It included a fashion show by Mrs. Juliette Silva, several ballet dances under the direction of Mrs. Barbara Stock, together with a show of "Carabi" fashions for children, and an elegance contest. Several prizes were distributed, and the party ran on past the time appointed for it, owing to the people's eagerness for dancing and the pleasantness of the air at the sea's shoulder.
• The reception held by the Brethren of Culture Society in honor of the Egyptian storyteller Mr. Mahmoud Taymour was of the utmost brilliance and good order.
The club of the Society for Securing Work for the Refugees of Palestine, for all its spaciousness, was packed with the invited guests, ladies and gentlemen of letters and of standing, on the evening of Wednesday, May 5.
Mr. Mohammad Jamil Beyhum, president of the society, received them one by one and presented them to the guest of honor, Lebanon's guest, assisted in this by several members of the society, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. Then Mr. Rashad Darghouth, in the name of the society and at the president's charge, delivered a most agreeable address; then Mr. Salem, the Minister of National Education, rose and delivered a speech befitting the occasion, and decorated the guest of honor with the Order of the Cedar in the rank of Officer.
Here Mr. Taymour stood and expressed his abundant thanks to His Excellency the President of the Republic and to the Lebanese government, which had been pleased to confer this decoration upon him, and turned, in kindly words, to thanking the Lebanese for the openhandedness and honor he had found among them.
After refreshments and delicious sweets had been passed around, Mr. Taymour yielded to the wish of those present and read them one of his magnificent stories, which was the crowning close of the evening.
• The Nahda School in Achrafieh presented, on the evening of Saturday, May 22, a musical stage play, "Gallantry and Honor." The hall was thronged with guests; the students, boys and girls, performed their parts most excellently, and those present paid handsome tribute to the head of the institute, Miss Nelly Ayoub, who has never ceased working with her colleagues to raise this young institution to a high level, culturally and artistically — to them all the finest congratulations and appreciation...
• The Ladies' Society of the American University Hospital in Beirut gave, on Saturday, May 22 last, its charity dance, which it is accustomed to give in this season every year. It was splendid in the extreme, and the guests enjoyed themselves to their hearts' content, in merriment and dancing.
The organizing of the party and the management of its proceedings were supervised by the society's members, most of whom belong to the families of the senior physicians. Its proceeds were set aside to help patients in straitened circumstances meet the cost of their operations, and to bring them cheer.
• All Beirut marched, on Saturday, May 22, to the field of the American University to attend the fourth folk dance festival. It seems that the success which attended this festival last year had not been effaced from the minds of the people, who flocked from every quarter to watch, so that the number present was estimated at seven thousand persons or more...
Eighteen schools from among Lebanon's institutions of learning took part in the folk dance festival, and it was a quasi-competition among these institutions in the perfecting of the dances and in artistry in
the loose, folk-style costumes. The grass field seemed to surge with bright colors, and the youthful bodies swayed in their unified rhythmic movements, in a way that commanded the utmost admiration and appreciation.
"The Woman's Voice" offers its thanks and praise to the teaching body entrusted with the direction of this festival, for the great and praiseworthy effort it expended toward reviving and refreshing this beautiful folk dancing and presenting it at this degree of splendor and perfection.
• There arrived in Beirut, returning from New York, Dr. Nejla Abu Izzeddin, author of the book "The Arab World," after spending two months touring the United States and delivering lectures, in answer to the invitation of certain institutions to enlarge upon inquiry and clarification concerning the present situation in the Arab countries. Dr. Nejla Abu Izzeddin was received, wherever she went, with the greatest cordiality, and shortly before her return to Beirut she was entertained by the American society Friends of the Middle East.
• It was a splendid musical evening that Beirut spent with the gifted artist Diana Said Takieddine, in the Graduate Studies Hall on the evening of Wednesday, May 19. The hall, for all its spaciousness, was crowded with a large audience of the elite of our men and women — those who appreciate in Miss Takieddine her lofty art and her skill at the piano.
And amid a storm of applause the graceful fingertips began to glide over the ivory, passing from the heritage of Chopin to Schumann, Bach, Debussy, and others... soaring to the summits of artistic beauty, and carrying the listeners into lofty regions of loveliness — that ascent of the soul above its own level. Diana Takieddine, in the world of art, is a smile of green hope, promising us abundant harvests.