Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1881-12-23
Concerning the Care Of Children.


1 was visitor at Il house short time
ago where one of the members of the
family, little girl of four or five years,
was the object of much solicitude by her
parents She was q bright and pretty
child, but had suffered from attacks of
+" fits'' or "spasms.n The immediate
guardians of the child seemed to be in
telligent, sensible people, and l was
amazed, while at dinner, to see the little
girl served the same as an adult, with
rich and hearty food, including even
chow-chow, apple pie and coffee! 1t
was no wonder the poor little creature
had Z" fits" or whatever the nervous
malady may have been that was so
designated. The ignorance displayed in
the diet OF the child was too utterly
abominable to be excused, and was
scarcely able to hold my tongue from
crying out against it. But l eased my
conscience in answering the question
how managed to give my little boy his
look of superb health by emphasizing the
fact that he had never so much as tasted
coffee, or apple pie, or chow-chow, or
various other things commonly allowed
to children.
The other day an acquaintance COM
planned to me OF the dainty appetite of
her children, of their leanness, their pro-
pensity to be "forever on the stretch"
their total disinclination to take suffi-
cient sleep and rest. The children were
often guests at my house, and knew
that the most delicate one of them all had
never been trained to drink pure milk.
The stuff she daily drank was mixture
OF warm water, milk and sugar. All the
children ate candy, cakes, fine crackers,
and were put to bed much later at night
than they should have been. To my
mind there was nothing surprising in the
fact that good appetite was stranger
to her little ones, or that they were lean
and unduly active. E
Another mother declares that her
children always have "colds'' from Oc-
tober until June. She dresses them
daintily, in apparel both fine and costly,
in sealskin coats, muffs, tippets and
things of such ilk. Their frocks are
worn very short, their drawers are of
finest cambria, and their only "under
tiannel'' consists of fine and dainty
knitted shirt, so that while the upper
portion of the body is well protected and
over protected in sealskin garment,
the lower part is very shabbily clothed
SO far as warmth goes. The cold sour
ries up the poorly clad legs, which the
short etticoats-handsomel embroid-
ered-fail to protect. With the clothing
of the body so unevenly distributed, IS
it any wonder that the children always
have colds? a good woolen undergar-
ment, cut to fit the body, arms, legs and
all, and worn next to the skin, would dc
more for the welfare of her children than
all the sealskin coats, feathercd hats and
ornamented toggery in the universe,
Tkere is something atrocious in sacrific'
ing a child's health to tinery, or in being
so ignorant and careless as not to know
that it is being SO sacrificed.
Every nine men out of ten that have
achieved distinction in this country wert
in childhood Injured to plain food ant
clad in cheap, often mean, apparel. No
body looks for great men or great WON
en- from the homes of wealth where lux
ury abounds A certain amount of hard
ship seems Indispensable to the develop
ment of character.
What is it to us, who are grown tt
womanhood or manhood, that we wor,
broadcloth, or "linsey," or silk, EN-
broidered or patched garments in ou
childhood, calico or India null, whethe
we had ribbons, or laces, OF sashes, o
ruiilcs, or tinery of any sortP It is o
, not the smallest real consequence. Wha
is of real consequence, however, is tina
, we had plain, nutritious food SO tina
our bones and our teeth were properl.
supplied with building material, tina
| hna thf,,lixr nj, hot
, taught to breathe well, to chew our foo
,, well, to sit and walk erect, to be truth
full, honest, clean, industrious, earnest
to read only good books, to take excel
, lent care OF our teeth, and-to speak goo
English.
II parents could only discern betwee
important and unimportant things, an
hold to the former and discard the lat
ter, how immeasurably the welfare {
the race would be advanced But the
waste and worry themselves over trile,
especially the mothers, who will sit u
o nights and prick their fingers sol
over some foolish bit of linery-and PEI
y. haps weep and sigh and be very unhaI
py because their little boys or girls can
have hats and frocks like certain otht
= = children. Oh me, how foolish! {
= have money for u "start in life." Ho
! much money had Garfield or Lincoll
u u or Edison, or Howe, the inventor of th
sewing machine, or Stephenson, or Flu
" ton, or Christopher Columbus, or A.
J Stewart, or Vanderbilt, or Harri
Beecher Stowe, or John Bunyan, F,
General Grant, st. Paul, or Michael Al
cello with which TO make 'start /
Q lifep" The best wealth to make ''sta
9 in life" on, for man OF woman, is goo,
strong body, good principles, goo
character and Industrious habits. Pc
= severance is genius. energy is talent, an
industry and economy united with ten,
to-your-own-business mean competenc
" Mary Wager-Fisher. in Rural Ne
Yorker.
d --R. G. Kedzie has lately commur
Gated to the public the result Of nur
ber Of careful experiments in regard
% the comparative value of partly rip
Just ripe and dead ripe wheat, based {
l. two varieties of hard wheat. Boz
kinds showed the dead ripe wheat 10
least nutritious, the food properties ha