The Washington times., 1919-11-16

she was the only one wiling ana
able to take care of him financially
and otherwise when he found him
self Gagged at st. Heleva. We ought
to know more about her.
Does anybody know a good MS
tory of Olympiasy mother OF Alex
ander the Great? AS You read
about her son, you get occasional
glimpses of the mother. You see
her dancing strange dances with
snakes wrapped around her, no
other clothing. You learn no" she
deceived her husband, Philip,
bringing a magician from tbs East
to make him think that everything
was all right, when it wasn't We
know that she probably murdered
Phillip to push her son along more
rapidly and get rid of husband
nuisance, and that she told her
son he was not really the son OF
Phillip, but the son of God, which
perhaps gave him valuable con-
fidence in himself. But We do not
know enough about her.
Many quiet mothers that never
danced any snake-dances would
supply interesting biographies.
The mother of Renan, for in
stance, powerful simple peasant
woman, to whom he attributed his
mental strength, or the mother of
Carlyle, to whom she gave the
genius that has influenced the
literature and thought of Eng
land so greatly for more than
half a century. In the few lines
that books devote to her, you see
her sitting by her fireside at Ec-
clefechan smoking pipe, looking
up proudly when her great son
with all his book learning came to
see her. But what was she like
when she held his baby bald head
on her, shoulder.
Some of the mothers that may
be called irregular because mar
riage did not precede the birth of
a great son could supply interest
ing chapters to the mother book.
There was the tanners daughter,
washing clothes in tie brook when
the Duke of Normandy came rid
ing by. She became the mother
of his son, William the Conqueror,
and afterward his wife. She was
also the mother, by another man,
Of the tall, handsome bishop on the
white horse that fell fighting with
his half brother the Conqueror at
the battle of Hastings.
The story of her life would be
interesting. Her great son who
made the twenty-five archking-
doms of England into one appre-
ciated her and showed it, roughly,
while besieging a city. The in
habitants, to mock his mothers
father, the tanner, hung fresh
skins of animals out on the walls.
William took the city, skinned the
principal inhabitants, and put
their skins on the walls, cruel
proof of filial respect.
There was the mother of Leon
ardo Da Vinci, the greatest artist
that ever lived, with one excep-
tion. She was a poor, ignorant
girl, and never married. Leon
ardo's father married later a very
respectable person, but his re-
spectacle children amounted to
nothing.
The illegitimate son of the peas
ant woman ranks among the
worlds one hundred greatest men,
and he had many kinds OF great
ness-wanderful painter, engineer,
architect, a physician, and so i.ow-
erful that he could bend a horse
shoe with the fingers of one hanf.
The mother that made him wouli l
be worth knowing intimately.
For every great man in history
there is a great mother You may
be sure of that. The father of a
great man may be, or appear to be,
a fool, but never the mother. The
power must come from her. In the
worlds histories all other creators
are treated with reverence and
fully described. But the women
that have made the worlds great
men, and therefore have made the
world, have only a few accidental
lines written about them.
1t is about as preposterous as
the treatment of women generally
from the beginning. Now that the
world recognizes women as hu-
man beings entitled to think and
express their thoughts politically,
perhaps historians will decide that
the woman who makes the man is
entitled to as much credit az the
artist that paints the picture or the
general that wins the battle. And
perhaps the books about mothers
will be written, the statues to
mothers erected, and the profess
sion of motherhood recognized as
the most important in the world.
DC CIJARDSMEN Can