Ainab we stopped at the house of a 
 Scotchman, who had a large sUk factory. He was 
 surprised to see me at that time of night and more 
 surprised when he heard of my purpose, and tried 
 to dissuade me from so rash an act, saying : " You 
 are young in the country and inexperienced, — ^you 
 might be killed, etc." Before we had finished our 
 conversation a school-teacher came in from Ainab 
 who had seen the messenger before and after his 
 death, and from his description of him I began to 
 doubt whether he was Mr. Bird's man. So I said 
 to my Scotch friend that I would follow his advice 
 
144 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 and not go to Ainab, bnt that I would go back home 
 by Aitat, where lived the chief of the Druses, and 
 demand of him the letters ai^d the body of the man 
 if he was Mr. Bird's messenger. This seemed more 
 absurd to my friend than the first proposition. 
 DaM carried the lantern to the palace of the 
 Sheikh and remained outside. The large room 
 was well filled; there was a council of war. All 
 rose and the seat of honour was offered me beside 
 the " Tongue of the Druses," as Husein was called. 
 I politely declined the honour. I said I came on 
 important business ; I told what I had heard about 
 Mr. Bird's messenger. " The Tongue of the Druses " 
 advanced and said : " God forbid. Your messenger 
 came to me about noon. I was afraid for him and 
 I sent an escort with him." It was true. Then I 
 took a seat and drank coffee. DaM and I arrived 
 at our house a little after midnight. Mrs. Bliss 
 waJs waiting and watching for us. She saw the 
 light of the American lantern as we came up the 
 hill and was comforted. She heard a shot or two 
 and was disconcerted, but the lantern came on. 
 The light was for us, the shots for something else. 
 A few days after this evening the Druses, one hun- 
 dred, more or less, started from Aitat, ten minutes' 
 walk from our house, and rushed down the hill to- 
 wards al-Hadeth, a large Maronite vUlage situated 
 about four miles below on the plain, towards Beirflt. 
 In this village were gathered quite a number of 
 young men bearing arms, defying, with their flags 
 and shouts and shots, the Druses from above. 
 
THE MASSAOEES OF 1860 145 
 
 From the terrace of our honse we saw the Druses 
 march and heard their war song, — ^no, not march ; — 
 there was no order, no keeping step, no rank and 
 file, but each man bounded over I'ocks and obstacles 
 at his best. In an hour, more or less, we saw the 
 smoke ascend from the houses nearest the moun- 
 tains and then the fire swept on beyond till all the 
 \illage was consumed. At sunset the Druses re- 
 turned with their booty : beds, beddiB^, brass cook- 
 ing utensils, clothing, etc. One man had a large 
 book on law. I said to him, " You cannot use that. 
 Give it to me." He did so and I soon returned it to 
 its gi'atef ul owner. I inquired from several of the 
 men what had been done. The reply was: "We 
 have bui"nt every house and killed all the people." 
 I was satisfied that they sx)oke the truth so far as 
 the burning was concerned, for we saw that with 
 our own eyes, but we questioned further about the 
 killing in this way. " Did you kill a hundred? " 
 "A hundred! What is a hundred! All!" "Did 
 you kill a thousand?" "What is a thousand! 
 All ! Ten thousand ! " 
 
 The facts were these. The Druses robbed and 
 burnt the whole village. The inhabitants, when 
 they saw from afar the coming of the enemy, fled 
 on horses, mules, asses, camels and on foot; men, 
 women, children in arms, all fled except one jwor, 
 lame old man, and he was killed. This is rather 
 an exaggerated case of the difference between the 
 daily reports and the events which actually took 
 place. It was reported that five thousand were. 
 
146 DAOTEL BLISS 
 
 killed at Deir-al-Qamr. The actual number 6i 
 killed and missing was about eigbt hundred. But 
 I am not writing a history of the civil war, I am 
 merely jotting down a few personal experiences for 
 my children, grandchildren and great-grandchil- 
 dren. 
 
 After the burning of al-Hadeth, for several nights 
 I walked about the Girls' School, which was not far 
 from our house. Not that I feared an attack from 
 the Druses, but an attack upon the nerves of the 
 girls and the teachers. The strain was so great 
 that the missionaries decided that the school be 
 abandoned and that Mrs. Bliss and I should close 
 our house and proceed to Beirtit, as my services 
 were needed there. Thousands, men, women and 
 children, had fled from their ruined homes in the 
 mountains and were homeless in Beirtlt, wholly de- 
 pendent upon charity. A few days after our ar- 
 rival at Beir<it a most urgent letter came from Mr. 
 Bird from Deir-al-Qamr, saying that the town was 
 surrounded by Druses, that his house was filled 
 with refugees (Protestants) and that they were 
 about destitute of flour and that none could be 
 bought at any price, as the Druses prevented all 
 provisions from entering the town. Dr. Thomson 
 immediately said that I must go. He was disabled 
 by a sprained ankle. Mrs. Jessup required her 
 husband's presence. Dr. Van Dyck could not be 
 spared. We hired ten or twelve mules, loaded them 
 with flour and started. The muleteers were all 
 Moslems except one (he niade us trouble later), 
 
THE MASSACRES OF 1860 147 
 
 for we thought it not wise to take with, us either of 
 the contending parties. The cavass of the Amer- 
 ican Consulate accompanied us, a fine, tall, well- 
 built Moslem, wearing a long Damascus sword and 
 mounted on a large horse. We went the first day 
 to Abeih, where Mr. Calhoun insisted that one or 
 two loads of the flour must be left for him. All 
 went quietly till we came to a Druse village, about 
 one hour from Deir-al-Qamr. All was quiet tiiere 
 and the cavass arid I passed through the village 
 and were giving our horses a drink at the fountain 
 when we heard angry shouts of men and the shrill 
 shrieks of women from below. We put spurs to 
 our horses and galloped down to the square, where 
 we saw three or four men and a multitude of women 
 and children surroundiag our mules and beginning 
 to unload the flour. The cavass raised himself in 
 the stirrups, drew his long, semi-circular sword, 
 turned to me in the confusion and shouted, " Shall 
 I smite? " I replied, " No ! " and, waving my hand 
 gently to command silence, and observing the chief 
 man among them, said to him in a low tone of voice, 
 " What are you doing with my flour? " All was 
 silence for a few seconds and then he replied, " I 
 am ordered by our government not to allow any- 
 thing to pass through this village to Deir-al-Qamr." 
 There was a murmur. He had made a point. An- 
 other move of the hand. I said, ''Did you know that 
 there was a treaty between the great Sultan of Tur- 
 key and the King of the United States of America 
 ;(I used the word " King," as the term " President " 
 
148 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 was not known out there) that an American may 
 pass through, all parts of Turkey unmolested and 
 take with him such things as are needed for the 
 journey?" He thought a moment and then said: 
 "I know not of treaties or Sultans or Kings. I 
 know that I must obey my own Governor." There 
 were more murmurs and shouting. He had made 
 another point. Another move of the hand and an- 
 other silence obtained, and I said iu a lower tone 
 of voice and more confidently : " Very well. Then 
 you proceed according to rule in such cases. You 
 take the mules, the flour, the pack-saddles and 
 everything and give me your receipt, signed and 
 sealed by yourself, with the cavass and these men 
 as witnesses." He hesitated, looked at the cavass, 
 at the men who crowded about him, and then bowed 
 low, as if to take the dust from the ground, and put 
 up his hand and said : " For your Honour's sake we 
 will let you pass." Soon the loads were readjusted 
 and we were on our way to Deir-al-Qamr. 
 
 This incident had an amusing consequence. Some 
 twenty years later a dignified-looking, white-bearded 
 Druse by the name of Hamiyeh was stationed as gateman 
 at one of the College entrances. In and out of this gate 
 the President had passed almost daily for several years, 
 when one day the sunlight striking Hamiyeh in a pecul- 
 iar way revealed to Dr. Bliss a hitherto unnoticed 
 familiarity in his features. "Hamiyeh," he said sol- 
 emnly, "you are one of the men who tried to stop my 
 mules on the way to Deir-al-Qamr!" The gateman fell 
 on his knees. "Forgive me! Forgive me!" he cried. 
 
THE MASSACRES OF 1860 149 
 
 "With quiet amusement the President told him to get up 
 and attend to his business. Thus was the daily appre- 
 hension of years lifted from the conscience of Hamiyeh. 
 
 In tlie evening several of the leading men of Deir- 
 al-Qamr came into Mr. Bird's study to inquire 
 about the state of the country. They had for days 
 been surrounded by a guard of Druses sufficiently 
 strong to prevent all communication from outside 
 I told them of the massacre at HasbSya and ex- 
 pressed the opinion that there would be one at the 
 Deir. They were much, alarmed and asked what 
 could be done. I stated that the main body of 
 Druses was now at Zahleh. and that only a small 
 guard was in the vicinity of the Deir, and advised 
 them "to flee this night with all the men and 
 boys to Beirut, leaving the women and girls at 
 home." They were really demoralized and alarmed, 
 and objected to following my advice, saying that 
 some of them would be shot by the guard. " Very 
 likely," I replied, "but not many." In less than 
 a week's time they were massacred, eight hundred 
 men from that village alone. It may sound strange 
 that I advised them to " leave the women and girls 
 at home." It is not strange when you know that in 
 time of war no Druse was evet known to molest a 
 woman or girL It is against their principles, if 
 not their religion. I seem to see now the anxious 
 countenances of those doomed men sitting in Mr. 
 Bird's study over forty-eight years ago. 
 
 The next morning after this interview we started 
 
150 DAMEL BLISS 
 
 on our return to BeirM, anticipating a quiet time. 
 But soon after starting I saw behind us a man with 
 a gun on his shoulder coming after us. I supposed 
 it was some Christian, who, having escaped from 
 the guard through the line, hoped to join our party 
 and go on in safety to Beirtlt. As the man ap- 
 proached nearer I saw that he was a Druse and that 
 from his looks he meant mischief. My road at this 
 point was of a circular form and the man took a 
 cross-cut so as to meet me at the junction of the 
 foot-path and the main road. As he approached 
 within ten or fifteen feet of me, the man began to 
 finger his gun and took it from his shoulder. In 
 the meantime I had dismounted and stood in front 
 of him and said, " What are you going to do? " He 
 replied, "I am going to shoot that man." He 
 pointed to my one Christian muleteer who stood at 
 my horse's head at its side. Then I said : " This 
 man is from Beirut. He has no part in this war 
 between the Maronites and the Druses." He re- 
 plied : " No matter. He is a Christian." Then I 
 said: "He is my muleteer." The same reply: 
 "No matter. He is a Christian." At this he 
 shoved the barrel of his gun past my side, when I 
 brought my hand with force on his shoulders, shook 
 him and said : " There is to be no shooting in my 
 presence." The coward let back the trigger of his 
 old flint-lock and said : " For your Honour's sake I 
 will not shoot," and went away. I have thanked 
 God a thousand times since that I had not a pistol — • 
 never carried one. 
 
THE MASSACRES OF 1860 151 
 
 2l half hour after this another Druse proposed to 
 shoot the muleteer, I ordered the man not to stir 
 from my side, but as we approached Beiriit, near 
 my home at Suq-al-Gharb, an old enemy of his ap- 
 peared and, cocMng his gun, said, " Now I have 
 you ! " But then my horse's head appeared around 
 the comer. The Druse knew me and gave salaams. 
 All through these scenes I was not conscious of be- 
 ing afraid, but on arriving home my wife said^ 
 " What is the matter with you? You look as pale 
 as death." 
 
 Yes, I was frightened once coming along by the 
 side of a garden in aJonely place wholly shut ofE 
 from my view by a high hedge of bushes. I came op- 
 posite a narrow wicket-gate in which stood a Druse 
 with his hand at the breast-pocket, where pistols 
 are usually kept. From this he drew with a quick 
 motion — ^not a |)istol, but a long, cool cucumber! 
 He laughed and I laughed. The cucumber was re- 
 freshing in that hot June noon-day and cooled 
 me off. 
 
 In less than a week after I returned, word came 
 again that more flour was needed at the Deir. I 
 told Dr.^ Thomson that I could not go again with- 
 out a guard of Turkish soldiers besides ouj own 
 cavass. Our Consul sent his chief Dragoman 
 with me to the foot of the mountains to request from 
 the Turkish General, who was encamped there, a 
 small guard of soldiers. We found no one in camp 
 except a secretary. He informed us that His Ex- 
 cellency had heard that there might be trouble at 
 
162 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 Deir-al-Qamr and had therefore started the after- 
 noon before for that place. I asked where His Ex- 
 cellency encamped last. He answered, "At Shwei- 
 fat" (three miles away), and then I asked where 
 he would encamp that night. He replied, "At Jisr- 
 al-Qadi " (thus taking a day and a half to cover a 
 distance over which I have ridden in five hours). 
 The Dragoman and I turned back. I said to him : 
 "We shall hear of a massacre in Deir-al-Qamp 
 to-morrow." We heard of it before we reached 
 BeirM. His Excellency had planned, of course ( !), 
 to get to Deir-al-Qamr in time to prevent the 
 massacre, but he failed. Mr. Bird and famUy had 
 left the Deir a few days before the awful blood- 
 shed. 
 
 After the massacre at Hasbfiya the women were 
 left in great danger from the Moslem soldiers. A 
 man came from there who was saved by throwing 
 himself among the dead bodies and hiding beneath 
 them. His clothes were covered with blood and 
 stains. On hearing that the women and girls were 
 in peril. Dr. WUliam Eddy and I called on the 
 English Consul-General and volunteered to go and 
 bring the women to Beiriit on condition that he 
 would send with us a cavass with the English 
 flag. The American flag was little known or re- 
 spected then in the interior. The Engliish Consul- 
 l&eneral declined to comply with our request, saying 
 that "the flag might be insulted and that would 
 complicate matters." Dr. Eddy and I were indig- 
 nant for we were dominated by compassion for the 
 
THE MASSAOEES OF 1860 153 
 
 poor women in HasMya and not by tlie higher (or 
 lower) demands of diplomacy. 
 
 Most of the inhabitants of Southern Lebanon fled 
 to Beirut for safety. There were many thousands 
 of them — ^men, women and children, aU destitute, 
 with Jittle clothing and no food. English mer- 
 chants, missionaries and others advanced money 
 for the present necessities and made an appeal to 
 England and America for funds. The response was 
 quick and most liberal. More was received than 
 was needed and more than was actually given out. 
 A committee was formed called " The Anglo- Amer- 
 ican Belief Committee." The English in Beirfl.t 
 kept the accounts and received the clothing sent 
 from England, but the distribution was left mostly 
 to the American missionaries. I assisted for a few 
 days — a week or more — and then was taken down 
 with a slight fever followed by a large, dangerous 
 carbuncle on the side of my head. 
 
 For some time every one had expected an attack 
 on Beirut. It was reported that an agreement had 
 been made by the Druses on the mountains and 
 some of the baser sort of Moslems at Beirut to at- 
 tack the city on a certain night — ^the Druses to loot 
 the houses, the Moslems to attack the bankers, the 
 merchants and the shops. That the arrangement 
 was made is certain. Why it was not carried out 
 is not clear to me even more than forty-eight years 
 afterwards. We were living in the upper part of 
 the city at the house of Mr. Hurter. About sunset 
 I was asked to meet the missionaries at the printing 
 
154 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 press. It was agreed that all the Americans in the 
 city should spend the night there. An arrangement 
 was made with the English men-of-war that in case 
 of an attack we would send up rdckets, and boats 
 would land at a certain poiut and take us on board. 
 I returned to Mr. Hurter's and there witnessed a 
 degree of trust, confidence, faith and obedience sel- 
 dom seen. I said : " Ladies, put on your bonnets 
 and follow me, asking no questions." Mrs. Hurter, 
 Mrs. Bliss and Miss Hurter, without a word to me, 
 put on their bonnets, gathered the children together 
 and followed me down the stairs, down the narrow 
 path between prickly-pear hedges to the stronghold 
 of the American Press. We arrived at the I^ess 
 safely. The children slept well and there was no 
 alarm. 
 
 About this time there was a great commotion in 
 the city. It was said that a Christian had killed 
 a Moslem; true or not, the report spread. The 
 whole Moslem population of the baser sort were 
 everywhere brandishing their sticks and clubs and 
 threateniiig all Christians. I was standing on the 
 terrace of Mr. Hurter's house and saw three young 
 men make an attack on a Christian lad just below. 
 I jumped down and mildly asked them what the 
 boy had done. They said that he had entered the 
 harem (women's apartment), a great crime. I got 
 between them and him and told them if he had been 
 guilty he must be punished by the proper authori- 
 ties, and that I would go with them and enter a 
 Qomplaint, but that they ought not to take the la"vy; 
 
THE MASSACEES OF 1860 1B5 
 
 into their own hands. While haranguing them I 
 gave the Christian boy a shove and he ran away. 
 Soon after this, an hour or so, I mounted my horse 
 and rode down the street towards the Press to con- 
 fer with Dr. Thomson. The roofs of the houses 
 were covered with women. They screamed out with 
 shrill voices : " Butcher him ! Butcher him ! " 
 Whether they referred to me or not I do not know. 
 I was in a hurry ; I did not stop to examine. The 
 city was quieted when a Christian was caught, — 
 the supposed murderer, — and killed. It was re- 
 ported that he said, "Although I am innocent, I am 
 ready to die if my death wiU quell the people." 
 
 The next day, or perhaps it was the same after- 
 noon (I write from memory), a man-of-war came 
 into the harbour having on board a thousand Turk- 
 ish soldiers commanded by a Hungarian General, a 
 Christian who had served in the Turkish army 
 since the days of Kossuth. In an almost Incred- 
 ibly short time he had landed the troops and dis- 
 tributed them through the town in bands of fifty, 
 forty, twenty-five, ten and five. He himself on 
 horseback rode through the streets with drawn 
 sword ordering the crowds to disperse and not in- 
 frequently accompanying his orders with blows 
 from the flat side of his sword upon the shoulders 
 of some white-turbaned Moslem. Mr. Ford, having 
 known the General once before in Aleppo, called 
 almost immediately upon him and told him of the 
 situation. The General was thankful for the in- 
 formation. Mr. Ford asked the General if he could 
 
166 DANIEL 6LISS 
 
 hold tte town. He replied tliat he could if he could 
 trust his men, and then asked Mr. Ford to call 
 again. After an hour he went again at the time 
 appointed. The General said, " It is all right. We 
 have the control. I can trust my men." Shortly 
 after this I called on the General and being from 
 the mountains he questioned me about the roads, 
 the defiles, the distances, the water along several 
 routes and made sketches of my descriptions. He 
 expected then that he might be called from the 
 plains. He had been to Sidon before I saw him 
 and left behind him the mobs quieted there. He 
 said to me, " I told the Governor of Sidon, * You 
 take care, for heads are very loose these days.' " 
 That Hungarian General was dismissed from the 
 Turkish service very soon after. Was he too ener- 
 getic? 
 
 A contingent of the French army arrived in due 
 time, encamped in the pines on the Plain of Beirut, 
 and sent detachments into the mountains. This 
 gave confidence to the people and they soon began 
 to return to their villages and commenced to repair 
 their houses. The houses on the mountain are 
 made of stone and therefore the walls, for the most 
 part, were not materially injured by the fire. 
 Quiet, for the most part, prevailed. The Druses 
 were alarmed, of course, supposing that Western 
 arniies were like their own hordes carrying destruc- 
 tion before them instead of being an organized band 
 to suppress wrong, to protect the weak and to give 
 every one his natural rights. Still the Druses had 
 
THE MASSACRES OF 1860 157 
 
 some reason to fear, for in one or two cases the 
 camp followers committed murder. 
 
 I was in Beirut one day and on my return to the 
 mountains at Kefr SMma, a village partly on the 
 plain and partly on the hill, I saw a half dozen 
 Christians make an attack upon as many Druse 
 muleteers who had'ventured down to Beirtlt. The 
 Commander of a French company was encamped in 
 a village near by. He, of course, had no knowledge 
 of the events going on. I wrote on a piece of 
 wrapping paper to Dr. Thomson and sent it to 
 Beirut. The English Vice-Consul called on me at 
 SAq-al-Gharb to obtain aU the particulars. Repre- 
 sentations were made by different Consuls-Gteneral 
 to the General of the French Army of Occupation 
 and he was glad of the information. After that we 
 heard of no more iiurders by camp-followers. 
 
 The French remained one year; order was re- 
 stored. The Government of the Lebanon was made 
 semi-independent. A new order of things was 
 agreed upon by the Sultan and the five great 
 Powers, which order continues till the present time. 
 [Dr. Bliss was writing before the War: see foot- 
 note.'] The ^eat crowd of refugees for the most 
 
 'Editor's Note. — The Constitution of the Lebanon (issued in 
 1861 and amended in 1864) provided for an autonomous 
 province, mled by an Ottoman Governor, to be nominated by the 
 Sultan and confirmed by the great Powers. He should be a 
 Christian but not a native of the Lebanon. All oflScials under 
 him were to be Lebanese — Christian, Druse or Moslem, in accord- 
 ance with their distribution and numerical strength. The Leb- 
 anese were exempted from Ottoman military service; A definite 
 
158 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 part returned to their homes, although many settled 
 down in Beirut, especially thpse from Damascus. 
 The great work of caring for the destitute was 
 transferred from the city to the mountain villages 
 and small towns. Through the advice of the Anglo- 
 American Committee the American missionaries di- 
 vided the country devastated by the Druses into 
 sections, each section to be cared for by some one 
 of their number. Some forty vUlages fell to my 
 charge, each one of which either I or my assistant 
 teacher visited weekly for several months, distribut- 
 ing among them clothing, bedding and money ac- 
 cording to their necessities. Over seven thousand 
 garments were cut out in our house: dresses for 
 women, girls, little children and even for unborn 
 babies. Then they were made into bundles con- 
 taining not only the cut-out garment, but lining and 
 thread and needles. Once or twice a week there 
 would be a distribution at our house to some vil- 
 lages previously agreed upon, or my teacher and I 
 would take them with us to the village. 
 I remember a pitiful sight. We had gone to a 
 
 revenue was fixed but nothing was held to be due to the Im- 
 perial treasury till local expenditure should be covered. But in- 
 stead of finding the Lebanon, as reconstituted, a financial asset, 
 the Central Government was called upon, for a number of years, 
 to subsidize the local government. 
 
