TH MOTHERS OF GENIUS. Some Tender and Tragic Stories. Por the most part, all yecords of the mothers of our early writers are lost. Even Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, is little more than a shadow. Cowper's mother is immor- | talized by his own love for her. Bhe died in 1737. PFPifty-two years later, a cousin sent him her picture. He acknowledged it in a manner that shows that his affeetion had not been lessened by the passage of more than half a century, Almost his best- known lines, and certainly his finest, are written upon the subject of the receipt of this picture, and the mem- ories it recalls: "The nightly visits to my chamber anade, That thou mighst know me safe and warmly laid ; The morning bounties ere I left my or confectionery BOOKS AND THEIR AUTHORS b b > h » p at t au x 3 he was so embarrassed financially | hearts. Here is a sample paragraph. | "The Betrayal of Ulster" deals with | that he had to borrow money to go to her, but she died before he could reach her side. In spite of all, hei jseems to have felt 'her loss very deeply, and showed his grief in the | tempestuous fashion inherited from { her. Had it not been for Dickens { no-education at all, for it made no | { difference to his thriftless, affection- | { ate Micawber-ish father, whether his | ison was taught his letters or, not. | | Dickens was a small and sickly child, | t and his mother taught him to read at {a very early age, afterwards allowing {him to browse at large among his | father's books, of which he preferred | | Smollett's novels. As Charles grew | | older she tried to improve the family | fortunes by opening a school, but this | | was a dead failure and eventually the | i whole family except Oharles found | themselves in the Marshalsea prison | { for debt, Dickens at this time was | { working as a sort of general drudge | iin a blacking factory for six or seven | shilling a week, He wal, therefore, | inot included the Marshalsea | in "Some thirty years I am in the waist trade as operator, contractor and manufacturer, and in all diree- tions this was the hardest year I ever' went tlirough. We had a 100 per cent, share of troubles from the war | adjustments with rus | mother he would probably have had { just before the spring season and | strikes and high One of our designers left us took along some of our best ideas. We had our usual amount of bank- ruptéies with fifteen per cent. settle- ments, Our quid pro quo rate of cancellations and returns was larger than ever. We lost a lot of profit on business we lost by introducing business sufficiency. More than ever we had troubles and expense with salesmen, and yet, I am glad to tell you, Citron, Gumbiner and Co. will show a clean net profit of $52,000." The second of these breezy publi- cations takes the form of a series of letters from Goldie, the telephone operator in a large hotel, to her bosom friend Myrtle. It is entitled "The Line's Busy," and it tells of the multitude of incidénts which happen around the switohboard of the hotel Pope was his mother's only child. { house-party, but lodged with an old | from day to day. The stories are full She and her husband were both forty-six when he was born in 1688, | when the family fortunes improved, |are most and she lived until 1733. She was an affectionate mother, and he re- sponded with the strongest love he ever felt, entirely untouched by the bitterness which characterized his Jater life and writings. His words upon her death were the kindliest and most charming he ever uttered. Speaking of her as she lay dead, he sald that she was "the finest image of a saint expired that painter ever drew" and he begged a friend to come and make a picture of her on | her death-bed. Shelley's mother seems to have been one of those typical English- women, who, being devoid of any startling personal intelligence, yet have a genius for motherhood. Shel- ley found her "irresistible eloquence on the subject of the weather" very hard to bear, but she was the best friend of his youth, constantly in- terposing herself as a buffer between her son and her narrow-minded, ir- ritable husband. The influence of Byron's mother upon his life is tragically unmis- takable. She was a capricious, hys- terical woman, treating her son to every excess of violence and tender- néss in turn. Byron always declared that the malformation of the feet f which he suffered was largely due to her foolishness, the constant torture and injudicious treatment of quacks having greatly exaggerated the original deformity with which, a8 he reminded her when she taunt- ed him, he was horn. A frank, but not particularly . courteous school fellow once observed to Byron! "Your mother is a fool" "Yes," agreed Byron calmly, "I know that." In his eighteenth year, she concluded one of their fierce quarrels by hurling the poker and tongs at his head. He fled to his London lodgings to be free of her, but she followed him and smother pitched battle ensued, in "Which he routed her and had peace for a time. In 1811, when he heard of the illness which ended her life, oh { woman in Camden Town. Later on, | ihe was sent to school, but the ob-| servant, overworked, delicate child | {had gathered in these grey and des-| { perate years, the materials for his | prodigious life work. He seems to! have inherited @pmething of his| | capacity from his father's mother, | who, according to the first Lord! | Houghton's wife; was at one time| | housekeeper at Crewe, and was | famed for her powers of story telling. * TWO BOOKS OF HUMOR. "We Need the Business"--By Joseph E. Austrian, 74 Pages, Price $1.00. The Ryerson Press, Toronto, Pub. lishers. "The Line's Busy"---By Albert Ed- ward Ullman, 118 Pages, Price $1.00. The Ryerson Press, Toron- to, Publishers. The treme¢ndous run of success which greefed the '"'Dere Mable" books has" spurred other writers of the same kind of literature to effort and the Ryerson Press has just pro- duced two more of the same kind. The first, entitled "We Need the Business," is a book of letters from the senior partner in a firm of waist manufacturers to his assoclates and salesmen, and they are brimful with good humor and human nature. Philip Citron, the head of the con- cern, is ong of the old school of hard- headed business men, but he some- times makes a false move, and his explanations are productive of many a smile. He is a firm believer in the principle of keeping in close touch with the salesmen on the road, and in a series of jnimitable letters he tells the whole story of the inside history of the business. These stories are not only full of laughter, but they over- flow with shrewd philosophy, and are a running fire of comment on the various conditions which the writer meets from day to day in his busi- ness. They are very human and will awaken a responsive chord in many of a spicy, spontaneous humor. and entertaining. At / times Goldie helps out a friend in a diffi- culty and shows her sympathetic and kind nature. Love affairs play a large part in the little volume, for Goldie geems to be a real matrimonial bureau in straighten out the tangles of romances, And in the end ghe finds her 'own happiness, and tells of it in a breezy, attractive let- ter to her friend. Both these books are splendid tonics in these days of stress. They leave the reader in a lighter frame of mind, and drive away the cares of home and business. Of the two, the first is perhaps the better, but both are well worth while, and although following the same lines as adopted by Streeter in his "Dere Mable" series, they are full of originality of phrase and idea, and are in a separ- ate class. April Hearst's Has New Novels. The new April Hearst's magazine brings a veritable April shower of literary riches. Last month's Hearst's presented the first chapters of "The Master of Man," a new novel by Sir Hall Caine, Now---in the April issue of the same nmagazine--comes the first installment of "The Enemies of Women," a new novel by Vicente Blasco Ibanez, whose 'Four Horse- men .of the Apocalypse" and "Mare Nostrum' are still breakif®® all rec- ords as best-sellers for novels of such high literary quality. ' Maurice Maeterlinek, the great Belgian philosopher, and author of "The Blue Bird," now touring Am- erica, who has beén having some trouble in delivering his famous léc- ture on "Immortality" because of his difficulties with the English language, has overcome these ob stacles 'by having his lecture trans- lated and published in Hearst's, It will appear in four installments un- der the title "Eternal Life or Eternal Death?" The first of these appears in Hearst's for April. George Bernard Shaw's article « "FT has Jone been a a Sribe idea of compare the human my old clock here." y t proper attention the old clock and stops until I wind it ticks away just as - § mine with ran down - and then- it 'The Human Clotk I AA re hh N unable to sl aches, i I ack them, * Nerve , Food i many from a lowering of usually Breaks Down . instead of Runs Do wn, to its use I largely attribute i condition at rgdy » > my Bealthful : "When I hear age. on & & of of suleing from hereon | Why do not cream / . or worn-out fi use Dr. Chase's your nervous ie, as {the complicated political situation in Ireland." "The Right to. Think Wrong" by Charles Edward Russell, is an eloquent plea for frgedom of thought and speech and a' warning against the dangers of reaction and | repression. 