Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1921-07-22
EDUCATION OF SYRIAN CHILDREN PART OF NEAR
 EAST COMMITTEES WORK

LHUI VUFIllll ILL U UVlh
 The rod has no part in spreading the gospel of tn, three R's in Syria, where ambition to take advantage of the opportunities offered them by the American workers threatens danger of over-study among the children in the Near East Relief orphanages scattered throughout that region.
 "Persuading the children to play, rather than making them work was the chief difficulty at the orphanages at Sidon, near Bierut," Miss Josephine Huse, former Nebraska girl, and now a resident of St. Paul, Minn., told Charles V. Vickrey, general sec retarv of the relief organization, up on her return to the United States this week, after service of year and half as a relief worker overseas.
 s"They have been through so much
 suffering during the war and the long
 period of misery and starvation that
 followed it, that they have forgotten
 how to play. Many of the smaller
 children have never played" she said.
 "They are so pathetically grateful for
 what the American people have done
 for them through the Near East Ke-
 lief that they want to use every min
 ute of their spare time studying from
 the books that have been furnished
 them. Unless a supervisor is con
 stantly on hand at the playground the
 bovs will break up into little groups
 and open their books. It is the same
 with those of the Girls orphanages; l the children busy themselves with
 embroidery, an art taught them by I the relief workers. ,-
 "My service as relief worker has filled the most satisfying time of my life. To watch the ragged wai1s' vermin-infested and covered with sores come into the orphanages, half dead from starvation, to help care TOT , them. and then to see their sores heal r and their little bodies resume a nor, , nal, healthy appearance, is" lnoeeo gratifying. f "If only the work can be continued ? the Near East will indeed have cause
 to be grateful to the United States S For the children we are caring 1o' !, will care for their country tomorrow ;, They are being taught Amerlcal e ideals and the principles of the Amer e ican form of government, in addition : to being instructed in useful occupa n tions that will go long way toward n elevating Syria from its present stat l. of beggarhood. !, ,-....o ., d T don't know what would happel l. if our activities were closed dow ?. now. I hate to think of it. Thoug if the children that we. have save it would probably not all die of starva st tion, a great many of them would an 10 large numbers of others would Ia st before disease. They would becom ,e beggars, more burdens thrown upo s. an already over-burdened country. In the American people could only watc ,r the transformation of these littl x waifs, they would soon realize Iths SO their generosity had been well al D. piled"
 Trachoma, according to Miss Illus l.. is the curse of the country and or !. of the biggest problems that the Ne' of East Relief workers have to solv ,d Among one group of 56 orphans a. m ;n mitted to the orphanage, of which sl ,o had charge, AT were suffering fro n, the disease. The proportion was a IIe most as high among the others, s' ad said. -s M m "The most distressing part abo m 'n the disease" she said, "is the awf nc method of treatment, which seems N be the only one that has been su .st cessful. The eyelid of the patient ed turned back and scraped until ,' M bleeds. I watched some children u ~ nd dergoing it once, but never c '' again. They stand treatments i other ailments, no matter how painf
 like little stoics, reporting witho
 having to be told, and patiently. WI
 their turn. This is largely true of trachoma patients, excepts instead os U. the quiet waiting line, there is srs are weeping little group fearful ot | m or pain they know they are going W. U have to go through, but determin . ,od nevertheless, to undergo it."
 tLo After service with the Red Crt 'md ' in Fullerton and other Nebras +u t towns, Miss Huse, who is a gradu' ,;ce G of Lincoln High School and the Un N of Nebraska, left her home in Ora
 Island, to join the Near East in !
 vember, 1919. Her family recen
 removed to 1466 Hythe Street,
 Paul.
 WHITE WHALE HUNTING