Society News

• On the ninth of October the First Lady of Lebanon received, at the palace of Beiteddine, the Lebanese families who came flocking from every corner of Lebanon to salute Her Ladyship and to express the devotion of the Lebanese woman to the First Lady in Lebanon, who has never ceased to labor and struggle for the sake of this beloved homeland at the side of His Excellency her husband the President. Her Ladyship received the women of Lebanon with the tact, taste, and solicitude for which she is known.

This reception is still the talk of women's circles, which esteem in the First Lady of Lebanon the spirit of a great and devoted woman who plays the foremost part in stirring energies and watching over the public interest.

• At the end of September Sheikh Khalil Takieddine, the acting director of Radio Lebanon, invited the men and women of letters of this country to a meeting held at the National Library to consider the affairs of the broadcasting service, after he had taken up the task of raising it to the place befitting a country like Lebanon.

Nearly forty Lebanese thinkers attended this meeting, among them two ladies: the cultured Mrs. Widad Maqdisi Cortas and the woman of letters of Lebanon, Mrs. Salma Sayegh.

It was plain from the program prepared by the great man of letters that the Lebanese station will witness, in his era, a profound activity in thought, in literature, and in sound national guidance, and that Lebanon is entering upon an age in which thought and art will hold a lofty place. Sheikh Takieddine presented his forthcoming program to the writers, and it proved a full and comprehensive program embracing Lebanese activity in all its deeper aspects.

The step that Sheikh Khalil Takieddine is taking with the broadcasting station is a bold step, after which the station will leap to a very high level and thereafter stand among the great stations.

We are pleased to announce that in the new program a special corner has been prepared for woman, presented by a select company of Lebanon's women writers and thinkers... and that "The Woman's Voice" takes a broad part in this program. Its first broadcast was given by Mrs. Ellen Rihan, on the subject "The Women's Associations in Lebanon," and the charming Miss Samira Saba offered lovely selections of song on The Woman's Voice program.

• The American University of Beirut celebrated the installation of its new president, Dr. Stephen Penrose, on the first of October. The ceremony was one of those memorable occasions which the University holds at such times, and to it were invited the authorities and the men of thought and politics of the Arab world.

Dr. Penrose is the fourth president of the University, succeeding in the presidency Dr. Bayard Dodge, whose term of service ended this year. Four presidents have followed one another in the office: Daniel Bliss, Howard Bliss, Bayard Dodge, and then Stephen Penrose, the present president.

The University has always been a great workshop of men in this Arab East, and it will carry on its great mission in the era of its new president, remaining always that great cradle which brings forth the men of thought, letters, and politics for this East.

• Dr. George Kheirallah — a physician and poet, one of those dutiful Lebanese who do honor to the face of Lebanon in the United States. He has retired from medicine and turned his activity toward literature and journalism. He has lived in New York for more than half a century, and to this day he publishes the Arabic magazine "The Arab World." He has a particular gift for translating the poetry of the Mahjar into English, a language he commands with mastery! He has translated a number of poems by Elia Abu Madi and others, and this year he favored us with a translation of "The Processions" by Gibran Khalil Gibran, in which he succeeded completely in keeping the translation literal while preserving the original Arabic meter... The meter is accompanied by a splendid music that shows the measure of the translator's taste in choosing musical words that harmonize with one another. The translation is prefaced by a brief account of the life of the great Gibran as Dr. Kheirallah knew him and as he wished to present him to the Western world...

The book is printed on glossy paper and adorned with the very drawings that Gibran made to grace his Arabic "Processions"...

Dr. Kheirallah visited the family of "The Woman's Voice" and kindly presented his book and his drawing. The editor asked him for a message to the Lebanese woman before his departure from Lebanon, after his visit and his fleeting tours through it, and he said:

"I am an admirer, proud of the activity of the Lebanese woman and of her progress in every field. But there is one thing in which I should have preferred not to see her, and that is her adoption of Western dress with all its faults. In my opinion the Lebanese woman is quite able to take for herself a dress bearing her own particular stamp; and these long, flowing garments, which the West claims to have created, are nothing but remnants of Eastern fashions! They stole them, and we follow them, content and satisfied!!"

The Woman's Voice thanks the traveling man of letters for his gift and his precious advice, and wishes him a blessed journey and a speedy return.

• Dr. Haberski, delegate of the international Mediator, visited the well-known artist Ustad Saliba Douaihy in his studio.