'Into the Muds of Po- { land" by ex-Premder Clemenceau of France is a vivid description of Po Fand as it is to-day---dealing net so much" with its politics as with its people. A new poem by Rudyard Kipling--the uncrowned poet-laure- ate of England---is always an event, and "The Clerks and the Bells" in the April Hearst's is Kipling at his best. In lighter vein are the humor- ous articles of Walt Mason, Kenneth C. Beaton and Bert Lester Taylor. Fiction is well taken care of, with stories by Robert W. Chambers, larry Evans, Arnold Bennett, Ar- thur Somers Roche, Maurice Level and Bfuno Lessing. Besides all this there are, of course, the regular morithly departments, The Art, Book, Play and Science of the Month. ing companies, the people of the Pa- cific province have been long, when one considers the aesthetic opportuni- ties of their surroundings, in finding utterance upon the printed page. Un- til recently, the only productions of importance were those of one or two conscientious historians--notably R. E. Gosnell and F. W. Howay--the poems of Sir Clive Phillipps-Wolley, and the later work of Pauline John- son. Only in the last year or two has B. C. begun seriously to invade the intellectual sanctuaries of the east. In fiction, setting aside Isabell Ec-| entrants for these prizes are probably clestone MacKay, who does not write | 0uDtful on which to concentrate. about her adopted province, the first novels of importance appeared, in 1918: "The Chivalry of Keith Lei- cester" and "My Brave and Gallant Gentleman." The author of the lat- ter, Robert Watson, was represented again in 1919 by 'The Girl of the O. K. Valley," to which almost a com- panion volume is 'Janet of Koote- nay:"~Pf verse thé province, for a time the heme of R. W. Service, is this season represented by a volume of the Yukon singer's school--' The Trail of a Sourdough", by Charles Royal, of Vancouver. Tentative .efforts are also being made, in spite of obstacles, to publish locally; these include volumes of verse by Ronald Kenvyn, Lionel Ha- -weis, and R. F. Adams, and a volume of war experiences by Major J. C. Thorn. More ambitious is a compila- tiofilby various local writers entitled the "Gold Stripe" and published by the "Amputation Club"; three num- bers of this have now appeared. It has a companion in "Scarlet and Gold," the first annual of the North- west Mounted Police Veterans' As- sociation, edited by Rev. R. G. Mac- beth, the well-known historian. The latest news of litérary inter- est announces the formation of an Authors' Society in Vancouver. It is to be hoped that this will result in more concerted actign toward the li- terary exploitatiowrdf British Colym- bia.--Lionel Stevenson. Literary Activity in British Columbia | Far away from Canada's centres | of advanced thought and of publish-| °f delicate solemnity i : ! i | { { | | A | ably gives him | for "Beauty and Brains." Many fair | { Journeys." E DAILY BRITISH WHIG tzken from life. This seems in many Cases an unnecessary precaution. A { Major MacKenzie Rogan, band- master of the Guards, is about to | publish his reminiscences. It is an- § nounced that he will strike a humor- | Dus-note. Being a bandmaster prob-| confidence in the matter of striking the right note. Canon Masterman's' suggestion dt a8 lethal chamber for the uneducated appears at first sight an original con- ception, but it is not so. M is a Bol- shevist Jdea,~--reversed. H. A. L. Fisher states that most, of the intellect of the world springs from the minds of the middle class. ! Possibly a delicate sugar coating to the unpalatable fact that most of the money proceeds from them, too. The project to shoot a rocket to the moon and thereon to make a giant flash is interesting, but even if it succeeded most people would re- fuse to regard the whole thing as anything more than moonshine. H. 8. Nicholson, organist at West- minster, has stated that a superman is wanted to produce a hymn book of two hundred of the best tunes. Another want is a philanthropist who would eliminate the two hundred hymns with the worst words. A reviewer' of Marmaduke Pick- thall's "Sir Limpidus," says that it is pitched at exactly the right note that amuses the humorous, while 'evading the ap- prehension of the merely facetitous. The pleasure received from reading this is overshadowed by the dread of being one of the "merely facetious." A correspondent to a contempor- ary remarks tiF¥it'in Berlin the goose- step is set to musie--that is the Ger- man idea of the fox-trot. Surely only as beginning. The fox-trot will sure- ly come after the goose-step in the natural way. A contemporary is offering prizes Bs Nibbles From New Books. It is in the midst of life that we are in debt. ' "What 1s fame?" The nettle- encircled handle at which thou clutcheth, which ends in a gold plate on thy coffin-lid, my friend." Nature has endowed women with their lack of physical strength; that is why women fear no rival but [*% woman.