The Washington times., 1919-11-16
Today
Wanted, Two Books.
A History of Thought.
Lives of Great Mothers.
By ARTHUR BRISBANE.
Copyright. lsis.D

- EOA4o bahC hDlc man. NAAC
reader, sound thinker to write that
book.
The book about mothers could be
written by any man possessing
clear style, common sense, aver
age gratitude, willingness to do
serious reading. You might like
ITO try It.
4 In history of men, you read
about their vices, achievements,
whom they married, what women
they liked better than their wives,
their children, about almost every
thing that they were or did, but
about their mothers, perhaps, two
lines.
Ii Is as though you read Of
St Peters in Rome, with only a
dozen words to say that Michael
Angelo built it and painted the
; sictine Chapel.
There are in the worlds history
Q thousand mothers whose bio
graphies would make one thousand
most Interesting books. Here are
few whose lives you might study
and record.
Tonyris, Queen of the Massa-
Retae, who ended the career of
Cyrus the Great 100 years be-
fore the Birth of Christ She
warned Cyrus not to injure her
son, whom he had captured by
a clever trick, but he put the
son to death Tomyris caught
the Great Cyrus, cut of his head,
dipped it into a skin filled with
human blood, saying, "Now drink
all you want" There must have
been emery in that ancient mother.
The two mothers of Abraham
Lincoln should have two good
biographies. His first mother
was Nancy Hanks, tall, powerful.
She gave him a big body, strong
mind, and courageous heart, al
though Lincoln's father was a
worthless, shiftless, kind of per-
son, as was the father of Napo-
leon She taught Lincoln to read,
then died when he was nine
years old. Then came his sec
ond mother, step-mother, but a
REAL mother. She was a physi-
cal and mental mother to the boy
Who was to do 30 much for the
world. She. urged him to study,
taught him what good books
meant. ---------7rz9
The difference between sabra-
ham Lincoln in history. and
thousands of other powerful.
weLmesning men is the differ
e1ee OLA FEW books. Remem-
Der thn, when you think or
write about the value of books.
He read Bunyan's Pilgrims
Progress" Shakespeare and Burns.
That reading taught him to write
English as he wrote IL In his Get
tysours address. He read the life
OF Washington and Piutarch's
y1yes-That gave him ambition.
or course, when / came OF age
i did not know much" said Lincoln.
He was mistaken. He knew all that
good women and a few good books
could give him, and that is an
education.
You would like to know more
about Agrippana. who made her
son Nero emperor when he was a
boy, and who was murdered by
that same son when she interfered
with his vices and folly. II would
be worth while to know what she
said and how she acted when she
found that heS son had arranged
with the captain OF the ship on
which she went visiting him TO
have the bottom fall out and drop
her In the sea, and what she felt
when she escaped that trap, got
ashore, and the son sent his SOL
diers TO murder her in her refuge.
Another intereting Roman moth
er was Julia Donna, who starved
herself 10 death when her son.
the worthless Emperor Caracalla.
was killed. Another is CorneIia.
or whom the world usually hears
only the rather dull anecdote.
these are my jewels, ETC." She
made statesmen and heroes Of both
Der boys And In order to work
and live with them, and teach
,tsrn. she refused to marry Pto-
Ien,I King Of Egypt. after her hus-
Vand died.
l Her history would be interest
Pg, especially to many American
dows that would md II hard 10
lse q King
interesting mother In humble
rs the mother Of the poet VII
For her who could not read