WILLIAM K£ITH BROOKS — CON KLIN 



beautiful estate to her favorite niece, Mrs. Brooks. Here 

 Doctor Brooks and his family lived a happy life, with 

 books, greenhouse, garden, and trees; and here Doctor and 

 Mrs. Brooks entertained repeatedly the graduate students of 

 the biological department. All of these students remember 

 Doctor Brooks' devotion to Mrs. Brooks and the children. His 

 interest in the education of his children and his pride in their 

 achievements were so great that he not infrequently spoke of 

 these things to his students, and his complete devotion to Mrs. 

 Brooks was both touching and beautiful. For several years 

 before her death Mrs. Brooks was an invalid, and Professor 

 Brooks frequently spent days and nights at her bedside reading 

 to her and attempting to ease her suffering, and no other work 

 or duty was allowed to interfere with this service of love. 

 Mrs. Brooks was a woman of simple and charming personal- 

 ity, and one of the most delightful memories which zoological 

 students have of their life in Baltimore is of the pleasant even- 

 ings spent with Professor and Mrs. Brooks at their home, when 

 biological classics were read and discussed, when the various 

 biological expeditions were talked of, and in lighter vein, when 

 the sayings of the children were told, the animal pets shown,, 

 and the home-grown orchids exhibited. No one who expe- 

 rienced it can ever forget the simple and cordial hospitality of 

 Professor and Mrs. Brooks, nor the sense of deep and abiding 

 happiness which these glimpses of their home life gave. 



Professor Brooks was a man of wide culture, though his 

 absorption in his work was so great that many knew him only 

 as a naturalist. He read widely, and wrote with much atten- 

 tion to his style. He knew well the world's best literature and 

 art, and in his later years he found that he had a strong liking 

 for music, especially the great compositions of Beethoven, 

 Mozart, Wagner, and Bach. 



One of his strongest characteristics was his judicial and 

 philosophical temper. When he was once asked if he did not 

 fear that someone would anticipate him in his great work on 

 Salpa, on which he had worked for many years, he said: "I 

 long since ceased to be troubled by such thoughts, for if an- 

 other should publish on this or any other subject before I do, 

 his work would probably be better or worse than mine. If it 



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