--Dorota Flatau," in "Seven "It seems to me,' said Martha} with the wisdom kat the simple in heart acquire in pain and travgil, "that in this world a woman's o chance of happiness is if she lo Being loved does not make he 50 Love's a, fire, so it must have fuel to k it alight, but a woman's fire needs very Httle, and that is rather a good thing perhaps, for she seldom. gets much."--Sybil Lethbridge, in "The Journey Home." There are really only two classes in the world---the bounders and the others.--Wing Commander, in" "The Odd Hint to the RAF." a I PEPIN -* THE CONTENTED MAN. a + + Dike 4 Happy the man whose wish and care 4 A few paternal acres bound # Content to breathe his native air, In his own ground. Whose. herds with milk, whose fields with bread, Whose flocks supply him with attire ; Whose trees in summer yleld him shade, In winter, fire. Blest, who can unconcernedly® fi Hours, days, soft away In health of body, mind, Quiet by day. and years slide peace of ~ Sound sleep by night, study and ease Together mix'd, sweet recrea- tion of And innocence, which most doth please, With meditation. Thus, let me live, unseen, un- known ; : Thus, unlamented, let me die ; + Steal from the world, and not a stone : Tell where I He. ~--Alexander Pope. FPP EP PPPP RPP PP PVP PPR P PPE ERR P FEI REPS CPPP2 EPP PPRRPRPPPRRR REE RP EPROP ROD shade is better than a hundred fairy princes in the clouds.--Baroness von Hutten, in "Happy House" A woman in love is--just a woman in love. At heart, when you get right down to fundamentals, all women are the same. He" addresses all women under thirty as "my dear." This he does partly on principle and partly be- cause he thinks, being women, that they like it. Bo they do, unfortun- ately, most of them ---Beatrice Kean Seymour, in "Invisible Tides." She is pretty, you know. I love to look at her, and I want to tell her that whilst she has a mouth that every man will want to kiss it doesn't matter what absurd things it says.-- Sybil Campbell Lethbridge, in "The Journey Home." ea Notes of Interest to Booklovers. Rider Haggard has written a pow novel about his famous character. Allan Quartermain, and it is to be published next month under the title, "The Ancient Allan." 'The book will be an innovation in stories of rein- carnation, for it will deal with the life of Quartermain in a long-ago existence in ancient Egypt. "Celia anil Her Friends," is the title of a novel by Ethel Brunner, which has been published dy the Macmillans, This book has had a considerable vogue amongst the book-loving public of England. A new book of poems by Siegfried Sassoon is announced for early pub lication by E. P. Dutton Company An_, average young man in the It will be called "The Picture Show,' SATURDAY, MARCH 27, 1920. Public Library Bulletin Now that the By-law has passed, call at the' Library and see the plans for 'the -- a, NEW FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY INIA iat stl its title having reference to the mood in which a man back from the war looks on the life, at first seeming so unreal, that is going on busily all around him. Meredith Nicholson thinks the reading of fiction unprofitable for the writers of it, and himself reads but three novels.a year, which are chosen for him by his wife. Instead, he reads much in the fields of social and" political discussion, biography and poetry, his special interest bee ing Italian literature and history. Oecil Roberts, a collection of : whose selected poems has just been published in this country, has come from England to lecture and give readings from his works. make an extensive tour, He will A complete edition of O, Henry's stories is being set in Braille, and the American Brotherhood of Free Read- ing for the Blind plans to place sets of them in public libraries which have departments for the blind. Some of This separate stories and small collections of his tales have been for some time accessible in Braille, but this is the first time his complete works have been soo printed. "The Foolish Lovers" i§ the pro- vocative_title of a new novel by St. John G. Ervine, which the Macmil- lan Company will publish this spring. They promise also a