The First Stone of the Lebanese Women's League Kindergarten

The green pine trees — the red flags fluttering in them!
On the first warm breezes of spring...
And the paths leading to the little pine grove, all studded with the beloved Lebanese flags...

And in the shade of these sweet trees, tender young plantings of beloved children — they are the children of the kindergarten....
All in their beautiful striped navy-blue clothes.
And their fair hair...
And the sweet smiles of childhood..
All of them... there, waiting...
And their eyes here and there...

And the cars stream toward the grove studded with the sweet red flags...

The elegant, cultured, striving ladies of the city, and personalities from the government... and men of education... and the distinguished organizations..
And at the entrances adorned with red ribbons... elegant young ladies lead the crowds to the places beneath the green shade..
And the army band plays...
Here is His Excellency the President appearing before the crowds, and the crowds are all waiting for the generous hand that will lay the foundation stone of the new kindergarten building, which the Lebanese Women's League is erecting...

It is the hand of the first President — that hand which laid the first stone in the building of this country's independence, and which every day lays a new stone in the new edifice.

It was half past three when the hard-working lady, Afifi Majdalani, stood to welcome His Excellency the President and Their Excellencies the Ministers and the gracious audience, and to present the woman of letters, Miss Zahiyah Dughan, principal of Makassed College for Girls, who delivers a splendid address in which she sets forth the great efforts the Lebanese Women's League has expended to realize this great dream...

...another on this subject, pointing to the great silent struggle being carried on by Mrs. Heneni Tarcha, president of the Lebanese Women's League... and saluting at the same time the Lebanese emigrant communities, above all the community of Venezuela, which had the greatest hand in raising this building, having sent thirty thousand dollars for this noble purpose.

And after Mrs. Tabet finishes, His Excellency Ustad Habib Abi Shahla steps forward and delivers a speech in which he salutes the Lebanese Women's League and its president...

And while refreshments and sweets were being passed among those present, a beloved, fragrant bouquet of children was drawing into the square, on a colored ribbon, the foundation stone that will be the first stone of the building to come...

And then His Excellency the President of the country, in a voice full of love and tenderness, salutes in his turn these efforts on behalf of the Lebanese child, and declares his sympathy, and the government's sympathy, for this noble project...

And it was a gracious gesture when His Excellency the President approached the noble lady Heneni Tarcha and pinned upon her breast the gilded medal in appreciation of her distinguished services.

Mrs. Tarcha answers the President's kindness with a gracious and eloquent word. The women of the League regretted the absence of Mrs. Faiza al-Solh, wife of His Excellency the Prime Minister, who has surrounded this project with her well-known ardor and sympathy; and we regret that her failing health prevented her from taking part in this splendid celebration.

And amid the lovely songs of the kindergarten children, the first stone of the kindergarten of the Lebanese Women's League was descending into the earth at a generous hand... It is a single stone...
Tomorrow it will be a great building.

A building for a childhood that needs the building of a single stone...

From this stone the Lebanese Women's League will build the children of Lebanon, that they may later be the pillars of this great nation...

It is indeed a great work, in which the emigrant communities, the government, and the people have joined...

God bless the hands that forever build the temples of good...

God bless them..