In Miss Hicks’ absence, Mrs. Watson has addressed me the following letter: 

     Shemlan, August 28, 1872.

“Our first school for native girls was commenced in Beirut in 1858.  The teachers have been Miss Hicks, Miss Hiscock, Mrs. Walker, Miss Dillon, Miss Jacombs, (now in Sidon,) Miss Stainton, (now in Sidon,) and Miss Dobbie.  No native female teachers have been employed except pupils of the school under Miss Hicks’ care.  Masters Riskullah in Beirut, and Murad, Reshid and Daud, in Shemlan, have been connected with the school as teachers of the higher Arabic branches.

“The whole number of boarders under our care up to the present time, is above one hundred.  The only teachers in my second boarding school are, my adopted daughter Handumeh, and Zarifeh Twiney, a pupil of the Prussian Deaconesses.  Seventeen or eighteen of our pupils have been, or are now teachers, and ten are married.

“The school directed by Miss Hicks was given over to the Ladies’ Society in England, some six or seven years ago, and has been supported by them since.  The new school in the upper house is under no society and is not regularly aided by any.  There are from twenty-six to twenty-eight boarders under the care of my daughter, Miss Watson, I aiding as I can.  Several girls have been supported for the last two years by friends in America and England.  We have had ten Druze girls in our school in the upper house.  Miss Hicks has had three or four, and a number in her day school.  We had also a number in our day school at Aitath, four of whom are married to Druze Sheikhs.”

Mr. Elias Suleeby, aided by friends in Scotland, has for a considerable period conducted common schools in a part of Mount Lebanon and the Bukaa, and now the enterprise has been adopted by the Free Church of Scotland, who have sent the Rev. Mr. Rae to be their Superintendent.

Their schools are chiefly for boys, though in all the village schools it is usual for a few of the smaller girls to attend the boys’ school.  In Suk el Ghurb, however, they have a boarding school containing some twenty-five girls.

THE PRUSSIAN DEACONESSES INSTITUTE IN BEIRUT

The Orphan House, Boarding School and Hospital with which the Prussian Deaconesses are connected, were established in 1860.  The two former are supported by the Kaiserswerth Institution in Germany, and the latter by the Knights of St. John.

In the Orphan House are one hundred and thirty orphan girls, all native Syrians, who are clothed, fed and instructed for four or five years, and often transformed from wild, untutored semi-barbarians to tidy, well behaved and useful young women.  They have ordinarily about fifty applicants waiting for a vacancy in order to enter.

The Boarding School is for the education of the children of European residents, Germans, French, Italians, Greeks, Maltese, English, Scotch, Irish, Hungarians, Dutch, Swiss, Danish, Americans and others.  The medium of instruction is the French language.