 This Constitution, though generally respected by the Turks 
 during the War, was violated in one fundamental particular. 
 Thus while exemption from military service was continued, the 
 Governor-General and other important o£Scials were Moham- 
 medan Turks. 
 
THE MASSACEES OP 1860 159 
 
 village with a load of tMngs and, while we were 
 dealing them out, a woman whispered in my ear 
 and said, pointing down to a certain house, " There 
 is a woman there with two daughters who cannot 
 come out, for they have nothing to wear." We had 
 with us several dresses all made up. So I left my 
 teacher and took three garments and knocked at 
 the door. An arm, bare up to the shoulder, was 
 thrust out.\ I handed in the dresses. When far 
 up the hill on my return I saw three women stand- 
 ing with uplifted hands and voices saying, "Grod 
 bless you; Grod bless the English and the Amer- 
 icans. God bless the missionaries ! " 
 
 The next week I did not go to the village in per- 
 son but sent the money to the priest with a list of 
 the names, and requested him to make the distribu- 
 tion. The following week I called on the woman 
 who had received the garments and asked her how 
 she was getting on. She replied that after I had 
 left they were very comfortable but that they had 
 suffered the last week for want of food. " How is 
 that," I said, " for you had your money as usual? " 
 Eather hesitatingly she replied, " No. He kept it. 
 I do not deny the debt I owed him." I returned to 
 the priest's house and in the presence of quite an 
 audience made an address more in the spirit of the 
 Imprecatory Psalms than of the Sermon on the 
 Mount. On returning home I related the events of 
 the day. 'An Englishman, an ex-Colonel of the In- 
 dian Army, hearing the story of the priest and the 
 poor widow, burst forth wholly in the spirit of the 
 
160 DAIHEL BLISS 
 
 cursing Psalms and declared that liei "would ridd 
 over to the village and horsewhip the priest. But 
 having by this time regretted the spirit of my ad- 
 dress before the priest; and his neighbours, I per- 
 suaded the irate ex-Colonel not to go on his ride. 
 The priest is not a specimen of all priests, for among 
 them are men of high character. 
 
 The distribution went on through the Winter and 
 early Spring with many episodes, some amusing 
 and many sad. Once a poor woman appeared at 
 my study and related a sad story. " My husband 
 has been killed; I am a poor widow; my home is 
 destroyed; my relatives murdered, and I am left 
 destitute with three little children. I am from 
 Jezzin and I am going to Beirflt. I left my three 
 little ones under a fig-tree at the junction of the 
 road out there." Her story moved me but I coldly 
 though kindly said: "Jezzin is not under my 
 charge. You must go back beyond the junction to 
 Abeih and Mr. Bird, who has charge of that dis- 
 trict, will listen to your appeal." She went sadly 
 away and left me feeling sadly for her. A few days 
 after this there appeared a woman closely veiled, 
 who said that she was a maiden lady, a Druse from 
 the village just below us, and that she knew we made 
 no distinction between the different sects but were 
 always ready to help the destitute, etc. I rose from 
 my chair, took her not too tenderly by the arm and 
 said : " You are a poor Avidow from Jezzin. Your 
 three children are under a fig-tree at the junction 
 over there. Go." She went. Although she was 
 
THE MASSACEES OP 1860 161 
 
 closely veiled, I had pecognized her by her voice, as 
 well as from her maimer of speech. 
 
 As the Spring of 1861 approached, I found that 
 there were many names on my list of recipients who 
 were no longer absolutely needy, strong, able-bodied 
 men and boys. We saw also that indiscriminate 
 charity tended as usual to debase and pauperize. 
 So when I reported my observations of the situation 
 to the Anglo-American Committee, I proposed to 
 repair the road, a mere bridle-path, from the foot 
 of the mountain on towards Deir-al-Qamr, and to 
 pay full wages to those who worked. The com- 
 ,mittee fully approved the plan. 
 
 Then DaM, my helper, went to the villages with 
 lists in hand. When we found a family consisting 
 of a widow with small children, the list remained 
 as it was. When we came to where there was an 
 able-bodied man, the weekly sum, previously given, 
 was reduced by the amount the man could earn by 
 his labour. It was astonishing how much less our 
 weekly free disbursements were, and stUl more 
 astonishing how the work put new life and hope 
 into the community. It was a joyful sight, when 
 a hundred men and boys at the time appointed ap- 
 peared at the foot of the hUl with crowbars, mat- 
 tocks, shovels and stone-hammers, laughing and 
 shouting for joy. The stone-arched bridge we built 
 at the foot of the hill still stands after these forty- 
 eight years and will continue to stand till it ^ves 
 way to a wider one for the automobiles of the 
 future. 
 
VII 
 
 I 
 
 THE FOUNDING OF THE SYBIAN PEOlTESTANT 
 COLLEGE 
 
 SOME years before writing his personal Eeminis- 
 eenees, Dr. Bliss prepared an account of- the 
 founding of the College, Its contents, covering 
 some one hundred pages, include copies of Eesolutions, 
 official letters, newspaper commendations, etc., etc. The 
 following account is abridged from that manuscript. 
 
 During the years 1861 and 1862 the Eeverend 
 Dr. William M. Thomson and I frequently con- 
 versed on the subject of Higher Education for 
 Syria and the Arabic-speaking peoples of the East. 
 Experience had led the missionaries to regard with 
 little favour the plan to educate young men out of 
 the country. The Malta College, which was de- 
 signed to educate young men living in countries 
 bordering on the Mediterranean as near their home 
 as possible, had not been a success. Individuals, 
 who had been more or less educated in England or 
 on the Continent, exerted very little influence, on 
 their return, in elevating their countrymen, but on 
 the contrary their defective education tended rather 
 to unfit them for usefulness by taking them out of 
 sympathy with their own people. Quite a number 
 
 162 
 
POUliroiNG OF THE COLLEGE 163 
 
 of these did not return to settle in the country but 
 remained abroad; and of those "who returned not 
 one ever became a man of influence as author, 
 teacher, or preacher. On the other hand, several 
 men, who had been educated in the Mission Semi- 
 nary, under the care of Mr. Hebard, and at a later 
 period in Abeih Academy, first under the care of 
 Dr. Van Dyck and then of Mr. Calhoun, became 
 prominent men and contributed to the great object 
 for which Missions are established. But while the 
 general demand for education increased, the course 
 of study ia the Abeih Academy was more or less 
 modified to meet the specific wants of the Mission 
 in furnishing common-school teachers and other 
 native helpers, and thus became even less adapted 
 to meet all the demands of the country than it was 
 at an earlier period. It was manifest that to edu- 
 cate large nimibers out of the country, even if in 
 the course of time a foreign education should prove 
 satisfactory, would require more money than the 
 people could pay and more than the benevolent 
 woidd furnish. It was also manifest that mission- 
 ary societies, depending, mainly, for their support 
 on small contributions, given for the direct preach- 
 ing of the Gospel and for teaching children enough 
 to enable them to read understandingly, could not 
 divert their funds for this higher education. 
 
 These considerations led to the devising of other 
 means to meet the evident demand. Many points, 
 connected with the whole subject, were discussed, 
 in an informal way, by the missionaries and others 
 
164 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 before any definite plans were proposed. It was 
 generally conceded that the time had come to estab- 
 lish in Syria an institution which should become, 
 in time, equal to the better American Colleges. 
 The opinion was held, with few to dissent, that the 
 language of the College should be the Arabic — ^that 
 all instruction and text-books should be in that 
 language, except the instruction given in learning 
 foreign languages. It was seen, from the first, that 
 funds to establish such an institution would have to 
 be furnished from America and England. This 
 fact brought up the questions of raising the needed 
 funds, of caring for them, and of the general con- 
 trol of the institution. It appeared evident that a 
 Board of Trustees, legalized by some responsible 
 government, was necessary to give confidence in an 
 enterprise calling for large donations, contributions 
 and legacies from men of wealth. It probably never 
 occurred to any one even to ask the question 
 whether such a Board of Trustees should be legal- 
 ized by the Turkish Government. It was taken for 
 granted that a charter must be obtained either from 
 England or America, and that a Board of Trustees 
 in one of these lands, or in both conjointly, should 
 be legally authorized to hold and invest funds and 
 to administer them in the interest of the proposed 
 object. The difficulty of carrying on a College by 
 a Board of Trustees four or seven thousand miles 
 from the base of operations was recognized and, to 
 mitigate this difficulty, , it was suggested that a 
 Board of Managers living in Syria and vicinity 
 
FOTJNDmG OP THE COLLEGE 165 
 
 Blionld be created to act for the Trustees in all local 
 matters. At this point a very important question 
 arose — ^viz., who shall compose the Board of Man- 
 agers and who shall be the President of the College. 
 It was a favourite theory of Dr. Thomson and of 
 some others that, so far as possible, the College 
 should be indigenous, identified with the country, 
 taught largely by native teachers, and that the 
 President should be a Syrian- On further con- 
 sideration, and ia view of well-known facts, this 
 theory was abandoned before any concerted action 
 was taken. Mr. James Black, an English mer- 
 chant of large experience in dealing with the people 
 of the country, stated that he could not recommend 
 an institution to the patronage of benevolent men 
 unless its President and Board of Managers were 
 Americans or Englishmen. He gave it as his opin- 
 ion that the natives themselves would have far more 
 confidence in its efficiency and stability if it were 
 controlled by Franks than if controlled by natives. 
 Remarks made about the same time by several 
 natives, both Moslem and Christian, on an entirely 
 different subject, corroborated his sentiment. 
 There was a proi)osition to bring water to Beirut 
 from the Dog Kiver, and a meeting was called to 
 form a company. After much discussion a pre- 
 liminary canvass was made to ascertain the amount 
 of stock that would be taken in case a charter was 
 obtained. This brought out the remark from sev- 
 eral natives : " If you [meaning Mr. Black and sev- 
 eral other English merchants] will take control of 
 
166 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 tie company and be responsible, we will furnish 
 the money. We cannot trust ourselves." The 
 company was not formed. Ten or more years 
 after an English company supplied Beir^it with 
 water.' The fact that the natives themselves ex- 
 pressed in words and, even more, by their acts, 
 greater confidence in foreign control than in their 
 own, led us to abandon the theory of having the 
 Board of Managers composed wholly or in part of 
 natives and of having the President a native. It 
 was thought best that American and English mis- 
 sionaries and other American and English residents 
 in Syria and Egypt should constitute the Board of 
 Managers, they all belonging to some branch of the 
 Evangelical Church, and that the President should 
 be chosen from the missionaries of the Syrian Mis- 
 sion. 
 
 At the! meeting of the Mission on January 23, 
 1862, Dr. Thomson brought up the subject and sug- 
 gested that Mr. Bliss be the Principal. It was then 
 voted that Messrs. Thomson and Bliss be a com- 
 mittee to prepare a minute in relation to the con- 
 templated literary institution to be located in 
 Beirut. Mr. Bliss was surprised at the mention of 
 his name as Principal, for in his conversations with 
 Dr. Thomson, while all the other missionaries had 
 been spoken of in this connection, his name and 
 qualifications had not been mentioned. He there- 
 fore asked to be excused from the meeting for a day 
 
 *Some 50 years later the company was reorganized with a 
 Syrian for President. 
 
FOtTNDING OP THE COLLEGE 167 
 
 or two to enable him to consult "with. Ms wife at 
 SAq-al-Gharb, before accepting or declining a posi- 
 tion involving so many cbangee in their life-work. 
 On Monday, January 27, the committee, in their 
 report, repommended the establishment of a Lit- 
 erary Institution of a high character, to be guided 
 and guarded by the combined wisdom and experi- 
 ence of the Mission, and that this important project 
 should be submitted to the Prudential C!ommittee of 
 the American Board in Boston for their considera- 
 tion and sanction, with the request that the Mission 
 be authorized to appoint Mr. Daniel Bliss to be the 
 Principal of the Institution, it being -understood 
 that, until the expected endowment were secured, 
 he should continue his connection with the Mission 
 and derive his support from the Board. This 
 recommendation was endorsed by a vote of the 
 Mission. It may be noticed that, while keeping in 
 closest touch with the Mission, the proposed Col- 
 lege was not to be organically connected therewith. 
 A correspondence with the secretaries in Boston 
 and others brought out the following points : that 
 the proposition made to the Board was the first of 
 its kind and hence required very serious considera- 
 tion ; that it was most important that the establish- 
 ment of the College should not jeopardize the train- 
 ing of a Christian ministry, a work which was as 
 yet by no means accomplished ; that as, owing to the 
 demand of the country, the creation of a higher in- 
 stitution was inevitable, it was essential that the 
 first of the kind should be established by Protes- 
 
168 DAUIEL BLISS 
 
 tants, not by Jesuits; that the pupils should be 
 educated with reference to the business which they 
 might propose to follow, as ministers of the Gospel, 
 lawyers, physicians, engineers, secretaries, inter- 
 preters, merchants, clerks, etc., thus avoiding the 
 reproach of sending forth helpless and useless 
 drones upon society; that, where suitable persons 
 could be obtained, the native Arab element should 
 be introduced as fast as possible into the professor- 
 ships and other teaching positions, in all depart- 
 ments of the College, in order that the Syrians 
 might have every facility for qualifying themselves 
 to assume, at no distant day, the entire management 
 of the iastitution ; that care should be exercised to 
 prevent the students from becoming denationalized; 
 that, in the interests of the independence and self- 
 respect of the student-body, the principle of self- 
 support should be fostered as far as possible. 
 
 Acting on the vote of the Mission, Mrs. Bliss and 
 myself, with our children, sailed for the United 
 States on August 14, 1862, landing in New York 
 September 17. Soon after our arrival the Annual 
 Meeting of the A. B. C. F. M. was held at Spring- 
 field, Massachusetts. I was appointed to speak on 
 a resolution in regard to reinforcing the Missions, 
 and the late Honorable William E. Dodge was to 
 be the next speaker. As I had had no rest from the 
 long journey from Syria, my haggard appearance 
 seemed to enforce upon the mind of Mr. Dodge what 
 was said of the magnitude of the work and of the 
 necessity of reinforcing the overworked mission- 
 
POUNDING OF THE COLLEGE 169 
 
 aries. Wlien he spoke he used words to this effect : 
 " When our young brother was speaking I was so 
 moved that there was not a dry thread in the shirt 
 on my back." Mr. Dodge was unknown to us ex- 
 cept by name at that time, but he invited Mrs. Bliss 
 and me to dine with him at the Massasoit House. 
 We had a private table — ^the company consisted of 
 Mr. William E. Dodge, Mrs. Dodge, their son, Rev- 
 erend D. Stuart Dodge and his wife. During the 
 dinner Mr. Dodge asked Mrs. Bliss if her husband 
 had come home on account of his health, and she 
 assured him that his health was perfect, then stated 
 in a general way the plans for the proposed Col- 
 lege. The conversation soon became more general 
 and the needs and objects of the enterprise were 
 more fully explained. Before we rose from the table 
 Mr. Dodge said to his son, " Stuart, that seems to 
 me to be a good thing ; we must look into it." Sub- 
 sequent events revealed the results of his remark. 
 The fountain of benevolence in Mr. Dodge's heart 
 was not enlarged, but a new channel was opened' for 
 his benefactions. 
 
 Steps for the legal incorporation of the Syrian Protes- 
 tant College, under the laws of the State of New York, 
 were first taken eariy in the year 1863. In preparing 
 the bill, the founders secured the distinguished legal ad- 
 vice of Samuel J. Tilden. Six trustees were provisionally 
 chosen and held meetings. Of these, four were from 
 New York: WUliam A. Booth (President), William E. 
 Dodge, David Hoadley, and S. B. Chittenden; and two 
 from Boston : Abner Kingman and Joseph S. Eopes. Mr. 
 
170 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 Bliss, the nominee for President, during his entire so- 
 journ of about two years in the United States, continued 
 to be a missionary of the Board, under the direction of 
 its secretaries, making addresses on its behalf, and, for a 
 period, acting himself as New York secretary. A bill to 
 incorporate the Syrian Protestant College and Robert 
 College (Constantinople), previously introduced into the 
 Assembly at Albany, was signed by Governor Seymour 
 on May 14, 1864.' These two institutions are thus not 
 only sisters but twins. On June 7 the constitution was 
 adopted by the trustees, who, on July 14, formally 
 elected Mr. Bliss President. The local Board of Man- 
 agers, resident in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, eighteen 
 in all, included the British and American Consuls, Brit- 
 ish and American missionaries and British merchants. 
 Their services, all important during the early days of the 
 College, became less and less necessary as means of rapid 
 communication with the trustees increased. After the 
 resignation of Dr. Daniel Bliss in 1902, their vote to dis- 
 solve themselves was confirmed by the trustees. 
 
 During these months of organization, Mr. Bliss, in con- 
 nection with his work for the Board, and with the cordial 
 cooperation of clergy and other philanthropists, was en- 
 deavouring to give wide publicity to the new enterprise. 
 This was always represented as the direct outcome of 
 mission work. Many newspapers, religious and secular, 
 cordially took up the propaganda. In May, 1863, at the 
 request of a score of men, including Drs. Eoswell D. 
 Hitchcock, Greorge L. Prentiss, William Adams, 
 Thomas S. Hastings, as well as prominent laymen, ad- 
 
 'The College is now recognized by the Department of Educa- 
 tion at Albany as forming part of the University of the State 
 of New York. 
 
POUNDING OP THE COLLEGE 171 
 
 aressed a meeting at the Madison Square Presbyterian 
 Church. In his speech Mr. Bliss emphasized the need 
 of the Near East, so cursed with medical quacks and 
 jugglers, for trained physicians, as well as the impor- 
 tance of religioxis, non-sectarian instruction, with the 
 Bible as a constap.t text-book. It was announced that 
 the leading object of the College was to lay the founda- 
 tions of a Christian literature, through which the mil- 
 lions of Asia, the Barbary States, Egypt and Central 
 Africa might be reached and blessed- The six depart- 
 ments of study contemplated were to comprise Arabic 
 Language and Literature ; Mathematics ; Astronomy and 
 Engineering; Chemistry, Botany, and Natural Science; 
 Modem Languages; Medicine; Law and Jurisprudence. 
 With the exception of the last named item, this pro- 
 gramme has been carried out. It has been extended to 
 cover Philosophy, Economics, Social Science, Commerce, 
 etc. 
 
 The burden of creating an endowment fell with the 
 greatest weight upon the shoulders of the President-elect. 
 The following brief note accompanied the first (or pos- 
 sibly the second) cash payment. "Enclosed is a brick 
 (one doUar) for the proposed Syrian College, if such a 
 small sum is accepted. I wish it were a thousand in- 
 stead of one." 
 
 In the securing of funds — ^he did not "solicit" — Dr, 
 Bliss relied largely on interesting individuals personally. 
 He seldom took up a collection. He was indefatigable in 
 making calls — one day the number reached a dozen! 
 His usual method, after stating briefly the claims of the 
 College, was to leave his little "book" with his host, who 
 at his leisure could look over former contributions and, 
 if he so pleased, make his addition. He seldom asked 
 directly for a donation. However, he once named a sum 
 
I 
 
 172 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 with the happiest results. In a letter introducing Mr. 
 Bliss to a well-known giver, the writer thereof stated 
 that the bearer was a. modest man, and begged that he 
 should not be allowed to suffer on that account. After 
 listening to Mr. Bliss, the philanthropist said: "WeU, I 
 will give you two thousand dollars." "Can't you make 
 it five ? ' ' gently suggested Mr. Bliss. The philanthropist 
 brought his hand down heavily on his desk. "Good 
 God!" he said, "I shall write my friend that Mr. 
 Bliss is not a modest man 1 " He put his name down for 
 five. 
 
 The College never accepted contributions to the endow- 
 ment which involved hampering conditions. That Eng- 
 lish eccentric of notoriety, Eobert Arthington, with whom 
 Mr. Bliss corresponded for years, refused, in spite of his 
 great interest in the College, to contribute largely thereto 
 when he found that the institution would not use his 
 cash in hurrying up Providence to fulfill prophecy in 
 accordance with the Arthington form of interpretation! 
 Another friend of the College diverted the channel of 
 her benevolence to another institution because the Presi- 
 dent of the Sjrrian Protestant College would not give a 
 pledge that it would never practise vivisection. 
 
 During five visits made to England or America, or 
 both, from 1874 to 1899, Dr. Bliss increased the en- 
 dowment fund, and obtained further gifts for the Col- 
 lege. Some experiences of a College President in the 
 task of money-getting, culled from his letters from 1864 
 on, may be here presented for the comfort and amuse- 
 ment of his fellow-sufEerers. 
 
