Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1860-09-20
Original SkettB>
For the Yorkville Enquirer.
BABIES.

Soft, soft, hold your Dreatn while make
a confessional lone babies Do you not
love them, dear reader? Certainly you do ;
why, what foolish question Everybody
that is, every one that is anybody, loves
the darling little creatures Even the glad
hearted child of six or seven summers in
whom you recognize the embryo lady, has
her waxen or alabaster babies, and loves
them too. Therefore, methinks, it is not
very pretty to see an elderly, digui6ed lady
"a tidy mamma, tinctured with q little too
much nicely, or selfcoDceited papa, CON-
plain in harsh terms Of the noise of "that
fretting cbild"-complaiu without ever
thinking that they have the moulding of its
mind, heart and manners, and can make it
either peevish or good Datured.
Now, I entertain no very exalted opinion
of such puerile specimens of the masculine
gender, nor do claim any affinity for those
of the gentler sex, denomiuated fashionable
ladies, who hustle their babies off to the
nursery and keep them there immured, leav.
ing them entirely to the tender mercy of
stronger hands, because they cannot spare
the time to look after the little darliugs !;
yet, mirabile dictu! they who cannot spare
a minute to baby, have an immense quau-
tity of time to while away in the reading OF
a love.sick novel, the trying of new dress,
or the "latest style bonnet, fresh from Par
Isl" and if ball or opera be just mentioned,
they are always on hand.
Displeasng as it is in parents, how much
more so is it-indeed, how truly disgust
ing it is-to see disconsolate old maids and
wretched old bachelors who have not even
the remotest idea of the thin, shadowy pros.
pect of ghost of chance to become any
thing else, with their usual degree of spite
fulness, turn up their sancti6ed noses in
horri6ed disgust, and exclaim in tones Of
irritated repugnance "what noisy child !"
or "my gracious what spoiled good-for
nothing, peevish brat, to be squalling SO I"
and with wonderful complacency add "E
hate children-I always did," And all
this, just because the dear little innocent
cannot talk to tell its wants-caunot tell
that it desires some object beyond the reach
of its tiny arms that it is famishing for
cooling drink of water; that cruel pin has
pierced its tender flesh, or that it is rough.
ly handled Gas is not unfrequently the case)
by careless, self-opiniouated, self-enjoying
nurse-that it cannot speak to tell this, but
can only inform you of its wants and its
suferiugs, by lifting its soft and gentle voice
in pleading, supplicating cries and walls.
Well, 1 will cheerfully run the risk of
arousing the virtuous indignation Of all
such antiquarian spinsters and bachelors,
delicate mammals and over particular papas,
by frankly, candidly and emphatically say.
ing that / love, foudly, passionately love,
the dear guileless, sinless cherubs-yes, that
love every one Of the bright-eyed darlings
And parent, or guardian, deem me not i'm
pertinent; or, vice uersa, if you please, but
would not have them kept as show babies,
fresh from band-box all the time, neither
as senseless, soulless dolls, nor yet as hot
house plants, but let them, say, ruff it in
the fresh, free air, which the God of Nature
has given to refresh and invigorate the hu-
man frame. aEs~
Fretting, peevish babies-pshaw ! You,
who would have children cold as stone, had