Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-14
FAMILY MOTTOS

MADAME DE GENLIS, the Maria
AvA Edgeworth of France, used to say that
everyone should 60 through life with a
motto attached to his name: not an inherited
motto, however; but motto of his own de-
vising. Truly or falsely borne this would be
an indication of the ideal held in view by the
bearer, and the measure of his success or
failure. Her own mission in life being the
writing of books for children, she adopted
the motto Consume Myself to Give Light,
with lighted candle for her emblem.
The self elected motto of Dowager Queen
Alexandra is Nothing Like Perseverance.
When she was in Copenhagen some years
ago her attention was attracted to the won
derful cures in cases of lupus wrought by
lamp invented by her countryman, Finsen.
At her own expense she ordered one of these
lamps for the London Hospital. This first
lamp cost her five hundred dollars. The
hospital now has an installation of thirteen
lamps. On the beam across the ceiling of the
ward is painted the motto, Nothing Like
Perseverance.
The ingenious and prolific French drama
fist, Eugene Scribe, invented for the panels
of his carriage crest with motto. The
above it, was happily indicative of the name
and occupation Of the successful "scribe."
Less happy but equally characteristic was
the motto, Hence Fortune and Liberty"
Truly enough, Scribes pen had given him
wealth and independence. Yet the motto is
too evidently the boast of dramatist who
had, consciously and primarily, used his art
as means of making money.
Bismarck never appropriated to himself,
though he did invent, the phrase Blood and
Iron," which has been SO generally asso-
ciated with his name. Long before he had
become parsonage in European politics,
when he was only Prussian Minister at St.
Petersburg, did adopt a motto, which
after leaving the Russian Capital he prompt
ly dropped. Unlike most diplomats &C
into local society, familiarizing himself with
Russian ways Of thought and modes of iv-
ing. What seems to have struck him most
forcibly was the haphazard, Indifferent man.
ner, the calm disregard of consequences, in
which everything was done. Russian phi
losophy, so it must have appeared to the keen
young observer, was summed up in word
used on all occasions "Nitchevo!" Liter
ally this means nothing" It is used in the
sense, ut matters nothing"
All have learned that Russian Nihiism
has profounder meaning than was then
dreamed of by Western observers. We
know now that it has moral roots in Russian
national character. There were Nihilists in
the Near-East who might have taken for
their motto the Western saying, "There is
nothing new and nothing true and it doesn't
signify, long before political Nihilism, aim
ing at the destruction of all things, came into
being; and one of the foremost of Russia's
social Nihilists, so long at least as he moved
in Russian society, was Herr Won Bismarck
with his Nihi1istic motto "Nitchevo!"
The motto of the French Republic, Lib
erty, Equality, Fraternity" was gradual
growth, an evolution. The first cry was for
liberty; the other two demands were grad
ually and separately added. In its entirety
the phrase seems to have originated with
Mormora, printer, who used it in his news.
paper.
Sydney Smiths readiness in suggesting
mottos for his friends is we'll known. When
noblewoman asked him for motto for the
collar of her dog Spot, he proposed "Out,
damned Spoil" but he reports that she did
not deem it sentimental enough. The motto
he suggested for 1.-The Edinburgh Review"
is classic even though it was rejected by