 Raising money is a most disagreeable business, 
 the best way we look at it. Yet I have not been re- 
 
POUNDING OP THE COLLEGE 173 
 
 ceived by any one with, any degree of incivility, but 
 on the contrary with kindness and respect. . . . 
 I do not feel discouraged in the least. The money 
 is somewhere and one of these days we shall find 
 it. ... I have given up setting the time [for 
 completing the endowment]. It will come in God's 
 own time, which is better. . . . The whole course 
 of benevolence in the world is too much dependent 
 upon personal influence. The reputation of the 
 solicitor and his standing have more to do with con- 
 tributions than the object to be aided. ... I 
 am fishing in deep waters, for large fish. When I 
 have failed (?) I will take some small fry. . . . 
 This morning I called on Mr. P. [Hampstead, Lon- 
 don"]. He asked me about the College, etc. I said, 
 "I must go now," but he wished "to show me a 
 view," and while I was looking at the view he took 
 the opportunity to write a cheque for ten guineas. 
 Then I called on Mr. M. — ^told him I had just come 
 from Mr. P.'s. " Oh, yes," said he, " Mr. P. told 
 me that he met you in Beirut and that Mrs. Bliss 
 gave him the best dinner he ate while he was away ; 
 there was a turkey that lasted him a week ! " I 
 suppose the remembrance of the turkey helped get 
 the ten pounds. The benevolent organ lies near the 
 stomach. . . . Last night I went to the Church 
 of Dr. V. D. [New York]. Asked him how long 
 I should speak. He replied, " How long a time do 
 you wish? " I said, " JTist as you wish, from five 
 minutes to two hours." He looked at me sharply 
 and said, "If you can speak five minutes or two 
 
174 \ DANIEL BLISS 
 
 hours, you are the most remarkable missionary, 
 secretary or agent I ever saw. Some of them come 
 here and tire my people out. I don't let them in 
 often. ... I called on my old friend, Sir Sam- 
 uel Morley [London] — one of the pleasantest men 
 I ever saw. There were a dozen people waiting to 
 see him. Each one sent in his name and waited his 
 turn. Mine finally came and I went in. He came 
 forward and shook hands most cordially, but said : 
 " I am just off for America and cannot give you a 
 minute ; what do you want? " I replied : "A dona- 
 tion from twenty thousand pounds to one pound ! " 
 He said: "What do you want such large sums 
 for? " I replied, " For endowments." We talked 
 for a few minutes ; in the meantime he put his arms 
 on my shoulder and finally said : " I will send you 
 one hundred pounds before I leave and help you 
 yearly with something." I am told that every Mon- 
 day morning Sir Samuel's firm places one thousand 
 pounds to his credit which he gives away during 
 the week. Now don't think that he ought to have 
 given me more, for his applications are so numer- 
 ous. ... I called on our acquaintance, Lady B. 
 [a peeress of social influence in London], and found 
 she was in Switzerland. To call on her does no 
 good but not to call on her might do harm. . . . 
 I listened to-day to one of the best speeches I ever 
 heard on Missions from a missionary from China. 
 It had the ring of an earnest soul; so unlike 
 the "namby-pamby" trash of a personal experi- 
 ence. 
 
POUNDIHG OF THE COLLEGE 175 
 
 During his two years in the United States (1863-1865) 
 Mr. Bliss made 279 public addresses, for the most part 
 in New York State, Pennsylvania and New England. In 
 travelling to deliver these he covered 16,993 miles. He 
 attended two commencements of his Alma Mater, who 
 made him a Doctor of Divinity. Li the summers he took 
 short holidays when he amused himseH by fishing for 
 trout. But he did not visit his family in Ohio till the 
 last dollar of the one hundred thousand was secured. 
 It was deemed advisable that, until the paper currency 
 should reach par, the College should be supported by 
 funds which it was hoped might be collected in England. 
 For some of his English experiences we may turn to his 
 personal Keminiscences. 
 
 On September 10, 1864, we sailed with our three 
 children for England. I took with me letters of 
 introduction to Mr. Schmettau, the Secretary of the 
 Evangelical Alliance, which was then a powerful 
 organization, under the Presidency of Lord Col- 
 thorpe. He received me cordially and said : " I am 
 so glad you have come just at this time, for Mr. 
 
 has asked me to provide a speaker for a 
 
 large drawing-room meeting soon to meet in the in- 
 terest of the Alliance." In those days any gentle- 
 man wishing to promote the interests of the Alliance 
 threw open his house and invited a hundred or more 
 guests to listen to information from some foreign 
 country. I was glad of the opportunity to meet 
 such a representative assembly. The parlours were 
 well filled with ladies and gentlemen. I spoke for 
 an hour or more on the history of Syria, its in- 
 
176 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 habitants, its extent, etc., and gave a detailed ac- 
 count of the missionary work conducted by the dif- 
 ferent societies, commencing with the English 
 Church and Bishop Gobat's School at Jerusalem, 
 and ending up with the work of the A. B. 0. F. M. 
 This prepared the way to speak of the Syrian 
 Protestant College which, most likely, was whoUy 
 unknown to every one in the audience. The rea- 
 sons for establishing such an institution were given 
 and a statement of its charter by the State of New 
 York was made, also the standing of the Trustees. 
 Then I stated that I had just come from America, 
 where a hundred thousand dollars had been secured 
 towards an endowment. Up to this point I had 
 spoken easily arid freely, without embarrassment, 
 for the subject was familiar to me after talking on 
 it for two years in America. But the embarrass- 
 ment came when a hundred thousand dollars was 
 mentioned. Our host in a falsetto voice called out 
 from the further end of the room : "A hundred thou- 
 sand dollars in greenbacks? " Some laughed out- 
 right ; some tittered ; ladies covered their faces with 
 their handkerchiefs and I stood " cast down but not 
 discouraged." I simply said : " I will come to that 
 point in a minute." I was embarrassed and talked 
 on, as the lawyers say, on time, not knowing what 
 I said. Then in a minute suddenly an answer came 
 to me, from where I know not. I said : " Now, sir, 
 in regard to your question. This hundred thou- 
 sand dollars, or this twenty thousand pounds, is in 
 'greenbacks.' Two months ago it would have 
 
FOUNDING OF THE COLLEGE 177 
 
 taken two hundred and forty dollars of greenbacks 
 to make one hundred dollars in gold, or in your own 
 currency two months ago it would take two hun- 
 dred and forty pounds in greenbacks to make one 
 hundred in gold. I see from the quotation in the 
 London Times to-day that it would take only one 
 hundred and thirty-eight dollars in greenbacks to 
 make one hundred dollars in gold." Then with up- 
 lifted hands and voice I said : "And, ladies and gen- 
 tlemen, the time is coming when a hundred pounds 
 of greenbacks will be worth as much as any hun- 
 dred pounds of gold ever coined in the English 
 mint," and sat down amid the cheers and waving of 
 handkerchiefs. Several came forward and said: 
 " We do not agree with your philosophy but we ad- 
 mire the American confidence in the final success of 
 the big country." 
 
 This meeting gave me an introduction to a large 
 circle of influential and benevolent ladies and gen- 
 tlemen. I spoke before these at some other meet- 
 ings, on which occasions the mission work in the 
 Near East and the College were dwelt upon. Also 
 I travelled under the auspices of the Turkish Mis- 
 sion Aid Society to many parts of England, Scot- 
 land and Ireland and made addresses to larger and 
 smaller audiences. One of these was given in one 
 of the oldest chapels in London, where Toplady and 
 Eowland Hill preached. 
 
 Articles about the College were published in 
 various periodicals, notably Good Words, The 
 Sunday at Home and The British Weekly. A 
 
178 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 prospectus and circulars, similar to those use3 in 
 America, were commended by over forty of the 
 leading men in the commercial, political and re- 
 ligious world. Among these were Lord Colthorpe, 
 the Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Stratford de Eed- 
 cliffe, Lord Duflferin, Reverend Horatius Bonar, Dr, 
 Thomas Guthrie, Dr. Newman B[all, Dr. Norman 
 M'Cleod, Canon Tristram, Dr. R. W. Dale, Samuel 
 Morley, etc., etc. We were in Great Britain from 
 September 23, 1864, to February 13, 1866, a little 
 less than a year and a half, and collected a little 
 more than four thousand pounds, which enabled us 
 to commence and carry on the College till the one 
 hundred thousand dollars of greenbacks were at 
 par. After we left England some small contribu- 
 tions were made to the College and Miss Portal of 
 Eussell Square left by wUl annuities which were 
 sold for over sixteen thousand dollars. Our stay 
 in England was most agreeable and we made the 
 acquaintance of many charming people and this 
 notwithstanding that the sympathies at that time 
 of the great majority of the English people were not 
 with the American Government in its effort to 
 maintain the Union of the States. This general 
 dislike was indicated by a remark of our Ambas- 
 sador, Mr. Adams, when I called at his office. He 
 said, " I am glad to see an American missionary ; 
 for this class the English have nothing but words of 
 commendation." 
 
 Several events occurred while we were collect- 
 ing funds in England which would hardly be worthy 
 
FOUNDIHG OF THE COLLEGE 179 
 
 of mention except as they contributed to our suc- 
 cess by calling the attention of leading men to our 
 work. I was invited to be one of the speakers at 
 an annual meeting of the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society in Old Exeter EalL Lord Shaftesbury was 
 in the chair. He at that time (1864) was one of 
 the prominent men in England, — if not the most 
 prominent, — ^in promoting benevolent, social and 
 evangelical enterprises. Those who spoke before 
 I was called upon commenced their addresses in the 
 usual and very proper way by congratulating the 
 secretaries of the Society that they had been able 
 to secure the presence of his Lordship to grace and 
 honour the occasion, or words to that effect. My 
 introduction was as follows : "Allow me, my noble 
 Lord, first of all to congratulate your Lordship that 
 you have the honour to preside at the meeting of the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, the grandest on 
 the face of the earth." His Lordship cheered the 
 remark and in his closiug address alluded to it, say- 
 ing that he regarded this opportunity as the great- 
 est honour of his life. He became a warm friend 
 and promoted by his influence the interests of the 
 College. After this he opened his parlours for a 
 drawing-room meeting and invited many distin- 
 guished ladies and gentlemen to hear me talk on 
 Syria and the mission work in the Orient. 
 
 The late Duke of Argyll also gave me much as- 
 sistance in the way of influence. I became ac- 
 quainted with him at a meeting called by him to 
 express sympathy for the American people on the 
 
180 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 assassination of Mr. Lincoln. He was in the chair 
 and made the best address I ever heard on the rela- 
 tion of the Union of the States to the individual 
 States. He called on me to speak. After that the 
 Duchess invited us to breakfast to meet Mr. Hol- 
 man Hunt. Ten years later at some meeting her 
 Grace recognized me, came forward and shook 
 hands and then invited me to spend a few days — 
 mentioning the time — ^at Inverary Oastle, in Scot- 
 land. (Mrs. Bliss was in America.) On arriving 
 at Edinburgh I heard the sad news that the Duchess 
 had had a stroke of paralysis. I wrote a note ex- 
 pressing my sympathy to the Duke and saying that 
 I would postpone my visit. By the return of post 
 the Duke replied that I should come at the time ap- 
 pointed and that the Duchess would be able to see 
 me a short time each day. I went and spent a few 
 days at the castle, according to the invitation. I 
 saw the Duchess every day. The whole family were 
 there, including the Duke himself, and also Lord 
 Shaftesbury and other guests. I preached in the 
 parish Church on Sunday. I took long walks with 
 Lady Elizabeth and the other children. 
 
 I remember at the time I was not well pleased 
 while taking a walk with the Duke. It was soon 
 after the massacres in Bulgaria and he asked radaj 
 questions about the state of things in Turkey. As 
 soon as I had answered one question he would ask 
 another, and in the meantime, while I was talking, 
 he busied himself in looking at the deer on the lawn, 
 hitting a bush with his cane, or stirring up the 
 
FOTnmmG of the college isi 
 
 Baliaon from some deep hole in the rivulet, and to 
 all appearances, paying no attention to what I was 
 saying. Soon after my return to London I found 
 a newspaper from him containing a long article on 
 Turkish affairs written by himself, remarking 
 that he had for a guest at hia home a gentleman 
 long resident in Turkey, from whom he had learned 
 the following. Then followed a lolig r6sum6 of 
 what he had learned from his " guest." He seemed 
 to have remembered every fact and incident I had 
 mentioned, and had built up an article most for- 
 cible and logical. Judge not from appearances. 
 
 Prom Inverness I went to Wemyss Castle and re- 
 mained a few days at the house of John Bums, — 
 not the politician but a prominent promoter of the 
 Cunard Line of steamers. Lord Shaftesbury was 
 there. In referring to various reforms ia England, 
 he remarked that when he was a boy, as a gen- 
 eral thing the gentlemen never joined the ladies in 
 the parlour after a dinner but tarried long at the 
 wine till some became " incapable " and were put in 
 their carriage or cab and sent home by the butler. 
 " Now," he continued, " if any one shows signs of 
 inebriety at dinner he would not have a second in- 
 vitation to that house." Many even at that time 
 were total abstainers, although wine was furnished 
 for their guests. Nqw, in 1909, a wave of tem- 
 perance agitation is sweeping over England. At 
 any large dinner, public or private, you will find 
 that many gentlemen turn their glasses upside down 
 before the wine is passed and no remarks are madei 
 
182 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 Formerly, I am told, the host would be mortally 
 offended if any one slighted his potations. Once 
 I was invited to dine with twenty-one Wesleyan 
 ministers at the Lord Mayor's private house. I 
 was gratified when an old gentleman on my right 
 hand turned down the four or five glasses set be- 
 fore him, for I did not wish to be peculiar. The 
 wine was passed freely. After a little while the old 
 gentleman at my right hand turned to me, saying, 
 " I wiU not drink their nasty stuff. I carry my 
 own," and took from his side-pocket a flask of 
 brandy from which he drank through the rest of 
 the meal. He did not offer me any. 
 
 The last summer in England we spent at Hamp- 
 stead Heath. There we became intimate with Mrs. 
 Bundle Charles, authoress of " The Shoenberg- 
 Cotta Family," whose home was a perpetual salon 
 for literary, religious and philanthropic men and 
 women. Our third son, William Tyler Bliss, was 
 born in London, in November, 1865. The English 
 nurse, whom Dr. Thane sent us, was past middle 
 life and rather strict and set in her ways. Mrs. 
 Bliss frequently longed for a drink of cold water, 
 which was totally denied her by the nurse but which 
 I often surreptitiously gave her. One day Mrs. 
 Bliss was very thirsty and said to the nurse, after 
 being refused a little water : " What is water made 
 for if not to drink?" This roused the pious old 
 soul and she burst out: "Ma'am, you should not 
 cry out against Providence. All He made is good. 
 Water is good to wash things in, good to bile things 
 
POIHroiNG OP THE COLLEGE 183 
 
 in, good for fish to swim in, good for ships to sail iiL 
 You must not say that because water is not good fop 
 a lady with a baby a few days old that God made 
 water in vain. I drinks my hale and 'alf-and-'alf 
 and it's good enough for me." 
 
 Other experiences of Dr. Bliss during visits made to 
 England for the collection of funds and recorded in liis 
 joumals and letters, may conveniently find a place here. 
 
 He attended many sittings of the House of Commons. 
 On one evening i6 1876 he heard speeches from both 
 Gladstone and Disraeli. The following sketch shows his 
 sharp appreciation of Disraeli's character: 
 
 It is a blessed thing that Disraeli has been made 
 an Earl, for he will do less hann in the House of 
 Lords than in the House of Commons. In the last 
 debate, Mr. Foster, after reading a copy of a dis- 
 patch from Sir Henry Elliot, exposed Disraeli's in- 
 consistencies in doing so and so. Poster's words 
 were telling hard against him. Disraeli rose and 
 in the most bland manner and with an accomplished 
 bow of the head said: "Allow me to remark that, 
 owing to certain circumstances, that I can explain 
 to the Eight Honorable gentleman in private, I 
 never saw the dispatch." I felt at the time that 
 Disraeli was saying what was not true. Mr. 
 Holmes, M. P., last night admitted it. 
 
 Besides Dr. Tait, the Archbishop of Canterbury, of 
 whom he relates an anecdote in the next chapter, Dr. 
 
184 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 Bliss came in touch with many English clergymen, 
 Anglican and others. He met Dr. Liddell at lunch at 
 the Westminster Deanery. For both Dean Stanley and 
 his wife, Lady Augusta, he had a great admiration. He 
 enjoyed the preaching of Dr. James Hamilton, Presby- 
 terian, and the remarkable congregational singing at Dr. 
 AUon's Congregational Church. Ritualistic services did 
 not appeal to him. He was once persuaded by an Aus- 
 tralian Bishop to attend Matins at .Saint Albans. The 
 tone of the elaborately ornate service grated on his sense 
 of reality, and he found the preacher "flippant and con- 
 ceited." Later he remarked to the company at lunch- 
 eon: "I must atone for the sin the Bishop led me into 
 this morning by going to hear Spurgeon this afternoon." 
 That his customary urbanity could be occasionally varied 
 by a touch of caustic wit is further illustrated by his 
 characterization of a man whom he was often forced to 
 meet in London: "W. is constitutionally a boor and has 
 by persistent practice improved on his constitution." 
 
 In 1881, on the occasion of the Methodist Conference 
 in London, he attended a reception given at the Mansion 
 House by the Lord Mayor in robes to some seven hun- 
 dred guests. One of these asked Dr. Bliss in solemn 
 tones: "What are you here for? You are not a Meth- 
 odist!" To which he replied with equal solemnity: 
 "Mr. Arthur, I was bom a Baptist, brought up a Meth- 
 odist, joined the Congregational Church, am labouring 
 among Presbyterians, and on Friday I lunch with the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury; who has a better right to 
 be here?" 
 
 He came into contact with several important public 
 characters and government officials, besides those spoken 
 of in his Reminiscences. He found the manners of the 
 aristocracy "the most American-like of any in the land.'* 
 
FOUiroiNG OF THE COLLEGE 185 
 
 Tn 1864 he called with a large deputation on Earl BusseU 
 with reference to the persecution of Christians in Con- 
 stantinople. During the same visit he met Lord Duf- 
 ferin, Sir Henry Layard, John Bright, Sir Edward 
 Lechemere, and the Maharajah Dhuleep Sing, as well as 
 the democratic agitators, MazzLni and Karl Blind. In 
 May, 1874, he breakfasted with Lord Napier, who had 
 been minister to Wadiington, during the administration 
 of Buchanan, just before the Civil War. The British 
 Government was then interested in a delicate diplomatic 
 quandary in which the Sublime Porte found itself. A 
 number of Moslems, who had turned Christians, refused 
 to serve in the army and consequently had been im- 
 prisoned in Damascus. Their release, desired, if not de- 
 manded, by the British, might involve the sudden "eon- 
 version" — ^to the detriment of the army — of hundreds 
 of Moslems, desirous of escaping military service, as ac- 
 cording to the fundamental law of the Empire, no Chris- 
 tian could be a soldier.^ On the other hand, should they 
 be compelled to serve in the army as Christians, this 
 fundamental principle would be violated. Lord ifrapier 
 was so impressed by what he termed the "calm and 
 lucid" statement of Mr. Bliss, that he desired him to 
 repeat it to Lord Derby, the Prime Minister. Accord- 
 ingly a private interview was arranged with Lord Derby 
 for Mr. Bliss and Dr. Thomson, and took place a few 
 days later. What way the diplomatists found out of the 
 tangle I5r. Bliss does not state. "I feel embarrassed," 
 he remarks, "in speaking to men of such world-wide 
 fame, but I teU an unvarnished tale and let the rest go." 
 
 ' After the Revolution of 1908, miKtary service was demanded 
 from all Ottoman subjects (certain exceptions being made) 
 irrespective of religion. 
 
186 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 Sufficient funds having been secured in England to 
 begin and to carry on the College until United \ States 
 currency should have returned to a gold basis, Dr. and 
 Mrs. Bliss left the land where they had laid the founda- 
 tions for so many lifelong friendships and travelled to 
 Beirut, where they landed on March 2, 1866, having been 
 away from Syria three years and five months. 
 
vm 
 
 THE COLLEGE PRESIDENT 
 
 WHEN in his eighty-ninth year, Dr. Bliss sup- 
 plemented the Eeminiscences of his youth 
 and of his early life in Syria with the ac- 
 count of his work as College President. These later 
 Eeminiscences, written for his famOy, are now given 
 with such omissions as may render them more interesting 
 to a wider circle. 
 
 The College was opened on December 3, 1866, 
 with a service of prayer. I read the third chapter 
 of First Corinthians; Dr. W. W. Eddy offered 
 prayer; Messrs. Jessup and D. S. Dodge made ad- 
 dresses. There were present sixteen students. We 
 were housed for two years in four or five rooms of 
 an insignificant building, and for three years more 
 in a house of larger dimensions, with two smaller 
 buildings attached, in which we commenced a clinic 
 and a hospital of three or four beds. Then we 
 moved again and we were for two years in a still 
 larger building with no attachments, as our clinic 
 and hospital were disbanded in view of an agree- 
 ment with the Prussian Order of the Knights of 
 Saint John, by which the American Faculty of the 
 
 187 
 
188 DAinEL BLISS 
 
 College took charge of the medical work of their 
 hospital, and our students were allowed to receive 
 practical instruction in the wards.' 
 
 We remained in this third house until 1873, when 
 we removed to our present campus. During these 
 seven years we scarcely had a name to live up to, 
 although we were very much alive. A college on 
 wheels does not impress the East with the idea of 
 stability. We were not anxious to appear great, 
 but we were anxious to lay foundations upon which 
 greatness could be built. Our plan for a four years' 
 course in the Medical Department was made at a 
 time when nearly all the Medical Schools in America 
 had a three years' course only. WhUe many of the 
 American Medical Schools to-day (1912) are of the 
 highest ordel", there are still some which are a dis- 
 grace to the profession. Only a few years since a 
 student of ours failed in his examinations at the 
 end of his second year and was required to repeat 
 the studies of that year. He went to America and 
 returned in a few months with the diploma of some 
 affair in Philadelphia. For several years others 
 left us for the same cause, but now seldom does any 
 one leave us before graduation. Some of our best 
 students have taken supplementary courses in the 
 United States and elsewhere and are an honour to 
 our College. \ 
 
 For the first year, although we had no Faculty, 
 
 ^Editor's Note. — This arrangement proved to be most satis- 
 factory, and was not terminated until January I, 1918, when 
 Germany and America had been at War over eight months. 
 
