"Mary Washington quarrelled with her son so that when he wished to minister to her comfort in her old age he was forced to do so through some third party. These things she accepted as her due, showing a grim half-comic ingratitude that was very fine." "Washington's mother scolded and grumbled to the day of her death--seeking solace only by smoking a pipe." Could this monstrous woman have held an honored place in a social circle of stately, courteous, cultured people? Why assert such things which completely offset an oft-repeated concession that "all the sterling, classic virtues of industry, frugality and truth-telling were inculcated by this excellent mother(!) and her strong common sense made its indelible impress upon the mind of her son." She has also suffered much at the hands of her own countrywomen! We must remember she never appeared in the full blaze of public scrutiny until she was over seventy years old, and then, impoverished by a long war with an _entourage_ the most discouraging and painful. Women then found her parsimonious, ungraceful in dress and manner, sour in temper! Pray what have we, my fastidious sisters, done for our country in our day and generation? Compare our privileges and opportunities with hers! The wealth, the light, the leisure of a happy era, are ours, and yet not enough can this affluent country afford for our adornment, our culture and pleasure. We can--and do--traverse the earth, flitting from land to land as the seasons change, becoming acquainted, if it so please us, with the cloistered wisdom of libraries, the color and beauty of palaces, the priceless treasures of art centres, able to enrich our minds with all the whole world has to offer, from ancient days to this, and with the possible contact of brilliant minds at home and abroad. Show me the result! Something, I grant you, is gained in personal charm, much, alas! in accentuating the natural heart-break from which the less fortunate suffer in witnessing the undeserved contrasts and inequalities of life. Surely it is not for American women of this day--sheltered, treasured, adored--to complain that industry, simplicity in living, ungraceful dress and manner, mar the portrait of a noble woman whose lot was cast in a narrow and thorny path, whose life was necessarily a denied one, and yet who accomplished more for her country than any other woman ever did or ever can do!