"WKis^h Jubilee Series Weroplane Service Beiweeri Here ^/ic? There 1 9 2 0 THEN AND NOW SYRIA Z3S1 5 32: Hamath, Hums Tripoli JebaU J/ias BaalbeK June/!/ Sidon\ Tyn °>iiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiittiijiiiiiii[iiiriiiri>' 1870 Then and Now-Syria 1920 ]!Y CHARLOTTE H. BROWN, SIDON, SYRIA. FIFTY years ago, to a Syrian, "America" was the name of a country from which the mis- sionaries came, the source of money for the work, the wonderful land that supplied beautiful Christmas boxes for the fortunate school children and stories of big floods and frightful accidents — a land about which the Americans liked to talk, but of which otherwise the Syrians knew little. Almost no one had left for that far-away land, and Syrians were still content to stay at home. If any one left for a distant country, it was a big event for the whole village, and the traveler bade farewell amid tears and wails. How different now ! Thousands have left their native land, and every city, village, and almost every tiny hamlet in the country, have contributed to the throngs that have gone abroad, to better their condi- tion. Hundreds have returned; a few to stay, some to build nice, red-tiled houses, and then return to make more money. Others of the young men get themselves brides from among the prettiest maidens of their villages before settling permanently in their adopted homes. In even the most out-of-the-way settlements will be found some man or woman who speaks broken English learned during a sojourn in New York. He will tell the names of twenty States he has been in, and there is hardly a large city in the country that he does not know something about. Many wonder how it is that the missionary can be at all contented to live and work in poor Syria, when we might be living in rich and wonderful America. Many of the old ways and customs are gradually .inHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiMuiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiii. 2 'iiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiitriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiii' disappearing, and the Land is not quite so much a commentary on the Book as it was fifty years ago. Many of the Moslems no longer wear the flowing robes of the Orient that made them look so stately and dignified. Almost all of our male teachers now wear the ordinary European dress, and one often sees an uncovered head in the house of God, whereas in the old days the feet might be uncovered, but the head almost never. Work in Syria was undertaken long before 1870, but in the early days it was under the American (Congregational) Boai-d. The Beirut and Sidon boarding schools for girls passed their fiftieth mile- stone some ten years ago. The existing boarding schools for boys in Sidon, Suk el Gharb and Tripoli were later in starting, but have attained a large growth. Almost all have started in a very modest way, enlarging their old buildings or adding on an entirely new plant, as in Tripoli and Beirut Girls' Schools, as the growth demanded. In Sidon of late years no adequate provision has been made, the school is far behind the times in any modern equip- ment, and is wofully inconvenient and unsanitary. Several of the boarding schools were started by taking in a few needy Protestant girls for whom at that time there were no proper educational advant- ages outside the homes of the missionaries or in close touch with them. They were taken free of charge and helped in the house-work of the home or of the little school then started. Everything was simple and primitive in those days, from the smoothly combed hair and straight-bodied dresses of the girls, to the stiff wooden benches they sat on. In the earlier schools only a little tuition, or none at all, was charged, and not till 1887 were the boarders in Sidon Seminary for Girls requested to bring their own beds and bedding and pay any tui- .iiiiiijiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin iJMiiiiiii iiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitii. 3 '•irtiiiiiiiiitriiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiit iiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ttiiiiiiiiiiiririiniiiriiiiiiiiirtiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiJiii- tion. On the contrary, this present year in the American School for Girls, Beirut, they have many more applicants than can be received who -will gladly pay from twenty-five to thirty pounds for the privi^ lege of getting in. Even yet illiteracy is very common. In some places not a single woman knows how to read, but there are fewer such places than formerly. The villages where there are no schools of any sort are many, though the larger towns and all the cities have Catholic or Greek, Protestant and Moslem schools. It has always been easier to collect tuition money for the education of the boys than for that of the girls, and perhaps to' a certain extent it will always be so. Now it is often only the mother of a family who cannot read, or even, in some cases, only the grandmother. It has been a long and hard fight to make the people realize that it is worth while to educate the girls, but the time has now come when all over Syria there is a plea for schools and more schools, and they look to the American Mission for aid in obtaining them. During the war, when there arose a cry of "Turkey for the Turks," the government decreed that Turk- ish must be taught in the schools, and that religious instruction must be voluntary, no Moslem nor pupil of any other sect being required to attend Bible classes. Small attention was paid to our girls' school in Sidon, but in the boys' school, attended as it was by many Moslems, regular Bible classes had to be omitted by special order of the government. Both of the schools had previously been closed by the government, but the year following the day-school departments were opened with no special permission, a hint having been given that if the boys' school was opened no notice would be taken of it. After the "Occupation," which took place in October, 1918, the .iniiniiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiii. 4 MiiiiinniiinnniiiniiMiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiniiiiiiiiiiiniminiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiii- same school resumed its regular Bible classes and instruction. We have always had some Moslems in our schools, but