A History of Protestant missions in the near East

222 History of Protestant Missions in the Near East
for girls.
The oldest of these boarding-schools for boys has
already been mentioned, the " Seminary " at Abeih, which
was continued, with many interruptions, until 1877. Its
most successful head was the Kev. Dr. S. H. Calhoun (in
Syria from 1843 to 1876). In 1882 it
gave way to a new
boys' boarding-school in Suk el Gharb, which enjoys a more
elevated situation. This new institution has had a splendid
development, having 167 boarders. Of perhaps greater importance
is the " Gerard Academy " in Sidon. Here many
of the mission teachers have received their training. In 1895
the scope of this institution was extended by the addition of
an industrial department, and provision was also made for
the care and instruction of orphan boys of Protestant parentage.
Useful trades are taught as a means of present and
future support. A farm of one hundred acres, not far from
the city, called Dar es Salam, has been acquired for the use
of the orphan department. Mrs. George Wood, the widow
of one of the missionaries, has liberally endowed this flourishing
industrial school. It has at present 227 boarders. Three
boarding-schools have also been established for girls, the
oldest of which, the Beirut Seminary (1861), is perhaps the
principal girls' school, having 129 pupils, who pay 70,000
piastres a year in fees. The Tripoli Girls' School, established
in 1873, has had for many years an able principal in Miss
Harriet La Grange. The Sidon Seminary for Girls is of a
somewhat different stamp, having been established in 1863
with a view to training teachers and Bible-women in mission
work. It has generally received as boarders only Protestant
girls.
There is throughout Syria very keen competition in educational
work, due chiefly to the energetic educational policy
which the Protestants have maintained in the face of all opposition
and all suppression of their schools. According to
the educational statistics of Beirut, in 1899, this town alone
had sixty-seven schools for boys, and thirty-six for girls,
with
170 male and female teachers, and 8,705 boys and 6,768 girls
under tuition. Of all these schools, twelve for boys and