Page:Syria, the land of Lebanon (1914).djvu/188

SYRIA, THE LAND OF LEBANON people whom it is an education to know and a glad inspiration to own as friends.

In 1855 a leaky sailing vessel landed a cargo of rum and missionaries at Beirut. The rum was drunk up long ago; but one of the passengers, a tall, wiry Yankee, is still bubbling over with the joy of life. When I, met Dr. Bliss again in Syria last summer, he told me with quiet chuckles of enjoyment how, shortly after he came to the East, one of the older missionaries remarked, "Daniel Bliss isn't practical and his wife won't live a year in this climate." After nearly sixty years, the beloved wife is still with him; and as for being practical—there stands the great university which he has built!

Others helped him from the beginning—wise and generous philanthropists like William E. Dodge and Morris K. Jesup in America and the Duke of Argyll and the Earl of Shaftesbury in Great Britain—but two thousand alumni scattered over the five continents will tell you that the Syrian Protestant College is first and foremost a monument to the foresight and tact and self-sacrifice and patience and indomitable enthusiasm of "the Old Doctor."

It was at first very small. A half-century ago there were but a few pupils gathered in a hired room. To-day the faculty and administrative officers alone number nearly four score, and a thousand men and boys are studying in the English language. The [ 146 ]