Joseph Elias

No. 133. (Syrian).
The husband and two eldest sons 17 and 15 years of age, were drowned. He was coming to this country to join his wife who had come here eight years earlier to make an opening for them. She made her living a peddler. The husband sold his farm before leaving Syria for $1,500, in addition to the cost of his passage; this amount in cash was lost with him. The three other children, aged respectively 21, 12 and 8 years, were suffering from trachoma and had therefore remained in Syria with their grandmother. The wife was prostrated with grief. She was unwilling to return to Syria, asserting that there is no way in that country for a woman to support herself and family, and begged pitifully for her three other children to be brought to this country. The Committee decided to make an effort to have the children cured in Syria. The woman's brother volunteered to go to Syria, and take the children from their native town to a hospital in Beirut, where this Committee made arrangements for their treatment. After two months' treatment the two younger had been cured and the eldest apparently cured. Upon arrival at Ellis Island the two in good health were immediately admitted. The eldest, a more stubborn but a promising case, was placed in hospital on Ellis island, where she is improving and will remain until cured, the expense of treatment being met by this Committee. In the total appropriation of $4,037.49, made by the Committee for this family is included the cost of bringing the children here and of their treatment. The remainder is in a trust fund from which monthly pension payments are made. From other relief sources the family has received $1,739.90.