The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-30
"The National Congress of Mothers and Parent Teacher Associations the Most Democratic
 Of All Organisations" Says Mrs SchOff
By DOLLY DALRYMPLB

~NCE upon time I read story of an angel who stole out o1 heaven and came to this world
 one bright, sunshinny day; roamed through the fields, forests, hamlets an,
 cities and as the sun went down plumed
 his wings for flight; the angel said
 Now that my visit is over. before
 return I must gather some mementoes
 of my trip"
 He looked at the beautiful flowers
 in the gardens and said: How lovely
 and fragrant" and plucked the rarest roses and made 8 bouquet and said
 q see nothing more beautiful and | fragrant than these flowers" l The angel looked further and saw a bright-eyed, rosk-cheeked child and
 said. That babe is prettier than the flowers; I will take that too." and
 looking beyond to the cradle, he saw
 a mothers love pouring out over her baby like a gushing spring and the
 angel said:
 "The mothers love is the prettiest
 too."
 /, And with these three treasures the heavenly messenger winged his flight
 to the pearly gates saying: Before l go in I must examine the mementoes
 of my trip to the earth"
 1 He looked at the flowers and they
 had withered; he looked at the baby g
 smile and it had faded he looked at l the mothers love and, beholdi It shone
 like radiant star in all it's pristine beauty.
 1 He threw away the faded flowers, 1 cast aside the faded smile and with the
 mothers love pressed close to his heart swept through the gates into the city, 1 shouting that the only thing he had found that would retain it's fragrance from earth to heaven is-a mother $ I love!
 It was a pretty story and yesterday 1T thought of it as I talked to Mrs. Frederic Schoff, the lovely, sweet natured, gentle woman who is the president of the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher associa- tions, one of the largest and most in- fluential organizations in the United States today.
 I thought as I looked at her that she was a very worthy person for the
 mantle of responsibility of so impor tant an institution to fall upon for, from her tender eyes beamed kindness, and from her lips fell words of gentle
 wisdom, for it has been her great privi- lege to be blessed with the motherhood
 of seven splendid children and, like Cornelia, she prizes them as her jew els, and, in turn, 12 grandchildren she claims as heritage, when at her age she is as spry as spring, as Timber minded, as busily engaged in work as most women of 25, and all this with her abundant family as her life's record, I think she is pretty well worth listening
 to, don't you?
 Tn making this, my first visit to Birmingham, I am glad to say that I hope it will not be my last" Mrs. Schoff said by way of introduction. q have always wanted to come to Birmingham; i; I have wanted Birmingham to be an active center for the work our organi- zation stands for, which is the most democratic of that done by any other institution in the world today. Tn fact, there are organizations for every other kind of work imaginable, but the Ma tional Congress of Mothers and Parent Teacher association does work that none other can do."
 Being the mother of two boys who have graduated from Harvard, two daughters who have graduated from Byrn Mawr, and two sons who are Cornell graduates, and one daughter
 who is not a college girl, and my hus- band being 8 graduate of Cornell, ought to know something about boys and girls and motherhood. I will say this just here that for 25 years I did nothing but mother my family, and it was not until my children were grown and educated and ready to take care of themselves that I became engaged in any sort of public activity, although I
 was interested in the National Con-