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THE COLLEGE PEESIDENT 189 
 
 •we had a distinguislied native scholar to teach 
 Arabic. He was the author of several works on the 
 Arabic language, and was also a poet of no small 
 reputation. Our tutor of French was from a family 
 of noted scholars. The house-tutor was a Mr. 
 Shadoody, a born mathematician; he was also a 
 poet and composed, or translated into Arabic, some 
 of the sweetest hymns found in our Arabic hymn- 
 book. 
 
 During this year Doctors Van Dyck and Worta- 
 bet were appointed Professors in the Medical De- 
 partment. ^ Dr. Wortabet spent a year in England 
 and was ready to commence his duties in the Col- 
 lege in October, 1867. Dr. Bliss was made Chair- 
 man ex-ofiS.cio and Dr. Wortabet, Secretary. We 
 had weekly meetiags not because there was always 
 much business on hand but that we wished to estab- 
 lish the regularity of College life. All questions 
 before us were quickly disposed of : Dr. Van Dyck 
 would make a motion. Dr. Wortabet would second 
 it, and I called for a vote, which was always carried 
 unanimously, thus relieving me of the disagreeable 
 task of casting a vote because of a tie. Dr. Post 
 joined us the next year and was later followed by 
 Professors Porter and Lewis. For some years 
 Arabic was the language of the institution in all de- 
 partments.' 
 
 Soon after my arrival in Beirut the all-important 
 question arose regarding the final location of the 
 College on land and in buildings of its own. It was 
 
 'Compare page 215. 
 
190 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 thought best for various reasons that neither the 
 Faculty nor the Board of Managers should move in 
 this matter. The Reverend D. Stuart Dodge, now 
 President of the Board of Trustees, was then living 
 in Beirtit. He and the President of the College un- 
 dertook to find a suitable location for our new home. 
 For the space of a year or more, at the solicitations 
 of property-owners, or on-^the recommendation of 
 friends, many places were visited in different parts 
 of Beirflt/ We rode everywhere through the city, 
 looking as we rode. Finally we saw the site where 
 the College now stands and fell in love with it at 
 sight, and immediately decided that we had found 
 the finest site in all Beirut if not in all Syria. 
 
 Oiily a few days after we had seen the place, 
 Mr. John J. Phelps gave $5,000 towards its pur- 
 chase. We said nothing to any one, neither did 
 we visit the place again until the negotiations were 
 completed. We had learned that in this country 
 at least if the owner of a horse or any kind of prop- 
 erty asked you to buy from him you could arrange 
 the price on fair terms; on the other hand, if you 
 asked him to sell the horse or the property you 
 would find great difficulty in arranging the mat- 
 ter. 
 
 We employed one of the shrewdest natives, a 
 broker, to obtain the property. He commenced at 
 
 'Editor's Note. — In later years Dr. Bliss used to point 
 with amusement to some of these sites which showed that 
 those suggesting them had utterly failed to grasp the idea of 
 a home for a great University. 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESIDENT 191 
 
 once by requesting us by no means to mention to a 
 living soul tbat we desired to purchase it, or that 
 we even knew the site. Weeks passed and nothing 
 was heard from him. Finally he requested me to 
 put myself casually in the way of the owner, whom 
 I knew only by sight, but in no case to speak to him 
 or recognize him. During many months I must 
 have passed by his shop scores of times or met him 
 on the street, but never looked at him. I was out 
 not to see but to be seeil, — ^not to court but to be 
 courted. ' 
 
 One day, — ^I remember it well, — we met on the 
 crowded street. As usual, I looked right on ; when 
 I had passed on a few steps he said, " Sir." I 
 turned, lifted my hat, and bowed. He continued, 
 " Mr. Gharzuzi tells me that you wish to buy some 
 land for your school." I replied, " Mr. Gharzuzi is 
 a land agent and wishes a commission. Good- 
 morning, sir." I continued my walk to the first 
 corner and then hastened to tell Mr. Gharzuzi what 
 had happened. He clapped his hands, and said, 
 "Thank God, we have got him," — and so it was. 
 After a few weeks the land was purchased. This 
 may seem a roundabout way of doing business. It 
 was done not to take advantage of the owner, but to 
 keep him from taking advantage of us. We paid 
 for the property far more than its market value ; it 
 scarcely had a market value. It was a home for 
 jackals and a dumping place for the offal of the 
 city. In all our dealings we followed the command, 
 " Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves," — 
 
192 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 harmless in not cheating others, wise in keeping 
 others from cheating us. 
 
 Since this first purchase, which was by far the 
 largest and cheapest, we have obtained many other 
 lots varying in size from a quarter of an acre up to 
 four acres. Each purchase has its history, some 
 very annoying and one most laughable. There was 
 a small plot not more than one-quarter of an acre, 
 just south of the Observatory. It was essential to 
 us in the future. We waited as usual to have the 
 owner speak to us and propose to sell it. He did 
 not speak, but chose a wiser, if not so harmless, a 
 way. One morning, sitting at my study window, 
 I heard talking outside. Looking out I saw sev- 
 eral men, among them a venerable and distin- 
 guished gentleman clothed richly though not gor- 
 geously. They were walking sometimes on this 
 plot of ground and sometimes on our property. I 
 went out, saluted the old gentleman as became his 
 station, and asked what was the occasion of his 
 honouring me with this early visit. He replied, 
 " I have a piece of land here and have brought a 
 few neighbours to verify its boundaries." The 
 neighbours were four Moslems who had before I 
 went out enlarged the boundaries almost to the 
 door of the Observatory on the north, and almost 
 to my study window on the east. I pointed out the 
 line that marked the limits of his land. " I see," 
 said he, "but these neighbours tell me that you 
 built this wall without notifying me, which is con- 
 trary to custom and law." Then a friendly neigh- 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESmENT 193 
 
 hour informed me that, when I was in America, 
 Dr. Van Dyck had added a few stones to make the 
 boundaries more apparent. I begged pardon for 
 having contradicted him, and at the same time said, 
 " You see, sir, that these few loose stones have been 
 added, but the half -embedded stones mark the true 
 boundary." He replied, " I know absolutely noth- 
 ing about the matter at all, but these neighbours of 
 yours are ready to testify that the boundaries are 
 as they have indicated." For a few moments I was 
 perplexed, for if four Moslems are ready to testify 
 iu court no statement from others can alter their 
 testimony. I saw no possible way out of the diffi- 
 culty but one, and that was for us utterly impos- 
 sible. If five Moslems could be " induced " to tes- 
 tify before the Judge that the boundaries lay along 
 the half-embedded stones, indicating at the same 
 time that the four other men were unduly influ- 
 enced, the case would have been settled legally and 
 correctly, but in a way utterly corrupt, as we could 
 not find five Moslems who knew the true bounda- 
 ries. 
 
 Quite a crowd had gathered by this time and 
 there was much loud talking, when relief came from 
 an unexpected quarter. A quack doctor in the 
 circle assumed an attitude, and addressed the 
 crowd with outstretched arms. His gestures and 
 facial expressions were abundant enough to last a 
 Frenchman a whole day, and more graceful than an 
 Englishman could imitate after a year's practice. 
 He then stepped forward, took the owner by the 
 
194 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 hand and said, " Sir, it is not becoming for you, a 
 great and honourable man, a leader of society, — it 
 is not becoming that you should be talking about 
 boundaries and prices." (Prices had not been 
 mentioned.) Turning to me with a bow, he con- 
 tinued, "And you, sir, what is this ! what are you, a 
 learned man, a philosopher, the President of a Col- 
 lege — what are you doing? It is not becoming that 
 you should descend from your high station to talk 
 about prices and boundaries." Looking first at me 
 and then at the owner he said, " You two have noth- 
 ing to do or to say in this matter," Then he said 
 to the owner, " You appoint a referee, and I will be 
 your choice," then to me, "You appoint a referee 
 and your Steward is your choice." Then turning 
 to the crowd, "All of you, do you approve of my 
 plan? " (they shouted "Aafak " : bravo), — " and we 
 two will fix the price of the land." Then taking 
 the owner by the hand and bringing him to me he 
 said, " Shake hands as a sign that you approve of 
 our plan and that you will accept our decision." 
 We shook hands, I knowing that our Steward would 
 not allow the price to be exorbitant, and he that 
 his man (the doctor) would also demand a fair 
 price. And in a few. days the little three-cornered 
 piece of land was deeded to the Syrian Protestant 
 College, and the price paid was little more than we 
 were willing to give. 
 
 But the most difficult land purchase was that of 
 the locally historical " Fig Orchard." This small 
 lot, containing less than one-third of an acre, is 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESmENT 19S 
 
 directly west of the President's house. For fif- 
 teen years or more efforts had been made to secure 
 this property. Neither the former nor the latter 
 owner would ever mention a price and bind him- 
 self to accept it. Whenever we increased our offer, 
 he increased his demands. The first owner laid 
 foundations for a large house but finally bmlt only 
 one small, high room. The second owner, a Turk- 
 ish Bey, Yusuf by name, paid three times its market 
 value, in hopes that we would pay almost any price 
 for it. Our apparent indifference for one or two 
 years made him uneasy. So he dug trenches for 
 the foundations of a soap-factory, which would 
 come within forty or fifty feet of the President's 
 housa Again he proposed to open a wine-shop and 
 drinking saloon, and even a worse place. He was 
 told that the very excellent laws of his Majesty the 
 Sultan forbid any of these nuisances to be within a 
 quarter of a mile of any church or school. ' Then, 
 being a good Moslem, he proposed to build a 
 Mosque. He was told that, as we had Moslem stu- 
 dents in the College, a Mosque so near would be 
 very convenient for them. He made every effort to 
 frighten us — ^bought more than |100 worth of stone, 
 slacked lime, carted sand, put down water-pipes, 
 without connecting them with the main, etc., etc. 
 Still he refused to commit himself by a legal state- 
 ment, binding him to a definite price. The vine- 
 yard before the Palace in Jezreel never annoj^d 
 King 'Ahab more than the field at the side of the 
 Marquand House annoyed us. Fortunately for 
 
196 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 humanity the methods of Ahab are passed; — ^un- 
 fortunately for those wishing to possess the earth 
 the spirit of Naboth still prevaifs. Two methods 
 of procedure remained for us — either to satisfy the 
 owner by giving a very large sum, or to put a high 
 wall around his land, and to wait another ten or 
 fifteen years. The latter method would cost us 
 more than $500 and would endanger, if not defeat, 
 the plan of a change of roads which would incident- 
 ally result in the adding of $600 worth of land to 
 the property and of making all parts of the campus 
 contiguous. We made an effort which opened up 
 the way to success. We asked Yusuf Bey if he 
 would be willing to refer the matter to three Mos- 
 lem neighbours — ^land-owners of high standing — 
 and abide by their decision as to the price. He as- 
 sented. They brought in their award and took with 
 them Shaukat Pasha to announce the result, 
 Yusuf declined to accept but stated to the Pasha 
 that he would take four hundred pounds, including 
 about fifty pounds' worth of stone. This offer we 
 accepted. It came to a little over one dollar per 
 square yard. This seems excessive in view of the 
 fact that the greater part of our property was 
 bought at the rate of seven cents per square yard. 
 It was with profound gratitude that we were able 
 to say, " The Fig Orchard is bought." 
 
 In all these years of perplexity in the buying of 
 land there is one transaction worthy of mention as 
 generous and noble. Midhat Pasha, when Governor 
 of the Beiriit Pashalic, purchased a piece of land 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESIDENT 197 
 
 adjoining ours. After lie had been exiled and' 
 otherwise disposed of by the Sultan, the land was 
 inherited by his son. I visited young Midhat, then 
 living in Smyrna, and asked the price of the land. 
 He mentioned a sum, and, though it seemed high, 
 the bargain was completed. On my going to him 
 the next day with the cash he said : " Since you 
 were here I have looked over my deeds and I find 
 there is not so much land as I had thought. I 
 shall reduce the price agreed upon by fifty pounds 
 sterling." Two of our finest buildings are now: 
 placed on that land. 
 
 In 1871, the Trustees suggested that I spend the 
 summer in Constantinople and consult President 
 Hamlin of Eobert College and Dr. Isaac Bliss of the 
 Bible House about building. I obtained some val- 
 uable information about how to build and how not 
 to build. There was another object in my visit to 
 _the Capital, and that was to endeavour to induce 
 the Ottoman Government to authorize our College 
 to give diplomas to our medical students on com- 
 pletion of their course. The effort proved a failure. 
 Saleh Pasha, the President of the Ottoman School 
 of Medicine, said he would favour us in every way 
 possible but that " the law of the Empire is such 
 that there can be but one Medical Faculty em- 
 powered to give diplomas." WefaUed in our ef- 
 forts because the Imperial Ottoman Government 
 was in the right and we in the wrong. Years after- 
 wards. Dr. Post obtained the consent of the Porte 
 to send a commission to examine our students in 
 
198 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 Beirut, and commissioners have been every year 
 since to our great satisfaction.' 
 
 The corner-stone of the Main Building (College 
 Hall) was laid by the Honourable William Earl 
 Dodge, Senior, on December 7, 1871. In intro- 
 ducing the speaker I said: " This College is for all 
 conditions and classes of men without regard to 
 colour, nationality, race or religion. A man white, 
 black or yellow; Christian, Jew, Mohammedan or 
 heathen, may enter and enjoy all the advantages of 
 this institution for three, four or eight years; and 
 go out believing in one God, in many Gods, or in 
 no God. But," I added, "it will be impossible 
 for any one to continue with us long without know- 
 ing what we believe to be the truth and our reasons 
 for that belief." 
 
 The buildings were erected of the best kind of 
 sand-stone. The quarry from which the stone came 
 is now exhausted. It was almost two years before 
 the three buildings were fibaished : the Main Build- 
 ing, the Medical Hall and Ada Dodge Memorial 
 (greatly enlarged since). Labour was cheap at 
 that time compared with the present : to our head- 
 mason we paid eighty cents a day; less skillful 
 masons, seventy cents ; stone-cutters, from forty to 
 fifty cents ; unskilled labour, from fifteen to twenty- 
 five cents. At one time we had over two hundred 
 at work. The buildings were well constructed and 
 
 'Editor's Note.— For the period of the War, before the 
 Turkish evacuation, the students were examined by the Otto- 
 man Medical Faculty at Beirut, 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESIDENT 199 
 
 now after almost forty years (1912) are in perfect 
 repair. The plans, made in New York, were com- 
 plete in details, so that we, though unacquainted 
 with building, were able to follow them. Com- 
 mencing with the simple ground-plan we learned to 
 work out the more intricate parts. Years after, an 
 English architect, on seeing the structures, asked 
 the name of the architect. I mentioned the name 
 of the one who drew the plans. "But," he said, 
 " who worked out the plans? " On my telling him 
 that we did, and that we had made many mistakes 
 but had managed to cover them up, he replied: 
 " That is perfection in art." 
 
 At last we had become a real College community 
 with a home of our own.' The students felt the 
 change. No one appeared to wish to go down town 
 or anywhere else. One night in December, when 
 the full moon was shining on the glassy sea below 
 us, they had a high time on the broad level road 
 between the College and the Medical Building. 
 Their shouts sounded out as merrily as the shouts in 
 Amherst in my days. Tutor Ibrahim shouldered 
 the shovel and the hoe and led off forty or fifty 
 fellows after supper to dig holes for planting trees. 
 On March 13, 1874, we accomplished the risky task 
 of hoisting the bell to the College tower. The 
 
 'Editoh's Note. — Mrs. Bliss was absent in America when the 
 new buildings were first occupied; the President lived in the 
 College and thus was able to help in the moulding of the tradi- 
 tions of student life. It may be added that for thirty years he 
 was sole local treasurer, keeping the daily household accounts 
 with the Steward. 
 
200 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 Students pulled well at the rope and tlie Faculty 
 were summoned to join them to hear the bell rung 
 for the first time at five p. m. 
 
 I had little experience in governing students in 
 America, never having taught there except a dis- 
 trict school for three months and a select school for 
 twelve weeks. I had no trouble in governing those 
 schools, and yet I am inclined to think that stu- 
 dents in the East are more easily kept in order 
 than are those of the same class of students in 
 the West. If this is true, it may be partly owing 
 to the fact that Eastern people generally have a 
 greater fear of those in authority than Western 
 people, for they have learned by the experience of 
 centuries that sometimes their rulers are terribly 
 cruel. Moreover, the East has greater reverence 
 than the West for parents, teachers, the aged, and 
 religious leaders, and hence, when they come in 
 contact with teachers in schools, they are more 
 easily governed. 
 
 We were more ready to commend the good quali- 
 ties of our students than to denounce their faults. 
 We utterly repudiated the system of encouraging 
 one student to spy on another, — a system quite 
 common in most of the schools at that time. I 
 trusted the boys. Sometimes I treated one as 
 if he was telling me the truth when I knew 
 he was lying to me. I cannot explain the philos- 
 ophy of it, but trusting a boy makes him trust- 
 worthy. In those early days some students 
 said to my wife: "We cannot lie to Dr. Bliss be- 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESIDENT 201 
 
 cause he trusts us ; " possibly that may have been 
 so. 
 
 Sometimes in case of trouble between two stu- 
 dents I would ask two or more Seniors to see the 
 boys and settle up the difElculty, as I did not wish 
 to bother the Faculty with it, and because any 
 action they might take would have to be recorded 
 in the minutes, and it would be unpleasant read- 
 ing in years to come. This method worked out well 
 in most instances. Again, a boy would complain 
 of another, and commence to tell what the other had 
 done and said. Then I would stop him and ask 
 him to tell me what Tie had done and said; then I 
 sent for the other boy and asked him to tell me what 
 he had said and done. This usually settled the 
 matter. 
 
 Or two would come in and charge each other with 
 wrong-doing, and each would claim that he himself 
 was perfectly umocent. Then I would say : " Boys, 
 I believe that both of you think you are telling the 
 truth, and the best way to settle the case is this: 
 that the innocent forgive the guilty." The next day 
 they might be seen walking hand in hand. 
 
 At this point Dr. Bliss ^ves two examples of what he 
 calls "the undignified and almost frivolous" way of deal- 
 ing with cases of minor discipline. The term "human" 
 seems to be far more apt ! I repeat one of the anecdotes 
 as I heard it from my father's lips at the time, and the 
 other as I heard it from the student concerned. To this 
 I add other reminiscences of a sinular nature contributed 
 by other pupils. 
 
202 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 It was once reported to the President by a Professor 
 that during the prayer at Evening Chapel a medical 
 student had the habit of turning to the small boys on the 
 seats behind and, by making faces, of setting them to 
 giggling. In duty bound, though somewhat unwillingly, 
 the President verified the story by keepifig his eyes open 
 during the prayer. As soon as the "Amen" was said, 
 he rose and asked the young man to remain (not an 
 unusual thing when he wished to see a Student)* The 
 President resumed his seat. The Faculty retired as 
 usual, followed by the Seniors and other classes in their 
 order. Then, without looking at the student, the Presi- 
 dent took his hat and went out, leaving the young man 
 alone. (Prayers were then held in what is now the 
 library on the second floor of College Hall.) He 
 descended the stairway, passed along the corridor lined 
 with curious, silent students, and went out into the open 
 air. A moment later echoes of clapping and derisive 
 laughter reached his ears. For the student, who had 
 been thus abandoned, had, on coming out, to run the 
 gauntlet of the boys, waiting for his emergence! "If 
 the President had taken me into a room alone and beaten 
 me," said this crestfallen humorist later, "I should 
 not have minded, but to set the students laughing at 
 
 me !" This was before the Mikado was composed 
 
 and the young man had not heard of "making the pun- 
 ishment fit the crime." "When did you decide on the 
 plan ? ' ' one of us asked the President. ' ' I never planned 
 it, ' ' he replied ; " I intended to speak to the boy, but when 
 the time came there seemed nothing to say, so I left." 
 
 There was a regulation against smoking in the rooms. 
 "One night in November," a graduate relates, "I was 
 studying very late in my fourth-story room, and, sup- 
 posing the authorities were aU in bed, I was smoking a 
 
THE^ COLLEGE PEBSIDENT 203 
 
 cigarette, which, when half finished, I chucked out of 
 the window. In a few minutes came a knock at the 
 door. "Come in!" I called. The door slowly opened. 
 Instead of some fellow-student, there stood the Presi- 
 dent! And the room full of smoke! "Good-evening," 
 he said, with his usual air of dignified politeness. "Have 
 you studied Astronomy?" "Ye-e-e-es, sir," I stam- 
 mered. "Then perhaps you can tell me whether this 
 is one of the nights when we may expect meteors falling 
 through the air?" "I — I — I don't remember," I said. 
 "Ah," he said, "I thought perhaps you could. Good- 
 night." That was all, but there was no more smoking 
 in that room at least. 
 
 In later years when no one was supposed to smoke 
 anywhere on the campus, a student was enjoying a 
 cigarette behind the Chapel. Presently he heard the 
 firm step of the President advancing. He hastily thrust 
 his right hand, burning cigarette and all, into his sida 
 coat-pocket. Instead of passing by with a salute, as 
 usual, the President extended his hand. The student 
 was obliged to extend his. "How is your father in 
 Damascus?" said Dr. Bliss. "Arid your mother and 
 [still shaking the hand] your dear old grandmother? 
 Give them my salaams when you write." At this junc- 
 ture the cigarette dropped from the burnt pocket to the 
 ground. The President saluted and passed on with no 
 further word. Such stories were too good to be kept 
 even by the victims, and hence the regulation usually 
 took care of itself. 
 