In the studio the artist made an oil portrait of him, and Dr. Haberski wished to acquaint his aides with the Lebanese artist, so the artist gave a tea party for them in his studio, at which Dr. Haberski and his aides were able to become acquainted with the rich artistic side of Lebanon through the paintings they saw in Douaihy's permanent exhibition in his studio. It is truly a matter of pride for Lebanon that a group from the United Nations should show such admiration for Lebanese artists and appraise our artistic values at their true worth, while we in Lebanon, government

and people, remain heedless of these authentic values which alone are the measure of the advancement of nations. In the published photograph Dr. Haberski appears before a canvas depicting the poet al-Safi al-Najafi, by the brush of the artist Douaihy.

The "Nightingale of America," Miss Fadwa Kurban, has returned from the United States after touring the world letting her beautiful singing be heard. We have learned on good authority that she intends to give a concert at the American University of Beirut, the proceeds of which will go to the distressed of Palestine. The Woman's Voice welcomes this artist compatriot and commends her patriotism and her zeal.

"Shadi" was the firstborn of the sensitive man of letters Ustad Antoine Karam and his wife, the woman of letters Mrs. Philo Lahd Karam... And the atmosphere in which little "Shadi" will grow up, in the shadow of a father of letters of refined feeling, is an atmosphere that promises well for the child.

His uncle, the poet Ustad Atef Karam, congratulated him with these tender verses:

We are the echo of song, and you the singer —
take from the heart a prop for your pillow.
The fill of your eyes is a tryst for hopes,
and a flutter from the oud-player's plectrum!!
O floods of radiance, have you risen like a new moon upon September,
in the smile of the calm late afternoon?!
And so we, at your coming, are feast days,
drunken — and you among us the singer.

It was reported in the Rouyn Noranda Press, in Canada, that Miss Marie Suleiman al-Jalbout, of Khiam, Marjeyoun, has won the higher diploma in music from an Irish university with brilliant distinction, for which she deserved the medal of honor —

and this at the hands of her brilliant teacher Paquin. The paper said, beneath a picture of this Lebanese young lady of Marjeyoun, that the success she has won in the field of music does honor not to her alone, but to the province in which she lives, which is proud of her rare intelligence and diligence.

The respected Mrs. Najla Cortas Zureik, wife of the Honorable Dr. Constantine Zureik, vice-president of the American University of Beirut, has been blessed with a beautiful baby girl, whom they have named "Afaf."

"The Woman's Voice," in congratulating Mrs. Cortas and her respected husband on her safe delivery, wishes the dear child a happy life in the shadow of her generous parents.

In Qalhat, in the Koura, the baptism was celebrated of little George Elias Saba, the first child of Mrs. Hana Khoury Saba; it was a party rich in the taste for which Mrs. Hana is known.

We wish little George a life full of goodness and blessings.

Last month Lebanon welcomed Dr. Nejla Abu Izzeddin — that brilliant young lady, the first lecturer at the Arab Office in New York. In the past four years she has lectured in 44 of the United States on the Arab cause in general and the Palestinian cause in particular, and she is on the point of finishing a book in English on the modern history of the Arabs. We are confident that this book will have its historical value — which is what moved the University of Chicago to print it at its own expense. The Woman's Voice is proud of Dr. Nejla Abu Izzeddin and wishes her a happy settling in the regions of her beautiful homeland.

Radio Lebanon has taken upon itself, in its new era, the commemoration of the great Lebanese men of letters, and on the third of October it commemorated the great Ameen Rihani, on the occasion of the eighth anniversary of his death.

It was one of those gatherings in which literary and artistic taste shone forth. The speakers were: His Excellency Hussein Oweini, Minister of Finance of Lebanon; Sheikh Khalil Takieddine, Lebanon's Minister Plenipotentiary in Moscow and the acting director; the elder of Lebanon's men of letters, Ustad Marun Abboud; the inspired poet and man of letters Rushdi Ma'alouf; and the well-known woman of letters Mrs. Edvick Jureidini Shayboub.

Ustad Fouad Suleiman, editor-in-chief of Dar al-Kitab, assisted in preparing this program.

The Lebanese Red Cross carries on its work with vigor, under the supervision of its honorary president, Mrs. Laure, wife of His Excellency the President of the Republic, and its active central president, de Freige.

Last month the Red Cross administration established a new dispensary in Baalbek to aid the Lebanese poor and the refugees.

In the middle of last month the marriage was contracted of the man of letters Ustad Shafiq Jadayel to Miss Kawthar Kurdi. "The Woman's Voice" offers the two young newlyweds its congratulations, hoping that their life will be all joys and delights without end...

Mrs. Gladys Sarkis Shfir and Mr. [...] her husband Ustad Muhammad Shfir have been blessed with a baby girl whom they have named "Alia." We wish the little one's family well in the care of her parents.

Mrs. Loreen Shfir Rihani, wife of Albert Rihani, has been blessed with a new baby boy, who has been named "Ramzi." May God keep little Ramzi for his parents.