GRADUATE SCHOOLS SOCIETY TO MEET AT 4 TOMORROW

The Reverend Abraham M. Rihbany, Pastor of the Church of Disciples in Boston, will speak at the opening meeting of the Graduate Schools Society at 4 o'clock tomorrow afternoon in the parlor of the Phillips Brooks House. His subject will be "The Near East--Yesterday and Today". C. D. Whidden '23 will give a short song program.

Mr. Rihbany was born in Syria of illiterate parents. First he attended a school of his uncle who was a Greek Catholic but he later changed to an English non-secularian institution. From there he transferred to an American missionary school at Belater, leaving it at the age of 9 to become a stone mason.

Five years later he met a boy who was attending an American boarding school and after several years he attended the American school at Suk-el-Ghork where he had a chance to learn the American customs. This environment awakened a desire to come to America and in 1891 at the age of 22 an opportunity presented itself when he met two friends who were planning to sail.

When he landed in New York he was almost pennlless but he at once found his way to a Syrian colony and soon obtained work as a book-keeper. A little later he became editor of a Syrian newspaper and it was then that he realized he was "in" but not "up".

Leaving New York he journeyed to Pittsburg where he and a friend decided to start a lecture tour. He traveled through the west occasionally making a little money but the experience helped him greatly in acquiring proficiency in the English language. For about a year it seemed that he would have an opportunity to go to college through the assistance of an unknown man but the scheme falled and he went back to lecturing again. It was now that nea first began to preach and for several years be became a pastor in Michigan and Ohio, but he finally decided to settle down in Boston where he is still preaching.