 A graduate, now resident in Egypt, tells of a visit he 
 once made to the Cedars of Lebanon, years after leaving 
 College. There to his joy he found his old President who 
 told him of the many improvements, among which was 
 the enclosing of the campus with a waU, "Should you 
 
204 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 want to come back from town after ten at night now," 
 said Dr, Bliss, "you would haye to jump over the wall." 
 The graduate was aghast. He had had the habit of 
 staying overtime in the company of literary and artistic 
 friends in the city, but supposed that this breach of rules 
 had never been known to the authorities. So now he 
 started and blushed. The President smiled affectionately 
 and said, "Did you suppose I did not know that you 
 came in late? But I knew where you Jiad been." 
 
 Only one more anecdote and we return to the Reminis- 
 cences. 
 
 A student begged for three days' leave to go and bury 
 his mother. On his return Dr. Bliss spoke words of 
 kindly comfort. Some years later he pres^ted himself 
 with the very same request. The President gave him the 
 card, remarking as the boy left the room, "I supposed 
 you had only one mother. ' ' The boy did not go I 
 
 Let it not be thought that this undignified and 
 almost frivolous way of disciplining students un- 
 fitted me for resorting to quick and drastic methods 
 in cases of gravity. There is no inconsistency be- 
 tween the two methods of treatment. We were 
 patient in cases of small irregularities but when a 
 student endangered the morality of others, then we 
 isolated Mm as in the case of smallpox or plague. 
 
 It will be safe to say that from the commencement 
 of the College greater effort was made to educate 
 the students rather than simply to instruct them. 
 I use the word in the etymological sense. Gener- 
 ally speaking, knpwledge in the East has been 
 handed down the ages through tradition instead of 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESIDENT 205 
 
 books, and hence the people have remarkable memo- 
 ries. Encyclopaedias and Concordances are very 
 nsefnl but they injure the memory. To fill the 
 mind with facts and dates makes a learned man, 
 but not necessarily an educated one. I remember 
 a medical indent who would make a perfect recita- 
 tion from the text-book, but his ignorance on the 
 subject was profound. I had a classmate who 
 would demonstrate a proposition in Euclid per- 
 fectly in the words of the text-book, but was utterly 
 confounded if the letters describing the figure were 
 placed in a different order. 
 
 Facts are the seeds of thought and like seeds in 
 the vegetable world are of little value garnered up ; 
 but under the power of reason, wiU and conscience 
 are made into ideals and laws that govern matter 
 and mind. So at the commencement of the Col- 
 lege, we endeavoured to stimulate not the memory, 
 which was usually well developed, but the reason 
 and the other governing powers of the mind. 
 In other words, we wished to make men who 
 would see in aU events the beauty and the glory of 
 living. 
 
 Perhaps from some defect in myself I was unable 
 to teach abstract truth unless that truth was 
 clothed in some concrete form, A people, accus- 
 tomed for centuries to hear truth taught through 
 similitudes and parables, do not take readily to 
 bare Western logic. I remember in my Moral 
 Philosophy class the text-book mentioned the " duty 
 of unconscious influence," but with all the explana- 
 
206 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 tions given in the book, and my comments on the 
 same, the class did not lay hold of the meaning 
 until I had recounted several instances where others 
 had influenced me, though being wholly uncon- 
 scious of doing so. At another time the question 
 was discussed : " What are the characteristics of a 
 true gentleman?" After the usual qualifications 
 were mentioned it was said that a true gentleman, 
 if he has knowingly or unknowingly wronged any 
 one, would acknowledge his mistake and ask to be 
 pardoned. The whole discussion did not seem to 
 make much impression until I told the following 
 story: When I was in London the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury (Tait) wanted to inquire of me about 
 some matter in the East in which he was interested, 
 and therefore wrote me a note inviting me to 
 breakfast on a certain day. The train was late and 
 on my arrival at the palace the large party had 
 nearly finished the first course. The butler quietly 
 seated me at the Archbishop's right hand, and after 
 greeting me, his Grace turned to finish his conver- 
 sation with the person at his left hand, and did not 
 notice the butler handing me the first course; but 
 turned around just in time to see him set before me 
 the second dish. Then he said to his butler, "Bring 
 the Doctor the fish." The butler replied: "Your 
 Grace, I have served it." Upon which the Arch- 
 bishop rose partly from his seat and said in his 
 sweet voice : " I beg your pardon." 
 
 This story impressed the class when they under- 
 stood that the Primate of England stands in the 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESIDENT 207 
 
 social world next to the King, and outranks all 
 others ia the Royal Family, and yet he begged the 
 pardon, of a servant because he had implied that he 
 had not done Ms duty. My title in the catalogue is 
 President, and Professor of Bible and Ethics. It 
 would be more truthful though less classic to say 
 Professor of Story TeUing. 
 
 In the Bible classes no attempt was made to com- 
 bat error or false views, but we followed the method 
 by which darkness is expelled from the room by 
 turning on the light. I also tried to look at the 
 subject under discussion from the standpoint of the 
 listeners. For iastance, the question was asked: 
 " Is it wrong to ask the Saints and the blessed Vir- 
 gin, to pray for us, to intercede for us? " Had the 
 question been answered : " Yes, it is wrong," two- 
 thirds of the class, who were in the habit of calling 
 on the Virgin and Saints, would have turned a deaf 
 ear to aU that might have been said afterwards. 
 Had the question been answered: "No, it is not 
 wrong," the Protestant boys would have reported to 
 their parents and to the missionaries that the Presi- 
 dent of the College had turned Boman Catholic or 
 Maronite. 
 
 So I turned to the one asking the question and 
 said : " I thank you for asking that question. It is 
 an important one and a most natural question." 
 (The Protestant boys sat in their seats with upright 
 heads, expecting the others would be placed on the 
 left hand with the goats.) " A most natural ques- 
 tion for you to ask, living in this country, for every- 
 
208 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 thing is done here through mediators or interces- 
 sors. If you wish a favour of me you do not come 
 to me directly, but you go to some Tutor and ask 
 him to ask me. You have been to my wife and 
 besought her to induce me to give a holiday. I 
 have bought several horses, rented several houses, 
 bought various pieces of land, but always through 
 a broker, that is, an intercessor. Not only in busi- 
 ness matters but in political and social affairs also 
 the intercessor must be appealed to. You cannot 
 call on the Pasha of Beirtit directly; you must first 
 pass the guard, the doorkeeper, see his Secretary, 
 and he wQl go and ask the Pasha to receive you. 
 Not only in this country but in England and all 
 over the world you must appeal to intercessors, t 
 cannot call upon the King of England, directly, but 
 must appeal to the Ambassador of the United 
 States, who will intercede with I know not how 
 many English ofllcials, and then perhaps I might 
 possibly see the King. Your question is a most 
 natural one. You say : If I cannot visit the Presi- 
 dent of the College, the Pasha, the King, without 
 intercession, how can I go direct to God," — (the 
 heads of the Protestant boys hung low) ; then I 
 added : 
 
 " There is an infinite difference between the 
 President of the College, the Pasha of Beirtt and 
 the King of England on the one hand, and the Lord 
 Jesus Christ on the other. These never have in- 
 vited you to call; He says: Come unto me all ye 
 that labour and are heavy laden. We know little, 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESmENT 209 
 
 He is all wise ; we have little compassion. He is full 
 of grace and truth, and loves you more than all the 
 Saints in Glory can possibly love you. So, whether 
 it is right or whether it is wrong to ask the Saints 
 to iutercede for you, it is wholly unnecessary, it is 
 useless, it is a loss of time, — ' Before they call I will 
 answer, saith the Almighty.' " 
 
 Upon another occasion it was asked if it is right 
 to confess one's sins to another. It was answered, 
 " It is not only right, but a solemn duty to confess 
 your faults to any one whom you have wronged, but 
 your question, in view of the practice of many, im- 
 plies : is it right to confess to a priest our sins in 
 general and in particular? There is no objection 
 to your doing so, if you seek his advice in the 
 hope that he may make some suggestion which 
 will be helpful to you, just as you tell the physi- 
 cian your symptoms and habits that he may 
 know what to prescribe for you. Your question 
 implies stUl another question, namely, has the 
 priest power to absolve you from your sins? He 
 has not power to absolve your sin, but he has au- 
 thority to say that you are absolved under certain 
 conditions. One time in New York, in an almost 
 deserted street, a tall, fine-looking man accosted me 
 and said : ' Father, may I speak with you? ' * Cer- 
 tainly,' I said- He continued : * I have sinned. I 
 signed the pledge and took an oath before the 
 Bishop and before God that I would never drink 
 again. I have broken the pledge ; I got drunk. Is 
 there any forgiveness tor. me? ' I placed my hand 
 
210 ' DANIEL BLISS 
 
 on his shoulder and said: *My friend, if your con- 
 fession is from the heart, and your sorrow real, and 
 your determination firm not to repeat it, you are 
 absolved and your sin is forgiven.' He said: 
 * Thank you, Father,' and went on his way rejoic- 
 ing, and so did I, for I had applied the Gospel in its 
 essential fullness to the poor man. 
 
 " So any priest, any man who believes in the Gos- 
 pels of Jesus may say to any man, ' If you are truly 
 penitent your sins are forgiven you.' But no 
 priest, no man, can pronounce absolution without 
 that great If. Jesus Christ, who knows what is in 
 man, and, seeing the contrite spirit, can say with- 
 out the If : ' Thy sins are forgiven thee.' As in the 
 physical world gravitation is found where there is 
 matter, so in the spiritual world God's forgiving 
 grace is found wherever and whenever a contrite 
 spirit is found." I closed the talk by saying: 
 " Some people have no clear idea in matters of re- 
 ligion what is cause and what is effect. Some seem 
 to think that God loves mankind because Christ 
 came and died for them. Just the opposite is true, 
 for God so loved the world that He gave His only 
 Son to us. Some think that God loves us because 
 we love Him. The opposite is true: we love God 
 because He first loved us. Some seem to think that 
 the Atonement made a change in God's attitude to- 
 wards us: God changeth not, and the Atonement 
 was made not to change Him but to change us.^ 
 Some seem to think that God was angry and Christ 
 came to reconcile Him; Paul says the opposite is 
 
THE COLLEGE PRESIDENT 211 
 
 true : God was in Christ reconciling the world unto 
 Himself." 
 
 A graduate of the College, now prondnent ia the new 
 Arab Grovemment in Damascus, tells a story, in har- 
 mony with the above account, of the President's methods 
 in religious instruction. The student used to "hecMe" 
 Dr. Bliss with questions about the command to slaughter 
 the Amorites, etc. Finally the President remarked in 
 his most urbane manner: "Faris reminds me of a man 
 who goes into a beautiful garden fuU of fair flowers and 
 fruits, but with a few dank, slimy pools, on which noxious 
 insects crawl. And instead of plucking the flowers and 
 fruits he spends his time in poring over the black 
 pools." 
 
 Well, in bringing these rambling Reminiscences 
 to a close, if any one should ask me, " Who made 
 the College?" the answer might be the same as 
 Topsy, in " Fncle Tom's Cabin," made when asked, 
 " Who made you, Topsy? " She said, " Nobody, I 
 jist growed." No one can tell all the influences 
 that enter into the accomplishment of any great en- 
 terprise. The Prophet Daniel, more than 2,000 
 years ago, wrote : " Many shall run to and fro and 
 knowledge shall be increased." Whether he re- 
 ferred to our age or not, we know it is preeminently 
 true of the last two centuries. Explorers, travel- 
 lers and merchants for the last hundred years or 
 more visited the East, and awakened curiosity, and 
 begat a desire among the people for knowledge. 
 The little schools by the Mosque, the Synagogue and 
 
212 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 the Convent, stimulated that desire. A tew young 
 men went to Europe and came back with at least a 
 show of knowledge. The American Board, founded 
 a hundred years ago in old Salem, Massachusetts, 
 soon sent its missionaries to Syria. Then there 
 followed in order Jonas King, William Goodell, 
 Isaac Bird, Whiting, Thomson, Van Dyck, De For- 
 est, Calhoun, Eddy, Ford, the Jessups, William 
 Bird, Gerald F. Dale and many others, calling men 
 from darkness into light. The higher schools, 
 whether Jesuit or Protestant, increased the desire 
 for knowledge more and more. The events of 1860 
 [chronicled in the last chapter] were a kind of 
 mental earthquake that shook the people out of a 
 self-satisfied lethargy and mad^ them long to know 
 more of the world outside of Syria. This desire for 
 knowledge was more or less indefinite, floatiug in 
 the air untU 1862, when the Syrian Mission gave it 
 a bodily shape by appointing one of its members to 
 establish a school of higher education, in order to 
 meet the growing demand. Good men in America 
 and England responded to the call for aid, a goodly 
 sum of money for that time was raised, and the 
 Syrian Protestant College was commenced in a 
 small way in 1866. 
 
 The question of who made the College is not so 
 important as the question: What has caused its 
 continuance and its remarkable growth? First of 
 all, trust in God and faith in man as such, without 
 regard to race, colour or religion, lie at the founda- 
 tion of the Syrian Protestant College. We open its 
 
TECE COLLEGE PEESmENT 213 
 
 doors to the members of the most advanced and the 
 most backward of races. As for me, I would admit 
 the Pigmies of Central Africa in the hope that after 
 the lapse of a few thousand years some of them 
 might become leaders in Church and State. Why 
 not? For hath not Grod made of one blood all na- 
 tions of men for to dwell on aU the face of the 
 earth? 
 
 In the second place, the College has grown be- 
 cause it has had from the beginning, and now has, a 
 Board of most wise and liberal Trustees, under the 
 successive leadership of those strong Presidents, 
 William A. Booth, William Earl Dodge, Senior, his 
 son of the same name, Morris K. Jesup, and D. 
 Stuart Dodge. Thirdly, the College has always 
 had, and has now, a remarkable set of Professors 
 and Instructors, both foreign and native. With 
 scarcely an exception they are very radical and very 
 conservative : radical in proving all things, conser- 
 vative in holding fast to that which is good. And 
 finally, the greatest cause of the success of the Col- 
 lege is based on the character, standing and influ- 
 ence of our graduates and others who were with us 
 for k longer or shorter time. Without claiming for 
 them superiority to or even equality with the gradu- 
 ates from the Universities of the West, we know 
 that they are far more honoured and respected by 
 the people of their own countries than Western 
 graduates are by their own people. 
 
 Hence the life and work of our graduates is the 
 best advertisement for our College. The following 
 
214 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 illustrates the general feeling towards them : Eus- 
 tem Pasha, late Turkish Ambassador to the Court 
 of Saint James and former Governor-General of the 
 Province of Mount Lebanon, once remarked to me : 
 "I do not know how much mathematics or how 
 much history, philosophy or science you teach at 
 the Syrian Protestant College, but I do know this, 
 that you make Men, and that is the important 
 thing. And I wish I had one of your graduates to 
 put in every office in my province. I would then 
 have a far better Government than I have now." 
 
 I am convinced that at this time, April, 1912, the 
 College is in a better condition than ever before. 
 For the past few years it has advanced along all the 
 lines of influence. This is as it should be; for if a 
 succeeding generation does not advance upon its 
 predecessors the world will stand stU^, even if it 
 does not retrograde. May the College ever have as 
 its motto the words of Paul : " This one thing I do, 
 forgetting the things which are behind and reaching 
 forth to those things which are before." 
 
 Dr. Bliss had always declared that he would resign 
 at the age of seventy, as after that time he would never 
 know when to stop ! His seventieth year found him so 
 full of vigour that no talk of resignation was permitted. 
 Indeed the idea appeared to his colleagues to be almost 
 amusing. He remained at his post as active President 
 well into his eightieth year. In 1902, his second son, 
 Howard Sweetser Bliss, pastor of the Union Congrega- 
 tional Church at Upper Montclair, New Jersey, was ap- 
 pointed to sucqeed him. Dr. Howard Bliss had previ- 
 
THE C30LLEGE PRESIDENT 215 
 
 OTisly acted as associate-pastor with Dr. Ljrman Abbott 
 in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. On November eleventh 
 he landed with his family in Beirut, and at the Faculty 
 Meeting of that afternoon the father resigned the Presi- 
 dent's Chair to the son. At the Inauguration Exercises 
 in May, 1903, which extended from Sunday the tenth 
 to Thursday the fourteenth, Dr. Daniel Bliss preatehed 
 his farewell sermon as active President from the text: 
 ' ' Prove aU things : hold fast that which is good. ' ' In the 
 sermon he reviewed the history of the College and pre- 
 sented the ideas of education which had controlled his 
 Presidency. For four years the President-Emeritus con- 
 tinued his classes in Biblical Exegesis and Ethics, as well 
 as his service on committees. 
 
 During his thirty-six years in the active Presidency, 
 Dr. Daniel Bliss had seen the evolution of the College 
 from a group of sixteen students, housed in a few rooms, 
 to a body of six hundred and twenty-six men and boys, 
 divided among five departments: Preparatory, Collegi- 
 ate, Commercial, Medical and Pharmaceutical; and 
 taught by forty professors and tutors. Over half of 
 these were Americans, the medium of instruction having 
 been entirely changed from Arabic to English when the 
 institution was about seventeen years old.' The campus 
 
 ' Editob's Note. — During the early days of the College, Arabic 
 was the language of instruction in all Departments. The change 
 to English was due to many reasons, of which the chief were the 
 following: the impossibility of keeping up with the advance of 
 learning by translation of text-books into Arabic; the growing 
 number of students whose mother-tongue was not Arabic; the 
 difiSculty of getting Professors, capable of teaching in Arabic. 
 The class of 1880 in the School of Arts and Sciences, and the 
 class of 1887 in the School of Medicine were the first to ba 
 entirely instructed through the medium of English. 
 
216 DAiriEL BLISS 
 
 of forty acres spread, then as now, over the level top of 
 a hill, and sloped down towards the sea, almost touching 
 it at one point. It was dotted over with trees, single and 
 in groves: pines, palmsj eucalyptus, — olivte-trees, fig- 
 trees, pepper-trees. The twelve buildings included the 
 old College Hall with library, lecture-rooms and dormi- 
 tories; Assembly HaU, Observatory, Medical Hall, 
 Laboratories, etc. The students came from all parts of 
 Syria and Palestine, from the Valleys of the Nile and 
 the Euphrates, from Cyprus and the Isles of Greece, 
 from Asia Minor and Armenia, from Persia and from 
 Brazil. They represented the various Christian sects: 
 Papal, Greek-Orthodox, Armenian, Copt and Protestant, 
 with a few Druses, some Jews and over fifty Moham- 
 medans. As President-Emeritus, Dr. Bliss lived to see 
 a considerable extension of the campus; the doubling of 
 the number of buildings, including three Hospital 
 Pavilions; the addition of a School of Dentistry; the de- 
 velopment of a Training School for Nurses ; an increase 
 in the student body to almost one thousand, and of the 
 teaching and administrative force to about eighty; a 
 change in the proportion between the members of Chris- 
 tian and non-Christian sects, the latter indeed outnum- 
 bering the former soon after his death. The territory 
 from which students were drawn had enlarged ; men be- 
 gan to be attracted to the Syrian Protestant College from 
 Eussian Tartary, India, New Foundland, etc. Those 
 from the New World were the sons of Syrian parents who 
 wished their children to remember their mother-tongue. 
 Naturally the number of teachers and students was 
 affected by the War, though far less than might have 
 been expected. In spite of immense official opposition, 
 military service, financial stress and other coinplications 
 too numerous to particularize^ the College was kept go- 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESIDENT 217 
 
 ing during that whole tense period, save for two weeks, 
 when active work was stopped by the local Governor, 
 at the breaking off of diplomatic relations between the 
 United States and Turkey. Owing, doubtless, to the over- 
 ruMng of higher officials, he sanctioned its reopening. 
 This temporary suspension was remembered only as A 
 nightmare, though as a nightmare that might be re- 
 current. Fortunately the dread remained only a dread. 
 
 Brief reference should here be made to two points 
 connected with the College: its relation to the Turkish 
 Grovenmient and its religious organization. During the 
 early years of its evolution it was the policy of the 
 Listitution to pursue its course as quietly as possible; 
 not to draw to itself the attention of the Government of- 
 ficials, before its roots should have struck deep into the 
 land. In later years, when general attention had been 
 fixed upon it, this jrolicy, so wise for its time, was, with 
 a like wisdom, reversed. The fruits of this change were 
 most happily seen during the War, when the very ex- 
 istence of the College depended upon the friendly atti- 
 tude of the powers that were. 
 
 In what manner he presented religious truth to the 
 students has been told us by Dr. Bliss himseK. He eared 
 little for machinery as such; but the College had of 
 course its stated religious exercises. All students were 
 required to attend daily prayers ; and resident students, 
 the Sunday morning service.' The Y. M. C. A. was for- 
 mally organized on the basis of admitting to full mem- 
 bership non-Protestant as well as Protestant Christians, 
 during the visit of Mr. John R. Mott in 1895. Men from 
 
 'In consequences of conditions wUch grew out of changes in 
 the Turkish Empire during the War, all students are now re- 
 quired to attend the religious exercises or alternative ethical 
 lectures, held at the same hours. 
 
218 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 non-Christian sects were admitted as associate members 
 on taking an especial pledge. The organization is now- 
 called the Brotherhood, and there is one pledge for mem- 
 bers of all sects, which reads as follows : 
 
 "I do promise that by the help of God I wiU live in 
 close fellowship with Him, under the guidance of those 
 teachers who have interpreted Him to mankind. I wiH 
 try to be honest in my work, sincere in my profession, 
 pure and helpful in my daily life, living in the Spirit of 
 Jesus and following His example." 
 
