The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-02-09
HOW A MAN TAKES CARE OF HIS
BABY,

In spite of all the statements to the
contrary, there are men who help to
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 a
great deal and actually do. Yeti can
not be denied that their opinion con-
corning the value of their services and
their wives opinion on the same sub
ject do noteXactly coincide. One of these
good husbands will help dress the chill
dren 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 children
ready for church; that is, he buttons up
Dicks boots and helps Jenny put on her
gloves after he has leisurely and COM
fortably dressed himself, while his wife
ties sashes, and hunts up odd gloves,
and puts on collars, and curls one child s
hair and washes another's hands, and
in the intervals "does up" her own
hair, and saves the baby from the razor,
and Jenny's best bonnet from the baby.
He stands patiently CD in the hall as
the bells begin to toll and mildly calls:
cit is getting late, Maria" Which fact
Maria knows as well as he does, for her
hands are trembling so with nervous
ness and haste that she can hardly put
a single pin in its right place. just as
the last strokes of the bell are sounding
they hurry off to church, losing entirely
the calming influence which comes from
a leisurely walk on fine Sunday morn
ing. He takes the opportunity to re-
mark, with just a shade of reproof in
his gentle tones: Il can't understand
why it takes you so long to get ready
1t 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 lobster
which, OF course, is very soothing to
Maria's irritated nerves.
The father cares for the baby at night
in 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
40 drinks of water" Cor 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-anphibious 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 instantly miss her presence
and be ten times wider awake than
ever, and all the hours singing and
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 de-
clares 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 pillow again; "What makes the
baby so uneasy tonight" He mani
tests strange Indifference 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 longer. But at breakfast, with
what calm complacency does he speak