River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1877-07-26
Possible Danger.

) Ii is perfectly amazing to see the care
/ Iessness with which children are trusted
/ to Indifferent nurses, or to no nurses at ALL
in the public streets and squares, as il
they tsere really things of no Conse-
/ duence, or ruisances of which one could
have good radiance, instead of being
really the apple of the eye to whole fam
/ lilies.
One would think that the fate of the
lost child, whose disappearance has been
anxiously sympathized with by almost
! every family in Christendom, would be q
warning to every parent in the land, and
especially to all wealthy parents, to sur
round their darlings with every barrier of
safety; but, on the contrary, it seems to
have made but very little serious impress
sion, children still being frequently
trusted to themselves with a mysterious
faith in Providence.
Those parents who are poor in this
worlds goods, as the saying goes. run
very little risk of this nature, as it is but
rarely that the attempt is made to steal
child simply to use it in the work of beg
gary, and their children may usually play
about the door and in the parks and
squares with impunity. But let a father
be VIGOROUSLY wealthy man, it is ten to
one but desperate characters in desperate
need have him more or less in mind; and
if he is able to pay good ransom for re-
covery, he is very unwise to run the risk
of being Obliged to do it, or of giving the
rascals a chance to try whether he will or
no.
We have seen parents whose wealth
was counted by the million send their lit
tie bevy of babies out to play in the
square alone, or perhaps with only one of
the nurses, and she very likely with a
novel to fill the gaps of her Irritation with
the roundsman, when, in view of the OPP
portunities afforded, it seemed to us q
question whether they ever saw the whole
number again or not.
We have only to consider the reckless
lives of such black-hearted men as those
supposed to be implicated in the great
outrage Of this sort which has made the
hearts OF so many mothers the world
over beat with pity and fear, to see the
possibilities, if not the probabilities, of a
repetition of the outrage wherever it can
be made profitable, and to feel the necess-
ity of every precautiOn that can be taken.
We do not mean, of course, that the
children of cities and their neighborhood
are thus to be refused their out door life
and sports, but only that they are not to
be unobserved during any moment of it,
and that nurses arc TO be fully impressed
with the responsibilities Of their position,
and be shown all the horror resulting
from unfaithfulness or negligence, not
merely in that of the loss of the child's
fate among the ruffians. the effect of the
degradingi influences upon its own
nature, and the terrible uncertainty al /
ways to hang over the family thenceforth
as long as they live
One is often obliged to wonder why the .
mothers of children have them so little /
with them in public; why it has become /
almost a matter of caste to send a child {
out with nurse, and so seldom to go out +
with it ones self Ii is only the mothers T
among the poor who can not have their
children always with them. One would
think il would be luxury IN which the
mothers among the rich might be glad to
indulge themselves. Certainly, as a
merely ornamental luxury, they might
allow it, for there is no sight so attractive
not even that of a young and lovely
single woman, with her damask cheeks
and glowing eyes-as that of a mother
with her flock of rosy cherubs about her;
and the greatest ornament that any plea
sure carriage can have, II is admit
ted, is group of children, or even one
gayly dressad little darling, on one Of
the seats, for the bright colors, dimples.
floating locks, sweet voices, and general
sense of accompanying innocence and
make the thing lovely as
f the carriage were oyerflowing with
lowers.
Still, even the idlest Of mothers has
social duties in which she viii be Obliged
20 absent herself from her children; and
heir stout little legs can do an amount
f running and endure ap amount Of |