 West Hall is the centre of social and religious activi- 
 ties, which have been elaborately organized. In the 
 work of committees the students take an active share. 
 The effect of the non-sectarian attitude of the CoUege 
 may be illustrated by the answer of a student, who had 
 been some years in College, and was re-registering one 
 Autumn, to the question: "What is your religion?" He 
 answered: "The religion of the S. P. C." He was a 
 Moslem. 
 
 The resignation of Dr. Daniel Bliss stirred the many 
 friends of the College to recognize the event publicly. 
 In June, 1902, in the well-packed Assembly Hall, a com- 
 mittee representing the students, the graduates resident 
 in Syria, and a few other friends, presented him with a 
 large gold medal, inscribed in Arabic and English, to- 
 gether with a further gift. The service of Mrs. Bliss, 
 so wisely and lovingly rendered to the students in count- 
 less ways, was remembered in the donation of a set of 
 silver filigree — Arab coffee-cup-holders on a salver. In 
 his address of thanks, Dr. Bliss deprecated in deft allu- 
 sion the praise that had centered on himself, to the exclu- 
 sion of the other founders of the College, its patrons, ita 
 Trustees, its Faculty and its Instructors. He began by 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESIDENT 219 
 
 referring to a dinner given, not long befdre, to the cap- 
 tain of an ocean liner who had broken the Atlantic 
 record. In the speeches, he said, there was no praise 
 but for the captain. There was no mention of the work- 
 ers in iron, who, from the days of Tubal Cain, had made 
 possible the construction of the ship ; there was no men- 
 tion of the owners who had financed her building; no 
 mention of the officers who had walked the deck in sun- 
 shiue and in storm; no mention of the engineers in the 
 sweltering hold of the vessel, who had kept her going at 
 full speed ; no mention of the sailors whose faithful and 
 discipHued efficiency had brought her swiftly and safely 
 into port; all the praise was for the captain! "WeU, 
 and what had the captain done? He had merely stood 
 on the bridge from time to time and given a few orders. " 
 
 We may here insert an anecdote which shows that, 
 with all his modesty. Dr. Bliss knew how to assert him- 
 self as captain when duty demanded. This ordinary 
 self-effacement, by the way, some people thought was 
 carried too far. He cared nothing about the credit of 
 a plan, provided that the plan went through. Indeed 
 it was one of his quiet amusements to- drop a hint to a 
 certain member of the Faculty, apt to be in the opposi- 
 tion, that some improvement, long cherished by himself, 
 might not, perhaps, be a bad thing. The member would 
 enthusiastically adopt the proposition, bring it up at the 
 next Faculty meeting, advocating it with all the ardour 
 of an originator! And now for the anecdote. At a 
 Faculty meeting, held in the early days of the College, 
 two motions were made involving radical changes of 
 College policy, which the President felt to be pre- 
 mature and hence unwise. After the first motion, he 
 took up a little red book and said: "On page so-and-so 
 
220 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 of this Constitution you will find that the matter pro- 
 posed is not within our province, but belongs to the 
 Trustees." A similar reply was made to the maker of 
 the second motion. Whereupon a third and younger 
 member said: "How is it that all these years we have 
 been voting as we pleased and have never before been 
 confronted with this little red book?" The President 
 gravely replied: '''When the sky is clear and the sea is 
 calm, the mariner steers by the sun and the stars, but 
 when the clouds are dark and the waves high he turns to 
 his chart." "And who is to decide as to the state of 
 the weather ? ' ' asked the young professor. Instantly the 
 answer rang out : ' ' The captain ! ' ' 
 
 In the presentation of the medal the graduates and 
 other former students, resident in Egypt and the Sudan, 
 had not joined, as they preferred to recognize the work 
 of Dr. Bliss by donating to their Alma Mater a fuU- 
 sized marble statue of its first President. The story of 
 the visit to Italy, made by Dr. and Mrs. Bliss, in order 
 that the sculptor might work from the living model, is 
 told in the next chapter. The statue was unveiled in the 
 spring of 1904 by a representative of the givers. We 
 may appropriately close this chapter with the speech of 
 acceptance (slightly abridged) made by Dr. Bliss, in 
 which he reveals the secrets of his life-work. 
 
 A few months since, this statue was a part of a 
 mountain in Northern Italy. Strong men, by 
 means of drills, wedges, sledge-hammers and levers, 
 broke out from the mountain a large block of 
 marble. This block by some mechanical device was 
 placed upon a wagon with high wheels j and then 
 
Statue presented to the College by Graduates and Former 
 Students in Egypt and the Sudan. 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESIDBNT 221 
 
 was Spawn by four large wMte oxen with, branching 
 horns, down to the workshop on the plain, where 
 the marble block was unloaded before the artist's 
 door. In the meantime, or before, the artist had 
 received measurements of the person represented by 
 the statue — ^his height, length of limb, breadth of 
 shoulder, width of forehead, size of nose, mouth and 
 chin, and a photograph of the person. Having 
 erected a wooden frame, the artist then from these 
 measurements and the photograph covered the 
 frame with plastic clay until it assumed a certain 
 size, form and look. 
 
 Then the living person stood, or sat, two hours a 
 day for three days, while the artist completed the 
 model in clay. The block of marble before the door 
 was brought into the workshop, and the clay model 
 placed near it. 
 
 The workmen commenced with hammer, chisel, 
 gouge, bit, auger, rasp, file and calipers to break off 
 and cut away all of that block of marble except 
 this statue which stands before you: it alone re- 
 mains. 
 
 The success of the artist is measured by the re- 
 semblance of the statue to the living model. 
 
 Back of all the labour and the tools connected 
 with the making of the statue were the loAdng 
 thought, the thorough purpose and the liberal gifts 
 of the Alumni of Egypt and the SudAn, which set 
 in motion all these instruments and agencies. Be- 
 hind all things there is a mind and a purpose, hu- 
 man or divine, whether it be the formation of a 
 
222 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 statue, the creation of a world, tHe lifting of a hand, 
 or the revolving of the celestial bodies in the starry 
 heavens. 
 
 The labour of making a College may, in general 
 or in a remote way, be compared to the work of an 
 artist. The word " College " is an abstract word, 
 suggesting much and varied labour, many and va- 
 ried implements and forces. The buildings, the 
 apparatus, the books, the teachers, the campus and 
 even the location, enter into the conception of a 
 College and conspire to build it up. Looking down 
 upon the placid sea in calm weather and upon the 
 boisterous wave in the storm, and looking up at the 
 grand gray old Lebanon, has an effect upon the pur- 
 pose for which our College was founded. As in the 
 case of the statue, back of all buildings, books, 
 and teachers, there was the loving thought, the 
 firm purpose, the liberal gifts of men far beyond 
 the sea and ocean, which set in motion all these 
 agencies. . . . 
 
 No block of marble was brought to us to^be 
 worked upon, but living boys and living men came 
 to us from the East, from the West, from the North 
 and from the South, to be influenced for good. 
 They were all human and consequently imperfect; 
 they were all human and feonsequently capable of 
 perfection. 
 
 God created man in His own image, therefore 
 itaian partakes of the Divine Nature. "But the 
 creature (man) was made subject to vanity, not 
 willingly, but by reason of Him Who has subjected 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESIDENT 223 
 
 the same in hope "; and in view of this subjected 
 hope the College was founded. God made man 
 upright but they have sought out many inven- 
 tions. 
 
 As the workmen broke off from the block of marble 
 all that surrounded this statue, so the College tries 
 to break off from these young men, vanity and in- 
 ventions and to leave standing the ideal man, made 
 in the image of Grod. 
 
 The artist worked from a pattern; he had at first 
 a photograph and then the living model; we have a 
 pattern in forming the character of our students: 
 first photographs seen in our moral nature, in the 
 Ten Commandments, in the Sermon on the Mount, 
 and then the living Model, bom in Bethlehem, liv- 
 ing thirty-three years a perfect life, overcoming all 
 vanities and inventions. We do not aim to make 
 Maronites, or Greeks, or Catholics, or Protestants, V 
 or Jews, or Moslems, but we do aim to make perfect 
 men, ideal men, God-like men, after the model of 
 Jesus Christ, against whose moral character no 
 man ever has said or can say aught. Opinions may 
 differ about His origin, His nature. His death, His 
 resurrection. His future and a thousand other ques- 
 tions that cluster about "FTis great Name, but the 
 Image of God in man, the breath of God in the soul, 
 man's moral nature must recognize in the moral life 
 of Jesus Christ the perfect model of human con- 
 duct. 
 
 Sir, it would be affectation in me if I should say 
 that I am not personally gratified at this expression 
 
224 DAIHEL BLISS 
 
 of your interest in me, as well as in the College. I 
 thank you and your Committee and, through them, 
 all those whose loving thoughts and liberal gifts set 
 in motion the drill and the wedge on that mountain 
 in Italy. 
 
 As indicated above, the present chapter was to have 
 terminated with this speech. Even as the proof thereof 
 was on its way to the Adirondacks, in the hopes of bring- 
 ing a message of cheer to the sick-bed of Howard Bliss, 
 the soul of this worthy son of a worthy sire was passing 
 from the earth. The manuscript of the volume he had 
 seen and approved. It is fitting that in this very chap- 
 ter, devoted to his father's Presidency, his own work, 
 almost fifteen years of which had been lived in intimate 
 cooperation . with that father, should be touched upon, 
 however briefly. It is most fitting that the tribute to his 
 character should be in the words of a lifelong friend. 
 Professor A. D. F. Hamlin of Columbia University, son 
 of the first President of Robert College, that twin sister 
 of the College at Beirut. But before presenting this 
 tribute, which took the form of a letter to The Evening 
 Post, New York, printed on May 20, 1920, we may 
 relate a few events of the last six years of the life of' 
 Hpward Bliss, which led up, almost inevitably, to his 
 death. 
 
 The first indication for the Americans in the Turkish 
 Empire that their position in the land was to be com- 
 pletely altered appeared with the sudden announcement 
 in September, 1914, that the Turks had abolished the 
 Capitulations, under which all foreigners had for cen- 
 turies enjoyed extra-territorial privileges. There soon 
 followed the proclamation of a new Educational Law^ 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESmEITf 225 
 
 providing for strict supervision of foreign schools, with 
 stringent restrictions in the matter of worship and re- 
 ligions instruction, and with demands for a new empha- 
 sis on the Turkish language. Dr. Howard Bliss obtained 
 successive postponements of the date when the Law 
 should become operative as regarding the College, and 
 was thus enabled to bring the matter in person before 
 members of the Cabinet in Constantinople, where, after 
 the Commencement of 1915, he proceeded, partly by 
 American man-of-war. His interviews with the Minister 
 of Education, as weU as with Talaat Bey and Enver Bey, 
 resulted in an adjustment that made it possible for the 
 College to go on with honour and dignity. Cordial in- 
 terest in the institution had already been evinced by 
 Djemal Pasha, War Dictator of Syria. But in the local 
 Civil Governor, Azmi Bey, Dr. Howard Bliss found, on 
 his return, a powerful antagonist. This strong adminis- 
 trator, ever on the lookout for some handle to use 
 against foreigners, seizing upon a plausible pretext, suc- 
 ceeded in securing the sympathy of Djemal for his own 
 attitude of hostility towards the College. But he did 
 not count on the tact, the fearlessness and the perfect 
 frankness of the President. In a series of interviews 
 with the Dictator, Dr. Howard Bliss not only arranged 
 a satisfactory adjustment of the incident, but so con- 
 vinced him of the altruistic aims of the College as to 
 cement a lasting friendship and cooperation. How the 
 local Gtovemor struck another blow at the College, when 
 diplomatic relations were broken off between the United 
 States and Turkey, has already been related. For two 
 weeks from April 22 to May 7, 1917, the institution was 
 closed, or rather its active work was suspended, except in 
 the School for Nurses. But, doubtless owing to the in- 
 fluence of Djemal Pasha, the College was reopened and 
 
226 DAOTEL BLISS" 
 
 never closed again. Moreover, wheat and other supplies 
 were obtained from the Government at Army rates at a 
 time when the market price had become prohibitive. 
 Even Azmi Bey relaxed his hostility, and, before his res- 
 ignation in the Summer of 1918, showed as much interest 
 in the institution as his cold heart would permit. 
 
 So much for the relations of the College to the Govern- 
 ment as far as the main issues were concerned. The de- 
 tails of business falling on the President are too numer- 
 ous to chronicle. We may indicate a few. Official 
 visits were unceasing : calls upon the Governor, the Chief 
 of Police, the Recruiting Officer, Consuls of many na- 
 tions, the Director of Public Instruction, the Head of 
 the Imperial Medical Faculty, Turkish Military Officers, 
 etc., etc. Sometimes these visits surpassed half a dozen 
 in the day, extending to midnight, when, as might hap- 
 pen. Dr. Howard Bliss was fealled to town, often in the 
 storm, to go surety for some student arrested on the 
 question of military service. In the intervals of visiting 
 he had not only his ordinary administrative duties to 
 perform, but there pressed upon him the especial prob- 
 lems created by the War, of which the financial was not 
 the least. As early as November 3, 1914, he was ap- 
 pointed United States Deputy Marshal, and, with his 
 Faculty, outlined plans for protection and defence. 
 And, though untiringly supported by his colleagues, he 
 was finally responsible for keeping the Campus an oasis 
 of peace in the midst of a desert of war — an oasis 
 where the educational life could proceed as normally as 
 possible. He presided at entertainments in West Hall, 
 which often attracted crowds from the city. He 
 preached more often than had been, his wont. He in- 
 spired with courage the Egyptian students, exiled from 
 their home — ^marooned, as it were, by the War. He ex- 
 
THE COLLEGE PEESroEFT 227 
 
 tended sympathy to the Armenian students, who knew, 
 or, worse, did not know, of the tragic fate of their dear 
 ones. He worked for the welfare of local Ententist na- 
 tionals. And, though the duties of the hour were in- 
 sistent, he ever looked towards the future, presiding fre- 
 quently at meetings of an Efficiency Committee, whose 
 discussions covered every feature of College life as it was 
 and as it might be in years to come ! 
 
 The Entente Occupation of October, 1918, removed a 
 great weight, but at the same time it created fresh prob- 
 lems for the future to settle. In January, 1919, Dr. 
 Howard Bliss proceeded to Paris, where he remained a 
 number of weeks, actively interested in the question of 
 self-determination for the Syrians. By request he ad- 
 dressed the Council of Ten at the Peace Conference. 
 But the lifting of the peculiar strain of four and a half 
 years, the chUl of a Paris winter, the change from a 
 Spartan diet to one of greater variety — aU these circum- 
 stances had an effect upon his constitution of iron. He 
 arrived in the United States in March, a sick man. A 
 few weeks in his beloved Jaffrey appeared to restore him 
 to a measure of health. Here he composed what was des- 
 tined to be his last written message to the world, the 
 article entitled "The Modem Missionary," published in 
 the Atlantic MontMy for May, 1920, only a few days 
 before his death. During the Autumn and Winter he 
 spoke in many places of the needs and opportunities of 
 the College and of the needs and opportunities of Syria, 
 sometimes three times a day. On Sunday, February 
 29, at New London, Connecticut, he was suddenly at- 
 tacked with hemorrhage. At the Presbyterian Hospital 
 in New York, where he was taken a few days later, his 
 'doctors diagnosed his complaint as tuberculosis. On 
 April 23 he was removed to Saranac Lake, where so 
 
228 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 many lung patients have recovered. But it was too late. 
 He passed peacefully away, in the presence of his family, 
 on the eveningy)f May 2. By his own request he was 
 buried in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, which, through all 
 the changes in the scenes of his active life, had remained 
 for him a true Summer home. He was ever a lover of 
 the Mountains, On Mount Lebanon he was bom ; among 
 the Adirondaeks his spirit passed away; under the 
 shadow of Mount Monadnock his earthly body rests. 
 
 "We may now give place to the tribute of Professor 
 Hamlin: 
 
 While States and cities and commimities are 
 vying with one another in doing honour to the 
 memory of their war heroes — ^the men and women 
 who on the battlefield or in hospitals or at sea gave 
 up their lives in defence of human rights — let us 
 not forget those who in less dramatic fashion have 
 sacrificed themselves and finally surrendered life 
 in the same high cause. The death of Howard S. 
 Bliss, late president of the Syrian Protestant Col- 
 lege at Beirfit, ended the life of such a patriot, one 
 of that noble bandjof American missionary edu- 
 cators who have done and are doing more than 
 diplomats and men-of-war and commercial agents 
 to make the American name and the American fiag 
 not merely respected but loved in Eastern lands. 
 
 No titles of reverend and doctor were needed to 
 proclaim Howard Bliss a Christian, a scholar and a 
 gentleman in the highest sense of each term ; he was 
 all these long before he received handles to his 
 name. I have known him from his boyhood and 
 
THE COLLEGE PEBSIDENT 229 
 
 seen the fine promise of tliose e^rly years superbly 
 fulfilled as each new opportunity for usefulness 
 came to him and was seized and made the most of. 
 In the several pastoral offices he occupied he was 
 preparing himself unconsciously for the highest of 
 his services — ^the presidency of the great American 
 college at Beirfit, in which he most fittingly and 
 brilliantly succeeded his distinguished father, Dan- 
 iel Bliss. 
 
 For eighteen years he filled that difficult and 
 strategic post, under the exacting and dramatic 
 conditions of the proclamation of the CJonstitution 
 in 1908, the dethronement of Abdul Hamid the fol- 
 lowing year, the disturbances of the Tripolitan and 
 Balkan wars and the tragic years of the late World 
 War. In all these trying circumstances he kept his 
 poise, never made a mistake, conciliated enemies, 
 conquered obstacles that would have daunted less 
 heroic souls and kept the college going without in- 
 terruption. He was a diplomat without official 
 diplomatic commission, but one who scorned in- 
 trigue; high-minded, generous, sympathetic; and 
 all Syria formed its conception of American char- 
 acter and culture upon the picture which he in his 
 own person, and the college under him, presented to 
 her view. Arabic was to his childhood like a sec- 
 ond mother tongue, and the Oriental character and 
 ideals were ever an open book. He dealt with the 
 people as one who knew and understood them and 
 sympathized with them. His fine personal pres- 
 ence and distinguished bearing simply expressed 
 
230 , DAIHEL BLISS 
 
 < 
 the nobility md beauty which they recognized to 
 
 be inherent in his soul. 
 
 He has left his monument to the Arabic East and 
 to Syria in the College; he has bequeathed to us an- 
 other monument in his paper on " The Modem Mis- 
 sionary.*' No more powerful, convincing and elo- 
 quent apologia of the missionary enterprise as that 
 is understood and conducted to-day has been 
 uttered. Though in a grave among the New Hamp- 
 shire hUls his body lies, worn out by the privations 
 and labours of the last six years, he yet speaks to, 
 the world in that masterly utterance and wUl lon^ 
 continue to speak words which in this distracted 
 and selfish age sound like the inspired message of a 
 divinely-commissioned prophet. 'And. such he in- 
 deed was.: 
 
PRESIDENT HOWARD SWEETSER BLISS 
 
IX 
 
 FEIENDSHIP, EECEEATION, TRAVEL 
 
 WITH the house of Dodge, Daniel Bliss had a 
 dynastic friendship, ranging through four 
 generations, from WiUiam Earl Dodge, 
 Senior, to his great-grandson. Bayard, who married one 
 of Dr. Bliss' granddaughters. He has already told us 
 of his acquaintance with William Earl Dodge, Senior, 
 made at the Massasoit House in Springfield, in 1862, at 
 the Annual Meeting of the American Board, and of the 
 beginning of the friendship, which meant so much to 
 Daniel Bliss the man, and to Daniel Bliss the future 
 President of the College, as well as to Syria and to the 
 whole Near Orient. The beautiful and spacious home 
 at 225 Madison Avenue — alas! since pulled down — ^be- 
 came indeed a home for him during the times when he 
 visited America. When he actually stayed in the house, 
 Mr. Dodge asked him to open his mail, and to select the 
 letters which should be answered. Mr. Bliss thus often 
 saved the famous and very tender-hearted philanthropist 
 from yielding to impertinent though plausible impor- 
 tunity. With William Earl Dodge, Junior, who suc- 
 ceeded his father as trustee of the Syrian Protestant 
 College, Dr. Bliss also had a warm friendship. In the 
 meantime, William Junior's son, Cleveland, had become 
 a trustee of our friendly rival, Robert College, but his 
 interest in the Beirut institution was practically, demon-. 
 
 231 
 
232 DANIEL 
 
 i^LISS 
 
 Btrated not only by the gift of the wonderful Social 
 Building, West Hall, which became the centre of recrea- 
 tion and relaxation for all Beirut during the tense years 
 of war, but by giving us his son Bayard to be its 
 director. 
 
 But the great friendship of Daniel Bliss' life was with 
 the Reverend D. Stuart Dodge (the third son of William 
 Earl Dodge, Senior), Secretary and later President of 
 the Board of Trustees. Their correspondence, ranging 
 through half a century, ran to thousands of letters. In 
 it is the outer and inner history of their beloved Col- 
 lege — all its hopes, fears, plans, aspirations, failures, suc- 
 cesses. Never was there greater harmony between the 
 Man at the Front and the Man at the Base. This unity 
 of ideal and purpose was indicated by the signature 
 "S. and M.," often playfully used by both these friends 
 in their mutual correspondence. Readers of Dickens' 
 Christmas Carol will recognize the allusion: "The firm 
 was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people 
 new to the business cabled Scrooge Scrooge and some- 
 times Marley, but he answered to both names. It was 
 all the same to him." 
 
