The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1878-01-31
T HOW A MAN TAKES CARE OF HIS
B RY.

In spite of all the statements to the
contrary, there are men who help take
care of their children. They are the
kindest and best husbands in the world.
They do not wish to see their wives
overburdened with care and worry, and
they intend to help them great deal,
and actually do. Yet it cannot be de-
MED that their opinion concerning the
value of their services and their wives
opinion on the same subject do not ex.
actly coincide. One of these good hus-
bands will help dress the children for
breakfast, and speak of it with a
grandly virtuous air, while the fact is
that he only washed the face of one
while his wife washed and dressed the
other three. He helps get the chill
dren ready for church; that is, he but
tons up Dicks boots, and helps Jenny
put on her gloves after he has leisurely
and comfortably dressed himself, while
his wife ties sashes, and hunts up odd
gloves, and puts on collars, and curs
one child's hair, and washes another S
hands, and in the interval .does up
her own hair, and saves the baby from
the razor, and Jenny's best bonnet
from the baby. He stands patientlv( p
in the hall as the bells begin to toll,
and mildly calls. 1t is getting late,
Maria" Which fact Maria knows as
well as he does, for her hands are trem-
bling SO with nervousness and haste
that she can hardly put IA single pin in
its right place. just us the last strokes
of the bell are sounding, they hurry off
to church, losing entirely the calming
influence which comes from leisurely
walk on a fine Sunday morning. He
takes the opportunity TO remark, with
just shade of gentle reproof in his
gentle tones, II can't understand why
it takes you so long to get ready Ii
really does seem as if with as much as
l DO to help you, we need not be
obliged to hurry so at the last minute.
| don't like to see you go up the aisle
with your face as red as a LOBSTER
which, of course, is very soothing to
Maria's irritated nerves.
The father cares for the baby at night
Ill very much the same fashion. The
mother has lifted the child into her
own bed, and back into its cradle
again, in the vain hope that in one
place or the other he will go to sleep,
has brought drinks of water for
him. rocked the cradle and sung to its
uneasy occupant softly and sleepily for
an hour, till finally she thinks that if
she is to be in this semi-a,aphibious
state, half out of bed and half in, the
air from the open window is too cool
for her. She knows if she tries to
shut it herself the little tyrant will in
stantly miss her presence and be ten
times wider awake than ever, and all
the hours singing ard rocking will be
labor lost. So. with much regret, she
softly asks John to get up and close
the window He has lain remarkably
still and breathed rather heavily, and
is somewhat difficult to arouse for a
man who afterward declares he was
wide awake all the time. But like the
good husband he is, he cheerfully closes
the window, and gets an extra blanket
for the baby, and pleasantly asks, as
he settles down into the pillows again,
What makes the baby so uneasy to-
night?" He manifests a, strange indif-
ference to his wife's reply. and in fact
nothing more is heard from him till
morning, while his wife sleepily and
painfully works away for an hour lon
ger. But at breakfast, with what calm
complacency does he speak of the
trouble the baby made us last night,
with an .us'' fairly editorial in its
comprehensiveness. The next night
he goes into a room by himself to sleep.
He "can't stand it to have his rest
broken SOL but adds. generously, IN
take care of him the next night And
so he does till about twelve o'clock,
when the baby wakes and cries. For
ten minutes he tries faithfully to get him
to sleep again, and then ignominiously
retreats and calls for mamma"
But it is in travelling on hot sum-
mers day, with year-old baby, that
the husbands virtues shine brightest.
Mamma is tired and needs rest. They
are going to spend a week with some
friends days journey in the country.
She is half-inclined to leave the baby at
home. Her mother will ..come over
and look after him. and ..it's only for a
few days, after all'' But he says, de-
cidedly, "Oh! no, take him by all
means. Our cousins will all want to
see him, and he is such good little
fellow. I'll help you to take care of
him on the way. and there will always
be somebody there who will want to
amuse him.
She, being young and inexperienced,
has not yet learned that nobody ever
takes care OF baby to any extent, so
long as its mother is near, for both
mother and baby have notions of their
own as to what taking care Of means.
Beside, she has mothers instructive
desire to keep her child with her, and
so says no more about it.
Then comes the usual ordeal of .pet-
ting ready on which her husband
makes the criticisms customary to men.
who cannot understand why women do
not find clean pocket-handkerchief
and an extra collar sufficient additional
wardrobe for week as they do. How
ever. at last they are ready to start.
There is the large traveling-bag, with
all sorts of mysterious appurtenances
for the bahy's toilet. the little travelling
bag with the lunch, and some crackers
and silver cup for the badly, the
shawl-strap bundle enormously swollen
by small pillow, also for the
baby, for .'he might go to sleep
in the cars, you know (Alas, how
the best laid schemes o. mice and
mothers gang aft a-gleyD And lastly
the baby, the largest and liveliest bum
die of ALL