National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-04-09
Watching THE BABY.


wns before mounted cradles and baby-jumpers
and nursery-maids were brought into general
use. The playthings were cheap If not home
made, and were exceedingly primitive In their
construction. A cigar-box, mounted on spools
and drawn with string, served as carriage,
and the doll drawn in It was made Of rags and
dressed in calico. There was jumping jack Of
card board, which furnished endless entertain
ment, and clam-shells that made the incest tea
cups, and top, and q whistle that grandpa made
out of poplar stick, and score of blocks picked
up in the carpenters shop. Baby watched the
building with eager interest, crowed when It was
finished, and knocked 1t down with his foot in
infinite glee. The peck measure was seat for
him to sit on, or q little world for him to put in
disorder and upset when the within struck him, or
car for him to get In. The broom-handle was
an unfailing horse that always came to time.
Grandma's ball of yarn was always in order, and
when other sources failed there was the cats
tail, the pulling of which invariably produced
music if it did not precipitate catastrophe.
Sometimes a drawer got open and baby reVeled in
its contents, and sometimes the button-bag was
mine OF treasures. There was endless fun in
getting the little toddling, tumblDg fellow up on
his feet for trot and tin pan with an iron spoon
and handful OF beans was a sort of paradise and
furnished delight for q millennium. Baby grew
and made fun enough for the whole household to
pay for his care ten times over.
That way of tending the baby is now obsolete.
The hall floor has been carpeted. The primitive
playthings have been burned to make room for a
bushcl or two Of toys. A hired servant, who cares
only for her pay and carries q dime novel in her
pocket to read by STEALTH watches the little fel-
low in an Indifferent way, pushes the toys up to
him now and then, stufis him when he cries, and
when he cries from the stufing doses him from
the bottle she carries In her pocket. She cannot
play herself. All the play has gone out of her.
She does not quito see what babies are born for.
She looks on them all as trials Of patience, and
as sure to bring out the bad temper in one as a
mustard poultice to raise blister. The dear
little fellow" is the plague of her life, and the
only comfort she has is when she has administered
paregorc enough to make him sleep beyond the
danger Of waking while she chaffs with the
grocer's boy, or carries an incipient Irritation
with young sprig Of o gardener. Baby grows
sickly and irritable and peeYish. He is exacting
of attention, and unable to amuse himself His
manners are too demonstratiye for the dining
room, and his temper TOO bad for the parlor. He
has bad nights. The old people look serious, and
say: "He won't be raised" and even mamma
thinks something is really the matter with her
cherub, and wonders whether soothing syrup or
the doctor will best meet his case.
At any ratio something must be done right
away as she has got new suit OF clothes for the
little fellow showing his sweet little white knees
and must trot him out so the nelghbors can see
what beautiful eyes and hair he has, and how the
blue jacket with silk trimmings becomes his COM
plexion. And baby endures IL all, runs tho gaunt-
let escapes from his enemies, and finally survives
even his school teachers, with the endless cram
ming, and appears with faultless swallow-tail
end irreproachable kids on his way somewhere.
Some babies are terribly tough. You can no
more kill them than you can give dyspepsia to an
indIa-rubber doll. But for every gutta-percha
baby that is proof against nurses and doses and
parental folly there are q dozen real flesh and
blood creatures who cannot stand such treatment
and fall by the way. They make beautiful fune-
rails; but If there were an honest inquest held in
nine cases out Of ten the verdict would be, "Died
Of bad tending" Then this sort OF care never
trains children to amuse themselves. They have
9 surfsit of toys, but are not taught how to get
amusement out Of them. The modern baby with
houseful of playthings has very little Of the real
rollicking pleasure and fun that the boys and
girls used to get out of single toys quarter Of
century ago. The trouble is not In the toys, but
in the tending. Then il was real; now It is make
believe. Then It eaticed by sympathy; now It
repels by want Of 1t. Then It trained to selfcare
now It develops dependence and creates desire
to be amused and cared for by others. Then 1t
unsealed fountain Of joy in the heart; now It
ehokes the inward spring and breaks down vital
ity 4! not constitution. Babies are very good
things in house where they are wanted and
rightly cared for.