 Dr. Dodge's visits to Beirut were many and Ms so- 
 journs often long. When with his family, he would hire 
 a house for the season. When alone, he would live with 
 us. He has taken active part in every phase in the 
 growth of the College. He was its first Professor of 
 English — enthusiastic, strict, inspiring. He aided in 
 superintending the work of building, for through the 
 first quarter century or more of its life the College had 
 no master-builders but its own Faculty, working from 
 plans made in America. How well we children remem- 
 ber watching our father and Mr. Dodge as they counted 
 out the exact change for each workman against the Sat- 
 
FEIENDSmP, EECEBATION, TEAVEL 233 
 
 urday pay-time! How eagerly from our summer home 
 in the Lebanpn we scanned the hill tracks below for the 
 first sight of Jack and Jill, climbing up in the twilight 
 to the stable which they had left at sunrise, bearing from 
 the sweltering city the master builders, already refreshed 
 by the cool, high air. 
 
 Dr. Dodge's last visit to Beirut in the flesh — he has 
 never ceased to live there in the spirit — ^was made dur- 
 ing the Winter of 1889-1890, in the gracious company of 
 his widowed mother, then in her eighty-fifth year, but 
 fuU of an enthusiasm that fairly rivalled her son's. For 
 six weeks it was high festival for the American com- 
 munity and for aU friends of the College. 
 
 The other American friends and acquaintances of 
 Daniel Bliss include many of the men prominent in his 
 day. He was intimate with Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, 
 whose son Teddy rode along the lanes of Beirut, form- 
 ing the third on a donkey which bore at the same time 
 two of Dr. Bliss' own sons. He met Mr. Lincoln at 
 the White House, Mr. Seward, in post-war days, in 
 Beirut. Of his lifelong affection for Professor Tyler of 
 Amherst College and for Dr. Washburn, President of 
 Robert College, we have already spoken. In 1876 he 
 crossed the Atlantic in company with James Russell 
 Lowell, with whom he walked the deck in all weathers. 
 Of many of his English friends he has written in his 
 Reminiscencesi , 
 
 His friendship, once given, was deep, lasting, trustful, 
 but not demonstrative. With the exception of college 
 chums, I do not remember that he ever habitually called 
 any friend by his Christian name. Among his col- 
 leagues in the American Mission and College, he was the 
 most intimate with Dr. Thomson, author of "The Land 
 and the Book," Dr. Henry H. Jessup, his feUow voy^ 
 
234 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 ager on the Sultana in 1856, Mr. William Bird, bom on 
 the same day with himself and Dr. George E. Post, sur- 
 geon, botanist, Arabieist, orator, author, brilliant con- 
 versationalist, and practical engineer. The mutual 
 esteem between himself and Mr. Butrus Bustany, com- 
 piler of the first Arabic encyclopedia, whose school was 
 intended to be a preparatory school for the College, was 
 amply proved by its surviving a temporary disagree- 
 ment. Among other highly prized Syrian friends were 
 Mr. Michail Araman, Mr. Naameh Tabet and the Greek 
 Catholic Priest Gebara. A real comradeship existed be- 
 tween Dr. Bliss and Eustem Pasha, that brilliant and in- 
 flexibly just Governor of the Lebanon, and later Am- 
 bassador to London, by birth an Italian nobleman, but 
 for many years in the Ottoman service. "You and Dr. 
 Post are the only people to whom I can open my heart," 
 he once exclaimed to President Bliss, "with every one 
 else I must be on my guard." 
 
 In the course of the travelling season many unex- 
 pected visitors knocked at the door of the President's 
 residence, or made the tour of the College. One day in 
 the late seventies Dr. Bliss heard voices in the Museum, 
 and entering found the Professor of Geology explain- 
 ing the fossils to a powerfully built man with striking 
 features and flowing white beard, accompanied by his 
 wife, a short, stout, comfortable-looking body. "This is 
 the President," said the Professor, "but these strangers 
 have not told me their names." "I believe," said Dr. 
 Bliss, "that I have the honour of welcoming their 
 Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Brazil," and in- 
 deed it was Pom Pedro with his wife. Twenty years 
 later he met the German Emperor at the Prussian Hos- 
 pital, which was until January, 1918, under the medical 
 charge of our Faculty. Tentative arrangements had 
 
FRIENDSHIP, EECEEATION, TRAVEL 235 
 
 been made for a reception at the College, but at the last 
 moment the Emperor sent word that his Chancellor eonld 
 not fit it into the programme. ' ' "What is the use of beii^ 
 an Emperor," a disappointed student cried in nncon- 
 seions prophecy, "if you can't go where you like !" 
 
 You never knew what well-known persons mighf turn 
 up next to share the simple hospitality of the Marquand 
 House. One day it might be James Grordon Bennett, 
 another day it might be Father Hyacinthe Loyson, or Sir 
 William Temple, or C^ion Cheyne, or Sir Charles Wat- 
 son (the Watson Pasha of Egyptian fame), or Dean 
 Howson, or William Walter Phelps, or John Wanamaker, 
 or Whitelaw Eeid, or Richard Watson Gilder. In later 
 yeajs, after Dr. Bliss had moved from the Presidential 
 resddenee, which nevertheless continued to be a home for 
 him, the visitors included William Jennings Bryan, Lord 
 Bryce, the Bishop of London, Sir Mark Sykes, ex-Vice- 
 President Fairbanks, and Djemal Pasha. 
 
 His chief forms of recreation were readii^ and riding. 
 In literature he instiiietiirely chose the best, but he loved 
 the best of many kinds. What he could not stand was 
 the bizarre, the "predous." He had the elements that 
 go to make a great scholar. That he did not become 
 such was his unconscious sacrifice, made that others 
 might haply become great scholars. He was too busy 
 "serving tables" for serious and systematic study. The 
 Bible, Shak^peare and Milton were his favourite books. 
 It was his habit to read through "Paradise Lost" yearly. 
 His copy of Shakespeare bears the dates when he read 
 this or that play aloud to his wife. His interpretation 
 was both intellectual and dramatic. Julius Cssar was 
 his favourite play. 
 
236 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 I can hear his voice — solemn, melancholy, meditative— 
 in the lines : 
 
 You all do know this mantle, I remember 
 The first time Caesar ever put it on ; 
 It was a summer evening in his tent, 
 
 suddenly taking on a triumphant clarion ring in the 
 words: 
 
 That day he overcame the Nervii ! 
 
 With what eagerness I listened to Beerbohm Tree, in his 
 magnificent revival of Julius Caesar in 1898, wondering 
 whether he would attempt a similar effect ! He did. 
 
 Our father loved to read aloud Browning's Saul. He 
 had an affection for the poems of Aldrich and Sidney 
 Lanier. "When he got hold of a good novel he lived the 
 life of the characters. Dombey and Son were his com- 
 panions on an ocean voyage, and his journal-letter to his 
 family marked his daily progress in the story, with his 
 comments thereon. His written comments on George 
 Meredith's "Eichard Feverel" were read to its author, 
 who listened with grave appreciation, while his daughter 
 declared that this was the best criticism that her 
 favourite novel had ever evoked. 
 
 His usual excellent health owed much to his love of a 
 horse. When he left the city for an excursion of a 
 couple of days in the mountains, he left his work and 
 its cares behind him. But many a problem he -worked 
 out in his long, solitary afternoon rides in the environs 
 of Beirut : along the muriiiuring beach, in t^e narrow, 
 cactus-hedged lanes, through the mazes of the oliVe for- 
 est, over the open sand dunes. But he loved also to ride 
 
FEIEimSHIP, EECEEATI03!f,~TEiVEE" 237 
 
 in company. It was his amusement to invite* the new 
 American tutors for a ride, remarking that they must 
 not expect an old man to go too fast; and then with a 
 slight pressure on exactly the right spot, to start his 
 horse into a sudden gallop, which kept him far ahead of 
 the astonished youngsters. No wonder they all adored 
 him. 
 
 He never dismounted to lead his horse, no matter how 
 precipitous might be the descending path. He used to 
 say, "If you keep in the saddle and the horse falls down, 
 why, there you are ; but if you are waMag ahead and the 
 horse falls on top, why, where are you ? ' ' His control over 
 horses was xmusual. I have seen him go up to a rear- 
 ing and plunging stallion, grasp him firmly by the reins, 
 and quiet him with a word and a look. His endurance 
 was great. In October, 1886, when he was over sixty- 
 three, he left Zahleh (a town on the east slope of the 
 Lebanon) in the morning and rode to the top of the pass, 
 4,500 feet above sea level, and then down to his home by 
 the sea — a distance of some thirty-five miles. Soon after 
 his arrival, a wire came from Zahleh announcing that his 
 son-rn-law, the Reverend Gerald Fitzgerald Dale, whom 
 he had left in the morning making light of a slight indis- 
 position, was dangerously ill. Almost immediately he 
 was again in the saddle, and, accompanied by Dr. Post, 
 was retracing by night the thirty-five miles to Zahleh, 
 arriving at two o'clock in the morning — ^but too late, as 
 Mr. Dale had died about midnight. 
 
 In the early spring of 1868 Mr. Bliss made a horse- 
 back excursion to the Barak Cedars, some 6,000 feet 
 above Beirut, to secure a log of cedar for a pulpit for 
 the Church to which he belonged in Amherst. The fol- 
 lowing letter to his wife's uncle, Mr. Luke Sweetser, 
 describes the adventure : 
 
238 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 Without attaching any sacredness to timber that 
 grows in Mount Lebanon, we were pleased with the 
 thought of sending a good log of the same wood that 
 Hiram, so many centuries since, sent to King Solo- 
 mon. We have failed, however, in the attempt. 
 Last summer my wife and I started for the moun- 
 tains but on the second day she was taken ill and we 
 were compelled to return. Agaiu the time was set 
 when I was to go alone, but before the day arrived 
 I was taken sick with a fever, which kept me con- 
 fined tUl the College demanded my time in BeirAt. 
 We were fully determined not to give up the under- 
 taking, so last November I started at half -past two 
 in the morning, rode twenty-five mUes on horse- 
 back, changed horses and rode five miles more on 
 the summit of the mountains. I had three men 
 with me to cut the tree, and to roll the log to the 
 foot of the steep slope, where I had engaged a man 
 with his caniel to meet me. The weather had been 
 clear when I left the last village, so I had left my 
 rubber clothes there. Before the tree was half cut 
 down, however, a storm rose up. from the sea and 
 threatened us with a heavy fall of rain. A retreat 
 was ordered, but before we had gone a half a mile, 
 the rain, snow and hail fell, accompanied by such a 
 wind as one seldom meets. After half an hour's 
 run, we came to our horses and then rode to the vil- 
 lage. We were, of course, thoroughly drenched 
 through. The next morning early I started back to 
 Beirut amid the hardest storm of the season, leav- 
 ing the cedar half cut down, standing in the snow 
 
FEIENDSHIP, EECEBATION, TEAVEL 239 
 
 where it has continued in the deep drifts till this 
 time. On approaching Beii'ftt, I saw the Boston 
 vessel which was to take the log to America, driven 
 on the sands where it now lies a wreck. 
 
 Now I suppose the pulpit will be made of the 
 more valuable wood of America, even if it is less 
 noted in the history of the world. The fact is that 
 the nearer a man gets to the sacred places the more 
 unholy he becomes. Jerusalem is one of the most 
 corrupt places on earth. A few travellers take 
 home Jordan water to baptize children with. It is 
 all well enough — ^my fancy does not run that way. 
 If any one in Amherst supposes that cedar from the 
 Lebanon is better for a pulpit than oak or chestnut 
 from Pelham, I am glad I faUed in sendiag home 
 that log. 
 
 This story has a happier conclusion than Mr. Bliss had 
 anticipated. Later in the year he found that the storm 
 had broken off the half-cut log. This was sent home and 
 now forms part of the Amherst pulpit, which also con- 
 tains olive-wood, also sent by Mr. Bliss. The Com- 
 munion Table of Chester Cathedral is also made of cedar 
 and olive-wood which Mr. Bliss sent to Dr. E. W.Dale for 
 his chapel in Manchester, but which arrived too late and 
 was turned over to their common friend, the Dean of 
 Chester. 
 
 In the summer vacations Dr. Bliss often joined an ex-' 
 tended tenting-trip. The Cedars of Lebanoiy formed his 
 favourite haunt. By the way, the Cedar Tree is the Col- 
 lege emblem. His last visit to the grove was made in his 
 seventy-ninth year, with myself as a sole companion. 
 
240 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 We rode in easy stages from four to six hours only, 
 stopping twice on the day's march, once in the middle 
 of the morning for coffee and again for a more extended 
 rest at lunch time. (Dr. Bliss recorded the length of 
 each stage to a minute.) In the meantime the mules, 
 laden with the cook and tents with their furniture, had 
 passed us; so that as we drew near we found the camp 
 in perfect order and a blessed cup of tea awaiting us. 
 If we liked we stayed over a day in some lofty spot : at 
 the wonderful Natural Bridge, one hundred feet above 
 theice-cold stream that flows from the Fountain of Milk 
 (the Fountain of Honey is not far off!) or by the ruined 
 temple close to the three glorious cascades reminiscent of 
 Yenus and Adonis. The towering, rounded cliffs still 
 remain, but alas ! a land-slide has since almost abolished 
 the ruins, and has destroyed much of the picturesqueness 
 of this Afka valley. Under the shade of the ancient 
 Cedar Grove, 6,500 feet above the sea, we tarried many 
 days, wandering about by day, lulled to sleep at night 
 by the crisp sound of the wind in the boughs, as of waves 
 lapping a pebbly beach. It was here that there was 
 wafted to us the terrible news of the shooting of Presi- 
 dent McKinley. A day or two before we broke camp, 
 encouraged by my father's splendid condition, we rode 
 off on a long afternoon excursion. Before we arrived at 
 the' town from which by another path we were to turn 
 back "home," I noticed that a strange stiffness appeared 
 in my father's figure. Presumptuous youth then made 
 an attempt to assert itself against intrepid age. "Let 
 us stay here at the house of the Governor," said I, in a 
 tone that I tried to render final, "and we will send a 
 messenger to camp to tell the servants not to expect us 
 till the momiAg." "Ride on," he commanded briefly. 
 And ride on we did, though the stiffness gained on himtt, 
 
Courtesy of Professor Nickoley. 
 
 At the College Gate. 
 
FEIENDSHIP, EEOEEATIOIT, TEAYEL 241 
 
 darkness was gathering and the path became at times 
 but a three-foot ledge descending along the face of a 
 precipitous slope. My father's condition when we 
 reached the camp scared the attendants, but when the 
 next day he was again- himself and my beautiful horse 
 fell sick — he died soon afte;?— they heaved a sigh of re- 
 lief and said, "It is his redemption!" After this Dr. 
 Bliss was content with shorter rides^ Yet a photograph 
 of him on a coal black Arab mare, taken when he had 
 entered his ninetieth year, shows the erect carriage of a 
 general. 
 
 Although on his visits to America and England he 
 covered over 80,000 miles, yet Dr. Bliss was little of a 
 tourist. He was too intent on his journey's end to stop 
 by the way. The ordinary routes in Palestine he knew, 
 but in Syria he never went further north than Hums. 
 Twice he visited Constantinople on business and twice on 
 a holiday. He never saw Cairo or the Nile, notwith- 
 standing the insistent demand of the College graduates 
 in Egypt. "If you and Mrs. Bliss will visit Cairo," ex- 
 claimed one of these, "you need go nowhere you don't 
 wish to, and I will stand at your door day and night to 
 keep you from people you don't want to see!" College 
 business took him to scores of places in the United King- 
 dom, but he never saw Grermany or Holland or Belgium. 
 In 1885 Dr. and Mrs. Bliss passed several weeks in 
 Switzerland, where they had gone to meet their son 
 Howard, whom they had not seen since he had left 
 Beirut and the College, seven years before. Dr. Bliss 
 was then sixty-two, but he joined his son in long tramp- 
 ing excursions, including the ascent of minor mountains. 
 In the spring of 1891 he rode into the camp of his eldest 
 son, who was then excavating the remains of Lachish — 
 
242 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 that Lachish where once "the Assyrian came down like 
 a wolf on the fold." With what eagerness did the 
 father — close on seventy years of age — follow each de- 
 tail of the work of the son ! The f ellahin workmen gave 
 moonlight dances in his honour. The Arab Sheikhs paid 
 their homage. The Commissioner for the Musetmi at 
 Constantinople took him for a little private excavation 
 near by, and declared that a find of a charming little 
 Phoenician "tea-set" (a characteristically humorous 
 anachronism, for Ibrahim Effendi was a wit) was due to 
 the Blessing, of the Old Man. Three years later, both 
 Dr. and Mrs. Bliss passed a few weeks at Jerusalem, 
 where I had begun to trace the buried ancient city walls 
 in a series of tunnels, which were never too tortuous for 
 my father to inspect. 
 
 Eighteen years before his visit to the excavation camp 
 in Palestine, Dr. Bliss had himself taken an active share 
 in an important exploring expedition. The caves, 
 through which a subterraneous branch of the Dog Eiver 
 flows near the mouth of that historic stream, were vis- 
 ited by Dr. Thomson as early as 1836. Lack of a boat 
 prevented his following up the underground river. In 
 the autumn of 1873 the engineers of the Beirut water- 
 works (then under construction), Messrs. Maxwell and 
 Huxley — ^the latter a nephew of the great Huxley — 
 bound themselves with Drs. Bliss and Brigstocke in a 
 solemn league "that they would either explore some of 
 the mysteries mentioned by Dr. Thomson or show that 
 no other man could." The results of their three visits 
 were summed up by Dr. James Robertson in the "Good 
 Words" for November, 1875. The explorers traced the 
 stream in a winding course of three-quarters of a mile, 
 through low, narrow passages which connected huge, 
 lofty caverns, adorned with stalactites and stalagmites. 
 
FETESDSHJF, RECREATION, TRAVEL 243 
 
 In. the flash of the magnesium light some of these showed 
 a pearlj; whiteness, others a reddish hue. "In one place 
 they saggested in their regularity the pipes of a great 
 organ ; in others they expanded their heads like roses on 
 gigantic stems." The picturesque names given to vari- 
 ous features indicate their variety: The Pantheon, The 
 Chandelier, The Pulpit, Styx, Chaos ! The party mkde 
 use of rafts and boat^ but were as often in as out of the 
 water. It was a bold, hazardous enterprise and many 
 of the Beirut ladies threatened to send a protest to Mrs. 
 Bliss, who was in America. But her husband had him- 
 self already written of his trips. The second excursion 
 he found "too wonderful to describe." This time, as his 
 letter shows, the party pressed in their way one thousand 
 yards. The stream was deep and still ; the width of the 
 river ranging from twenty to fifty feet; the height from 
 the surface of the water to the top of the cave, from 
 thirty to one hundred feet. They came to one column 
 forty feet high and forty-five feet around, extending 
 from a gallery on one side of the river to the roof. In 
 the light of the torches it shone like alabaster. They had 
 entered the cave about twelve o'clock and had gone on 
 and on till it was thought best to return, lest the lights 
 should fail. They guessed it was four or five o'clock as 
 they approached the mouth of the cave, where some of 
 their men were waiting for them. Great was their 
 astonishment to find that it was eight o'clock in the 
 night! Camp was an hour and a half away, but a nice 
 dinner had been sent to them, together with beds, on 
 which they slept with much enjoyment out in the wilder- 
 ness. 
 
 After Dp. Bliss' resignation in 1902, as alreaay re- 
 lated, the graduates in Egypt and the Sudan declared 
 their iatmtioniof presenting the College with a fnlli 
 
244 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 sized marble statue of its first President. This plan! 
 found an unexpected obstruction in Mrs. Bliss' attitude 
 against it, but when it transpired that an Italian sculptor 
 had already been chosen, and when there came the re- 
 spectful but insistent demands for photographs and 
 measurements, she declared that "if it must be done at 
 all, it shall be done properly!" Behold, then, this pair, 
 then nearing their eightieth and seventy-third year, re- 
 spectively, starting off alone to discover the studio of 
 Signor Bacci, in the Italian mountains near Seravezza. 
 The end of this search is vividly described in a letter of 
 Mrs. Bliss to her children : 
 
 Do you know where we are? Well, we are at 
 Viareggio, twenty minutes by train from Seravezza, 
 the home of the sculptor, M. Bacci, and so at our 
 journey's end. We took a room here for twenty- 
 four hours, hoping to find lodgings near the artist, 
 and then lunched at eleven, and took return tickets 
 for Seravezza. On arriving, we found not even a 
 room at the station and just one broken-down car- 
 riage, and to our dismay were told that the artist 
 lived three miles off — ^half-way up the mountain — 
 and that we must take our train again at Iialf-past 
 four. Our • carriage was engaged, which never ap- 
 peared, but finally an honest-looking driver ap- 
 peared with the worst looking carriage we ever set 
 foot in, entirely -fidthout springs; and for a mile 
 over the worst of roads I felt every jolt in the top 
 of my head and I really feared what the result 
 might be. !A.fter about a mile the driver suddenly 
 turned down a side-road to a small stable, and took' 
 
PEEENDSHIP, EECEBATION, TBAVEL 245 
 
 out his horse, and we did not know whether we were 
 to be deserted there or not. But without a word he 
 brought another carriage, not elegant but much 
 more comfortable, and I felt my brain was saved. 
 Then on and on through deep dusty and up, up, pass- 
 ing only one decent house, and further up the moun- 
 tain, passing immense yards, filled with slabs of 
 marble, till finally we stopped at a low, seemingly 
 unattractive house, and were told we had arrived at 
 M. Bacci's. Now I had endured all this fatigue 
 and discomfort that I might see the sculptor's face 
 when he should first see your father. And I was 
 amply repaid. As he came out to welcome us and 
 saw the dear man, such a look of awe and admira- 
 tion and reverence came into his face as one seldom 
 sees. He took us in throughx several immense 
 rooms, filled with exquisite statuary, finished and 
 in all stages, with many busy workmen; and at last 
 opened the door of a small room — and thpre stood 
 on a pedestal the life-size figure of your father — so 
 dignified and grand — ^and at first the head and face 
 seemed almost perfect! It filled me with awe to 
 think such work could be done without having seen 
 the living model. It seems we had arrived at the 
 supreme moment. The first moulding of the face 
 was nearly finished, done from Papa's photograph 
 of 1892, and it was stuck into the clay at the shoul- 
 der. The moulder was not M. Bacci, but he stood 
 and paid close attention, making frequent sugges- 
 tions. . . . Papa put on the gown which the 
 sculptor calls a " toga," and was asked to sit in a 
 
246 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 chair which was placed upon a table and then the 
 moulder began to work upon the face from the liv- 
 ing model, so swiftly and deftly: putting in a line, 
 half erasing it, adding a bit of clay here and there, 
 all adding life and naturalness, until the whole was 
 transformed into a living, speaking likeness. A 
 pleasant young fellow who knows French was 
 called in and we conversed or, at least, I made him 
 understapd my suggestions, which were thankfully 
 received. Papa posed an hour and a half and dur- 
 ing the last half -hour the young art-student took 
 me through the rooms to show me the works of art, 
 and I saw also the work in all stages of it. I had 
 thought of a sculptor as sitting alone before a block 
 of marble, wrapt in visionary genius and his own 
 conceptions, and had no idea of the practical help 
 which must be had from many hands, in the midst 
 of dust and the clashing of the instruments of many 
 workmen. Monsieur Bacci is short, thick-set, and 
 has one of the kindliest, sweetest faces I ever saw — 
 a true gentleman, always the same whether he was 
 addressing us or the workmen. . . . 
 
