With Mrs. Edna Stur, Athletic Trainer at Beirut College for Women

Since woman has been, life has been!

And when she set down the final melody, the universe swayed with intoxication, and a string slipped from her lyre into the wilds of a distant land!

She sings her anthems as energy and vitality, lives them as a soaring of the spirit, and understands them as the very being of a people and a firm foundation for the advancement of a nation.

To her home my feet made their way, and my heart was all questioning. And in an atmosphere of intimacy and ease, Mrs. Edna Stur set out to unstring the past in crystallized beads, burnished by the embroidery of remembrance:

I was still in the down of the wing when I left my nest, Lebanon, for a land beyond the seas — for the United States, where I settled in St. Louis, in the state of Missouri, and entered a secondary school, from which I went on to an institute of physical education. Then I returned to Lebanon to stay a year and a half, and left it again for thirty-seven years! — As if a fleeting thought had crossed my interlocutor's mind, she fell silent a moment, then added: That long absence did not make me forget the country; the homeland and its people were in my soul and in my life; and my aunt, Anastas Khoury, kept kindling my desire and my longing to return. I can almost feel her ardor now, and glimpse the gleam in her eyes when she spoke of the homeland!

Days racing past like drifting clouds, and my life a circle that would not come to rest: from work in the community to athletic training, until I married a young American and firmly resolved to settle down.

I lived in New York, with a magic thread drawing me to the shores of Lebanon!

— And in what field did you work during this period?

— And where should a woman work, where do horizons open before her, if she does not plunge into the thick of life in the educational or the social field?... I divided my time between volunteering and official work for the cause of juveniles, and organizing the camping movement. We used to cross the vast distances of New York State to assist the educational movement among the secondary schools of town and countryside, among the rich classes and the poor alike.

I spent my longest period at Hartley House, an institution sustained by a single family... In a clearing among plains and hills the house stretches out, overlooking magnificent natural scenery, and behind it a farm like an emerald necklace scattered in greenness and shade!

— And for what purpose does this institution exist?

— This institution is meant for young women specializing in community affairs; they spend their period of training there, and work in whatever branch they choose — and all of them call for working hands.

— On what idea are the clubs founded?

They are the resting place of weary souls, who seek them out for quiet and recreation. Here are varied musical programs; there, the room for drawing and handcraft; and there is another wing for study and discussion. This institution stands at the center of social activity in the eyes of the people of the district — and my eyes nearly fill with tears when I measure that activity against the sluggishness that besets us, and against the pleasures our children lack. Where are the clubs? Where do the children go? Where are the parents who work, thoughtfully and earnestly, for these particles of their own being?

— You hinted at the existence of a farm; has it a special benefit for the institution?

It is a rich source of income for the institution, and the field of work for the boys and girls. They bend over the soil, live with the earth, dip their bread in the sweat of the brow, and so learn the value of work and the meaning of life. The length of their stay at the farm depends on their psychological and physical condition; and the institution keeps its doors wide open on the weekends, and for five months of every year.

— What is your view of physical education among us today?

I feel it to be a leap the country has made in the shortest of time; but we still lack much. Our children are effective potentialities for the building of the future, and in depth and intelligence they outstrip the potentialities of others by long strides. As for the parents, most of them do not appreciate the responsibility laid upon their shoulders. The lady spends the better part of her hours on visits or on providing the wants of her house. Yes, the parents give everything the child asks for bodily; but how are they to surround him with affection without its doing him harm?... Our children grow up without any feeling of responsibility; life is a ball their parents toss to them, or a burden whose weight father and mother carry. How far they are from children who work to pay their own school fees even when the family could well spare them that! This is the building of character and the backbone of a living nation. An uprising is all we need, and I see it as woman's part to carry the torch and march.

Here a flash gleamed in the blue of her eyes, a flash of earnestness and resolve, and my interlocutor sat upright in her chair, saying: Why should there not be an institution run by an executive committee, where women gather to examine the problems of society and of education, to lay out proposals or to carry out projects? It is not the government that is responsible for this, but the people — the conscious portion of the people. For I love my nation and my country, and I will not have us led by outward appearances to this degree.

— What is your advice to woman in your country?

A leap not to be made light of; she must grasp it with both hands. Yet I call on her to draw near to her children in friendship... Teach your husband that... teach him how the family gathers at home and prepares a program for every evening. This trait in yourself will create the ideal society.