new American edition of his play, "John Ferguson," to be published in March. Henry James Forman, one-time managing editor of Collier's Weekly, is the author of a novel bearing the title "Fire of Youth." : ad A Scribner's anounce for early pub-" lication two books concerning Tenny- son by Dr. Henry Van Dyke. One will contain a selectiop*af represen- tative poems by Tennyson and an introduction by Dr. Van Dyke, and | the other "Studies in Tennyson," will have a series of essays on the growth of Tennyson's mind and the perfection of his art. The George H. Doran Company an- nounces for early publication 'new editions of three of B8ir Oliver Lodge's important works, "Reason and Belief," "Man and the Univer--- sal," and "The Survival of Man." The last named one will be revised and enlarged by the author. Herbert Adams Gibbons, whose latest book, "The Map of Asia," was a recent publication, has been chosen by Princeton University to resume the Spencer Trask lectures which were interrupted by the war. Little, Brown and Co., announce 'hat they sold nearly 500,000 copies f Thornton W. Burgess' books for bildren during 1919. a * The Education of the Adu. | We should not ceasp to learn when we leave school, evéngthough the school age may be rai in due time to sixteen. We should always be disciples in the school of life. We should "die learning." The educa tion of the adult must lay a great and growing part in the democracy that is safe for the world. Democracy makes y demands on the inteili- gence, jintegrity and interest of the citizen Yody. If of educational system made no provis! for the adult, it would be in a measure defective. The op- portunity is as great as the need. Adult education is carried on mainly by the efforts of the adult himself, and is on that account very lasting and delightful. In providing the op- portunities for the continued educa- tion of our eitizens the public library # the chief factor. The great "popu- lar university," or educational ex- tension institution is the friend and helper of home education and of seif- development. Realizing the potentialities of the library, librarians and, library boards willbe ambitious to provide the best books, and to give the best service to 'their communities, The modern Hbrary is not a mere repository or dormitory for ancient tomesy nor is it only an intellectual shrine to which the keen book lover resorts. It is an aggressive and missionary in- stitution, 'It seeks to promote circu- lation. It tries to bring the right books to the right people at the right time, Librarians are the guides or directors of popular reading. It will be well to offer ample fa- cilities for general culture reading and for special vocational studies. The relatively small number of those who pursue a course of serious and systematic reading should receive the HNbrarian's most helpful atten- tion. The majority of readers, how ever, can be guided into less formal courses "of reading, and led to read books that are worthy of their time The public 1! are a part of the general educational system of | the provinre of Ontario. The depart- brarians, circulation of timely liter- ature, the public libraries of the province of Ontario are taking 'thelr full share in the general educational Saveucament of the times.----Hon. H. " ¥. : ; ¢ - Many modern fiction Writers pre- lude work with the statement ig ALS y A TONIC IN ¥ You Can Lay the by Buildi our Nerves The good old fashion of taking a tonic in the springtime, like most of the customs of our grandparcats, is based "upon sound common sense and good medical practice. Winter is al- ways a trying time, for those who are nat in rugged physical health. Many men, women and children go through the winter on_ reserve stremgth they have stored up during the sunny, summer months, and grow increas- ingly pale and languid as the vpring days approach. A tonic for the blood and nerves at this time will do much for such people, by putting color in the cheeks and banighing that tired feeling that worries thousands of people at this season of the year. It is impossible to be energetic if your blood is thin and weak, or if your nerves are frayed or shattered. You cannot compete with others if you do mot get refreshing sleep at night, or if your appetite is poor or you are losing weight. You need a tonic at this time to add to your ef- ficiency now, as well as to save you from suffering later on. And in all the realm of medicine, there is no safer or better tonic than Dr. Wil Hams Pink Pills. These pilis tone A and enrich the blood which ecircu- lates through every portion of the body, strengthening jaded nerves and run Jdewn organs, and bringing ® feeling of new strength and energy to weak, tired, dexponder® men women and children. HAD 6 BvERdY. Another of the thousands who have found benefit through the timely use of Dr. Williams Pink Pills is Mrs. T. Flynn; R. R. No. 1, Erinville, Ont, who says: "Last spring I got into a badly run down condition. I had ne energy, work left me exhausted and the least exertion would make my heart palpitate violently, 1 had of- ten read of Dr. Williams Pink Pills and decided to give them a trial and. got a half dozen boxes. 