 On Tuesday we were off at eight-thirty for our 
 last visit to Seravezza and the sculptor. We found 
 him the same genial man as ever, and he gave us 
 glad welcome. I found the face a little too old, as 
 the Committee wished it like the photograph of 
 1892, and it was wonderful how the adding a bit of 
 clay the size of a pea to the cheeks put back the age 
 just right. The lengthening or shortening, the 
 deepening or erasing of a line here and there ma4e 
 
FEIENDSHTP, RECREATION, TRAVEL 247 
 
 such wonderful differences in the expression: I al- 
 most felt I could see the whole secret of the sculp- 
 tor. They worked also on the hands and feet, and 
 I began to wonder how they had been able to do 
 anything without Papa's presence, and that if the 
 statue is to be worth anything as a likeness, how it 
 is worth all the efforts we have made to help make 
 it so. 
 
 After about an hour the head and face seemed 
 finished and I was invited to go up-stairs and rest, 
 while they finished the work on the gown. I gave 
 a parting look at the noble figure, and felt that M. 
 Bacci had put " his heart into the work, and the 
 heart exceedeth every art." 
 
 On their return trip the travellers visited Florence, 
 Naples and Rome. Here Dr. Bliss astonished and de- 
 lighted the gnide by mounting the pulpit in the Fortan 
 and delivering in spirited tones the speech of Brutus to 
 the dtizens. The still more surprising Odyssey, under- 
 taken by this indomitable couple three years later, will 
 be touched upon in ^e next chapter. 
 
THE LONG TWILIGHT 
 
 WHEN a man reaches his eightieth year he 
 may be said to have reached the twilight 
 of life. The phrase, however, must raise 
 a smile on the faces of those who were associated 
 with Daniel Bliss for the thirteen years that fol- 
 lowed his eightieth birthday. If twilight it was 
 with him, it was the long and luminous twilight of 
 the Northern Seas, differiag from the light of day 
 only in mellowness and peace. In resigning the 
 active Presidency, to become President-Emeritus, 
 the active duties of Dr. Bliss did not cease. For 
 some years he continued to conduct his classes in 
 Bible and Ethics, sometimes two periods in one day. 
 He attended Faculty Meetings until 1912. He was 
 constantly at Prayers and the College Assembly. 
 Occasionally he preached. He made daUy visits to 
 watch the progress on the new buildings. He su- 
 perint^ded the setting out of trees. He was the 
 ideal Ptesident-Emeritus : his advice, when sought, 
 was ever ready; when this was unsought, he kept 
 still. He did not say, " I might have told you so," 
 when the lintel over a new doorway cracked and 
 had to be supported by a column producing a 
 double entrance, unplanned by the architect. It 
 
 248 
 
THE LONG TWILIGHT 249 
 
 •was wMle he was overseeing tie workmen on a 
 trench, dug for the foundation of one of the College 
 Hospitfeils, that there became manifest the illness 
 which for ninety-nine men out of a hundred, in their 
 eighty-fifth year, would have been the last. 
 .Whether incipient paralysis brought on the fall 
 into the trench, or vice versa, has never been deter- 
 mined. A slight dragging of the leg, noticeable a 
 few weeks previous, points to the former explana- 
 tion. The loss of power, physical and mental, was 
 very gradual. He seemed to be gently relaxing his 
 hold on life, up to the moment when his doctors 
 gave him up, and then by as gentle gradations, his 
 physical and mental powers were restored iu fullest 
 measure. The second stroke, feared by us all, 
 never came. 
 
 It was in the spring of 1910 that our parents 
 unexpectedly announced their intention of taking 
 advantage of a favourable escort for a visit to 
 America. " We can always be buried at s^a," said 
 our mother. After this there was nothing more to 
 be said. The sight of this holiday couple of about 
 eighty-seven and eighty yfears respectively touched 
 the imagination of the reporters who met the 
 steamer in New York and produced at least one 
 "story" that verged on literature. It was Com- 
 mencement Week at Amherst. On Wednesday Dr. 
 Dodge motored up from Simsbury with his old 
 friend, and together they sat at High Table at the 
 Alumni Luncheon. When Dr. Bliss was called on 
 to speak, the whole house — floor and gallery — rose 
 
250 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 spontaneously. " That sight," declared a chum of 
 mine who had come to celebrate his thirtieth anni- 
 versary of graduation, " was alone worth the trip 
 from Nevada." 
 
 A few days after, Dr. and Mrs. Bliss settled in 
 pleasant lodgings at Clifton Springs, little dream- 
 ing of the weary months they were to stay in that 
 village. Early in August they were joined by their 
 son Howard, and proceeded to Madison, Ohio, to 
 attend a reunion of Bliss relations summoned to 
 meet them from other parts of the State, from 
 Michigan, from Missouri. Then followed a week of 
 happy festivity, with drives to various points asso- 
 ciated with Daniel's youth. On August thirteenth 
 they returned to Clifton Springs, and we spent the 
 evening in reading letters from Syria. The next 
 morning Mrs. Bliss fell with a stroke of paralysis 
 and on the following day was removed to the Sani- 
 tarium. Many times we were warned that the end 
 must come in a few hours, but with the turn of the 
 year came such improvement that she was consid- 
 ered fit to take the journey back to her own home, 
 under the charge of her daughter, Mrs. Dale, Super- 
 intendent of the College Hospitals, who had has- 
 tened from Syria. Some ten days before the sail- 
 ing, my father travelled to New York to sit for the 
 portrait desired by his Alma Mater. The sight of 
 this patriarch, with his long white hair, his striking 
 clean-shaved face, his straight figure wrapped in a 
 fine-spun, golden-white Syrian Aba or dust-coat, 
 moved conductor and passengers to ask who he 
 
THE LONG TWILIGHT 251 
 
 might be. When lie appeared in the stadio for his 
 first sitting the artist exclaimed: " Good heavens ! 
 What a head ! I am so excited I do not know how 
 to begin." 
 
 While he was in New York the graduates and 
 friends of the College gave a reception for Dr. and 
 Mrs. Bliss. Owing to the necessity of a short no- 
 tice, many invitations had to be declined. Mrs. 
 Bliss, of course, could not attend. Among the 
 many individuals present, many types might be 
 counted. A silver cup was presented. The sur- 
 prise of the evening was the speech of Daniel Bliss 
 himself. He seemed to have shed twenty-five years. 
 For ease, grace, wit, appropriateness and strength 
 of voice, he had never surpassed that evening. His 
 introduction was most happy. " As I stand before 
 you to-night," he began, " I am reminded of my first 
 speech made as a child in a country schoolhouse : 
 
 " 'You'd scarce expect one of my age 
 To speak in public on the stage ! ' " 
 
 G3ie anxious voyage home was made in compara- 
 tive' comfort. Life in Beirut went on much as it 
 had before the glad-sad journey to America, save 
 that Mrs. Bliss could no longer take an active share 
 therein. She lived for about four years after her 
 return, fully realizing the love around her, often 
 showing her old wit and sparkle, especially when 
 callers were brought to her, but without feeling the 
 impress of many passing events. Thus, most won- 
 
252 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 derftdly, she was spared the tragedy of the War 
 which devastated the world for about the last two 
 years of her life — ^and far longer ! Not so her hus- 
 band. Over his last years, otherwise so peaceful, 
 was cast its black shadow. I think he felt it more 
 than any of us. Never a pacifist, in the sense of 
 " peace at any price " ; a passionate believer in the 
 cause of the Allies; never faltering in his hope of 
 their ultimate victory, he was agonized at the hor- 
 rors which its waging brought to mankind in gen- 
 eral and to the starving poor about him in particu- 
 lar. He refused to believe in the failure of the 
 Dardanelles expedition till the grim facts were 
 finally forced on him. Would that he could have 
 foreseen the details of the triumphant campaigns of 
 Palestine^ and Syria! His thirst for news was 
 never quenched. " Go down-town," he would say 
 to me almost daUy, "and bring back the news — 
 true, if possible ; at any rate some news ! " ^ 
 
 The tragic realization of the War, however, was 
 not an obsession. He had many happy hours. He 
 loved to gather around his table at Thanksgiving, 
 at Christmas, and on birthdays, his children, his 
 grandchildren, and his great-grandchildren. (His 
 own ninetieth birthday had been celebrated in 1913, 
 with happy local festivity, and by numerous letters 
 from all parts.) In the afternoon he would sit on 
 his lofty balcony, watching the passiiig of the trams 
 below as well as the day students returning home. 
 One day Tchelebi Effendi, head of the Mowlawiyeh 
 or Whirling Dervishes, whose function it is to gird 
 
THE LONG TWILIGHT 253 
 
 the Sultan with, the sword on his mounting the 
 throne, passing along looked up and saw the fig- 
 ure on the balcony. "I must go up and salute 
 him," said he. And up this Moslem notable went 
 and bent to kiss the hand of the Christian Mission- 
 ary who, according to his custom, withdrew it be- 
 fore the humble salute could be made. Such is the 
 honour paid in the East to honourable old age. 
 
 He welcomed to his home friends, old and young. 
 When they found him alone, he would depart from 
 his usual peaceful silence and revive many a fas- 
 cinating tale of his youth and early manhood. This 
 reticence, which had grown upon him, was really 
 one of his best weapons in the battle of life. When 
 there was nothing to say, he said nothing. Once he 
 quoted to us a somewhat impertinent question 
 which had been asked him. " What did you say? " 
 we exclaimed. " Nothing," he replied. " But was 
 not that embarrassing? " " I left that to the other 
 party," he said. He always left the embarrassment 
 to the other party. 
 
 His reticence covered his own religious feelings. 
 These he expressed in his life, in his prayers, some- 
 times in his sermons, seldom or never in conversa- 
 tion. When his honour towards God demanded it, 
 his wrath was as a flaming sword, but usually he 
 influenced others by his example, by his kindly 
 spirit, by his faith in them, rather than by precept 
 and admonition. It is told of him that waiting to- 
 wards midnight in a corner of a street in lower 
 New York for a friend with whom he was to visit 
 
264 DANIEL BLISS 
 
 some Mght Mission, an unmistakable woman of thei 
 town came up to him and said, "Are you looking for 
 me?" Dr. Bliss bowed courteously and said, "I 
 think, Madam, you are mistaken." The woman 
 t)urst into t^ars : " Good God ! " she said, " I did 
 not mean to insult a gentleman." He then could 
 say to her what he would. 
 
 In theology he inherited the Calvinistic tradition 
 which is traceable in his early sermons. But he 
 gradually, almost unconsciously, adopted the mod- 
 ern views such as are interpreted in the writings of 
 Lyman Abbott — ^not that he followed him or any 
 other man. His convictions grew fewer, simpler, 
 istronger, deeper. He never confounded the means 
 with the end. "What are Incarnation, Crucifixion, 
 Eesurrection," he wrote to a friend, "but means 
 whereby man may die unto sin and live unto right- 
 eousness? " 
 
 The beginning of the last year of his life found 
 him little changed from what he had been for some 
 years past. We continued to hope that he might 
 complete his centenary. Through the Autunin he 
 made his daily tour over the campus and continued 
 to attend Prayers and the College Assemblies. At 
 one of these he made his last public address : " I 
 have seen many wars," he said, " and all of them 
 have come to an end. This war will come to an 
 end. God will turn and overturn till He shall come 
 whose right it is to reign." 
 
 On New Year's Day, 1916, he paid calls on two or 
 three vejy old friends. Such a New Year's call he 
 
THE LONG TWILIGHT 255 
 
 had paid at one of these households half a century 
 before. But as the year advanced he found the 
 sixty odd steps, leading up to the second floor which 
 he occupied, harder and harder to climb. He left 
 the house less and less often. In May he watched 
 from a carriage the Annual Field Day Sports. On 
 the Fourth of July he attended the picnic supper of 
 the Anglo-American Community, held under the 
 trees of the Marquand House garden, listening with 
 delight to the singiug of the children. On June 
 eleventh he was wheeled on to the Commencement 
 stage and together with Dr. Dodge (the latter, of 
 course, in absentia) received the Honorary Degree 
 of Doctor of Laws. He had often likened himself 
 to Holmes' "Wonderful One Hoss Shay," which 
 ran for a hundred years and then one day fell apart 
 all at once. The analogy turned out to be essen- 
 tially true, but without the suggested violence. The 
 various parts of that almost perfect machine, his 
 bodily frame, quietly ceased to function at the same 
 time. He always did the right thing at the right 
 moment and having done with this life, he left it. 
 On Wednesday, July twenty-sixth, he was dressed 
 and sitting up in the Court, asking " What news? " 
 At eleven on the morning of Thursday, July twenty- 
 seventh, after recognizing his daughter and his two 
 elder sons, who stood by the bed, he gently ceased to 
 breathe. Hundreds looked on his face for the last 
 time the next day in the Mission Church, when was 
 sung his favourite hymn, " Kock of Ages." Hun- 
 dreds stood around the spot of earth where his body 
 
256 DANIEL BLISS ; 
 
 lies near'to the other Saints who gave their lives for 
 Syria. His spirit lives, as it always lived, in God. 
 His spirit lives, as it always lived, in the life of his 
 students, from Kussia to the Sud^, from the Phil- 
 ippine Islands to the Pillars of Hercules. 
 
 ' / 
 
Index 
 
 AsBora, Db. Lyman, 215, 254 
 Abeih, III ff. 
 
 Abeih Academy, 11-112, 163 
 Abd-ul-Hamid, 229 
 Aiken, Rev. Mr., 114 
 American Board (A. B. C. F. 
 M.), 8i, 82, loi, 167, 168, 170 
 Amherst College, 52 ff. 
 Argyll, Duke of, 170 ff. 
 
 BeiKUT, 99, 100, et passim ' 
 
 Bird, Rev. Isaac, 101, 103, 212 
 
 Bird, Rev. William, 104, 143, 
 146, 149, 160, 212, 234 
 
 Black, James, 165 
 
 Bliss, Abby Maria Wood (Mrs. 
 Daniel Bliss), 61, 62, 81, 83, 
 et passim 
 
 Bliss Book, the, 13 
 
 Bliss, Daniel; his ancestry, 13 
 ff. ; his birth at Georgia, Ver- 
 mont, 17; life on the farm, 
 17 ff.; a child's thoughts on 
 the Resurrection, 24 ff. ; death 
 of his mother, 26; moving to 
 Ohio, 29; does "chores "for 
 his schooling, 30; works in a 
 logging camp, 31 ff.; ap- 
 prenticed in a tannery, 34, 
 35; an ethical victory, 39; 
 travels to graft trees, 42; 
 taken for a phrenolo^st, 43 
 ff.; partner in a tannery, 46; 
 enters Kingsville Academy, 
 (aged twenty-three) , 48 ; 
 teaches school, 48 ff. ; enters 
 Amherst College, 53; im- 
 pressed by religious atmos- 
 phere, 58; self-support, 66 
 ff.; college debates, 70; joins 
 geological excursion, 71 ff. ; 
 
 257 
 
 denounces "hazing," 73* 
 graduation speech, 75 ff.; 
 studies Theology at Andover, 
 79; ordination, 81; married 
 to Miss Wood, 81; sails for 
 Syria, 82; terrible storm, 83 
 ff. ; experiences' at Malta, 
 88 ff.; arrives at Beirut, 99; 
 appointed to Abeih Station, 
 105; an exciting mountain 
 adventure, 106 ff. ; studies 
 Arabic, 115; life in Abeih, 
 Ii8 ff.; moves to Siig-al- 
 Gharb, 128; preaches first 
 Arabic sermon, 129; opposi- 
 tion to his work, 131 ; various 
 missionary experiences, 133 
 ff.; the I<ebanon massacres 
 of i860, 139 ff.; conducts re- 
 lief work, 153 ff. ; plans for 
 founding the College, 162 ff. ; 
 named as President, i66; 
 sails for America, 168; in- 
 corporation of the College, 
 169; secures funds for en- 
 dowment, 171 ff. ; collects 
 funds in England, 175 ff. ; 
 visits Inverary Castle, 180 
 ff.; returns to Syria, 186; 
 College opened, 187; land 
 purchase, 189 ff. ; visits Con- 
 stantinople, 197 ; corner- 
 stone laid, 198; methods of 
 discipline, 200 ff.; methods 
 in religious instruction, 207 
 ff.; gives reasons for growth 
 of College, 211 ff.; resigna- 
 tion, 214; speech on presen- 
 tation of statue, 220; friend- 
 ship with house of Dodge, 
 231 ; intimacy with Dr. D. Sw 
 
258 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Dodge, 232 ff.; distinguished 
 guests, 234 flE. ; love of read- 
 ing, 235 ff.; love of horse- 
 back exercise, 236 ff.; ex- 
 plores Dog River caves, 242; 
 visits Italy to pose fqr 
 statue, 243 ff. ; his later years, 
 248 ff.; last visit to the U. 
 S., 249 ff. ; returns to Syria, 
 251 ; the great War, 252 ; his 
 peaceful end, aged ninety- 
 ■ three, 255 
 
 Bliss, Eliza (Mrs. Morse), 34 
 
 Bliss, F. J., 130 
 
 Bliss, Harlow, 31 
 
 Bliss, President Howard 
 Sweetser, 130, 214, 224 ff. 
 
 Bliss, Lioomii (father of Dan- 
 iel), IS, 17, 24, 28, 34, 80 
 
 Bliss, Mary Wood (Mrs. G. F. 
 Dale), 126, 250 
 
 Bliss, Reuben, 26, 38 
 
 Bliss, Solomon, 29, 30 
 
 Bliss, Susannah F a r w e 1 1 
 (mother of Daniel), 17, 19, 
 20, 26, 27 
 
 Bliss, W. T., 182 
 
 Bliss, Zenas, 31 
 
 Booth, W. A., 169, 213 
 
 Brazil, Emperor of, 234 
 
 Brigstocke, Dr. R. W., 242 
 
 British and Foreign Bible So- 
 ciety, 179 
 
 Bryan, W. J., 235 
 
 Bustany, Butrus, 234 
 
 Cai,houn, Rev. H. S., 164, 112, 
 
 115, 121, 142, 163, 212 
 Cedars of Lebanon, 237 ff. , 
 (Bariik), 239-240 
 Charles, Mrs. Rundle, 182 
 Churchill, Colonel, 139, 141 
 Clifton Springs, 250 
 Commencement Address, 75 ff. 
 
 Dai,e, Rev. G. F., 212, 237 
 De Sacy, 140, foot-note 
 Deir-al-Qamr, 146-148, 152 
 Delta Upsilon Fraternity, 60 
 Derby, Earl of, 185 
 
 Dickinson, Emily, 62 
 Disraeli, Benjamin, 183 
 Distinguished visitors, 235 
 Djemal Pasha, 225, 235 
 Dodge, Rev. Bayard, 232 
 Dodge, C. H., 231 
 Dodge, Dr. D. S., 130, 169, 187, 
 
 190, 213, 232-233, 249, 255 
 Dodge, W. E., Jr., 213, 231 
 Dodge, W. E., Sr., 168, 169, 
 
 198, 213, 231 
 Druses, 112, 120, 122, 139 ff. 
 
 Eddy, Db. W. W., 105, 135, 152, 
 
 187, 212 
 England, visits to, 175 ff. 
 Exeter Hall, 179 
 Exploration of Dog River 
 
 Caves, 242 ff. 
 
 FisK, Rev. Pliny, ioi, 102 
 Ford, Rev. J. E., 104, 142, 155, 
 
 212 
 French Army of Occupation 
 
 (1860-61), 156 ff. 
 Fugitive Slave Law, 70-71 
 
 Germany, Emperor of, 234- 
 
 235 
 Gharzuzi, Michael, 191 
 Gibraltar, 87 
 Goodell, Rev. William, loi, 
 
 212 
 Greek Catholic Church, 102 
 Greek Orthodox Church, 102 
 
 Hamlin, Proe. A. D. F., 224, 
 228 (tribute to Howard 
 Bliss) 
 Hamlin, President Cyrus, 197 
 Hitchcock, President Edward, 
 
 54. 57, 67, 71-73 , 
 Hitchcock, Prof. Edward, 59- 
 
 60 
 Hoppin, C. A., 13 
 
 Italy, visit to, 244 ff. 
 
 Jackson, Helen Hunt, 62-63 
 Jerusalem, visit to, 242