The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-23 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STAN

148

sufficient to repel and disgust any true womanly
mind, no matter in what station of life the woman
may move. He addresses himself to the question
as one of humanity, and because he deems it to
be a case in which police interference should take
place. The greediness of gain has sometimes to
be met rather promptly ; and here is a very proper
occasion for helping the helpless.
Of the nature of the passions excited by these
shows, of the treatment to which the unhappy
babies are exposed, and of the general character
of the scene, an idea may be formed from the
following account of the proceedings at the
Withernsea show.

After describing the crowd and the confusion
which prefaced the examination of the candidates,
the reporter says—

At half-past three the judges entered the building, and
the previous quiet of the scene was changed into bustle and
excitement. Nurses and mothers, with babies in their
arms, fought their way through the crowd, and blushed
not beneath the fire of jokes. How all were safely settled
without accident we know not. Those who know what it
is to carry a child through a crowd may appreciate the
scene. Ultimately the competitors, on the laps of their
mothers and nurses, were arranged all found, and in the
centre of the building.
That such mothers and such nurses should not
"blush" beneath " the fire" of such " jokes" as
were likely to be launched on the occasion, we
can well believe—those who did not blush to be
there at all had little to fear for their modesty.
The " judges" proceeded to their examination,
and during this,

Great noise and confusion prevailed,
.and attempts were
frequently made to force open the front door. At about 5
o'clock the anxious duties of the judges were completed,
and the children were placed in the orchestra, just in time,
as the door was then forced open, the impatient crowd
rushed in, and all order was at an end.

The bones and the fat and the weight, of the
poor little creatures having been duly tested, the
decision as to the quarter in which Providence
had acted most kindly (the profanity of the affair
being another of its amiable features) had to be
announced.

Then the uproar reached its height. The time for sweet
simpering to the.judges was past. Tender mothers expanded
into viragoes, frantic protestations arose on all sides ;
unsuccessful babies were held screaming up at arm's
length by the excited parents, and a jury was demanded.
The uproar, however, became so intense that the promoter
of the display, after handing over the prizes to the parents
of the successful competitors, left Hull without delay, fear-
ing that any longer stay might perchance prove personally
disagreeable.

('We heartily wish that the " frantic" women
had finished the display by dragging the fellow
through the foulest horse-pond in the neighbour-
hood, hut this par parenthese.) Such is the
treatment to which the babies are exposed—a hot
crowd, a frightful noise and riot, and personal ill-
treatment. These are the boons proffered to
babies by baby-shows.
A great outcry, with great justice, was made
when it was alleged that the humbler classes were
in the habit of enrolling their infants in burial
societies, with the frightful desire to profit by
their deaths. This was a foul libel upon the
mothers of England. But there was some ground
for the charge—the practice, with the alleged
object, was not—is not—unknown, comparatively
small as is its extent. And if we had to investi-
gate the subject of burial societies, we should try
to obtain a list of the women who join in baby-
shows. The mother who would pocket money
from the degrading exhibition of her infant's
limbs and proportions might possibly find conso-
lation for its loss in the money obtained at its
death. But with such women Mr. Punch can
hold no argument—the person to argue with them
is the policeman.—Punch.