1 had not SPRING . ANAD TO BADLY RUN DOWN. Mrs. J. N. McNeil, Glace Bay, N.8., says: "For years past my home has never been without Dr. Williams Pink Pills, and I have good reason to praise them highly, Following an attack of la grippe, I was left in a badly run down condition. I had no appetite and feliwso weak I could scarcely go about Yhe house. 1 was taking medicine, but it was not help- ing me, and a friend advised me to try Dr. Williams Pink Pills. 1 used them for a time with the most bene- ficial results. ~ My appetite improved, my strength returned and I was soon able to do all my housework. I now use the pills every spring and find them a splendid strength bringing tonic. .I have recommended the pills to other friends who have used them with good results. NEVER FELT 80 WELL. ' Miss Beatrice Bishop, Fendale, N. B., says: "I have never felt so well as 1 do since taking Dr. Willlams Pink Pills. When | began their use 1 was very much run down. I had no color, no appetite, could not go up stairs without stopping to rest on the way. I had frequent headaches and # feeling of despond I took nk Pills regularly for-about eight weeks and while I felt a benefit from them almost from the first, at \ie end of that time | was in better health than [ had ever enjoyed before. I tréely give yoy permission to publish this letter as My experience may be the means of pointing the way to néw health to some other weak and run down girl." . BILIOUS HEADACHES GONE. . Mr. D. C. McClure, Heffley Creek, B. C., says: "As a spring tonic | know of nothing else that can equal Dr. Williams Pink Pills. Last sprifg 1 felt weak and run down and suffered. a great deal from bilious headaches. | got a half dozen boxes of Dr. Wil- Hams Pink Pills, and after taking them I felt like a new man. The Jassitude from which suffered had disappeared. 1 had a better appetite, and was in every way stronger and better than before I began the use, ¥ this medicine. Almost everyone ® EFFICIENCY Foundation of Good Up Your Blood and Strengthening Health Now needs a tonic in the spring, and fo? this purpose I can strongly advise Dr. Williams Pink Pills." PALE, WEAR GIRLS hen your daughter's strength fails and pallor, breathlessne and backache disclose her anaemic' condi- tion, remember that you can make her well and assure her healthy de- velopment by giving her Dr. Wil- llams Pink Pills to make good red blood. Remember, too, that.for wo- men of all ages Dr. Willlams Pink Pills are especially helpful in the many ailments that result from wa- tery blood. They make women and sir wei and geep them well. This is ply provéd by the cage of Miss Eva McKinnon, Glammis, Onty who says:--"'As a school girl I grew very pale and would take dizzy spells and sometimes vomiting. My condition was such that I was not able to at- tend school regularly, and my mo- ther was very much worried about my condition. Finally she decided to give ine Dy, Williams Plik Pills, and I took these for a considerable time, gradually gaining strength, until [I was parfectly well, It is some years since I took these pills and | have: since enjoyed the best of health and 1 am certain pale, sickly girls will find new health if they give Dr. Yil- Hams Pink Pills a fair trie)" ~~ HAS A BETTFR APPETITE. Mrs. M. D:-Mmcleod, Caledonia, P. E. E, says: "I have used Dr. Wil liams Pink Pills as a spring medicine with satisfactory results. Before I be- gan their use I was subject to weak spells, but these have now disappear- ed. 1 find that my appetite Is better, "and 1 have every confidence in your pills as 4 blood purifigr." A MEDICINE WORTH TRYING. Dr. Williams Pink Pills are a tonie, not a stimulast." They build up the blood, and through their use not only the disastrous after effects of influ- enza but also troubles due to poor blood, such as ansemia, rheumatism, ' indigestion and the generally worn- out feeling that affects so many pep- ple, disappear. You can get these pills through any desler in medicine, | or by mail at 50 cents a box or six boxes for $2.50, from The Dr. Wil-| Lams Medicine Co. Brockville, Oat ]