Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-09-10
la,lcastel fntelliqellrer.
SATURDAY EVENING. SEPT. 10, 1881.
Baby Talk.

Baby Talk.
Mr.. X. }. Eurde:te in Burlington Hawkeye.
Well, times flies, the summer is almost
over, the mackerel have co ne up the bay
and are biting like poison, the ferns are
growing old, and the boy is learning to
talk SO that other people can understand
him.
If you would let me have him about
one month";" said that plcasant-voiced and
pleasant-faced school mistress who came
down here from up the river last week,
could break him Of that careless habit
Of speaking"
just because the boy had asked his stern
dark -browcd father
"Poppuls, whurs is mines fiffin pole you
peakin' mama um day ?"
Which By Interpretation is, as the pleas
ant voiced school mistress would have
taught him to say it:
Father, where is my fishing rod Of
which you were speaking to my mother,
with reference to purchasing it for me at
some time in the indefinite future 81
And her little serene highness shook her
head and said no he was losing his baby
talk, and learning to speak English too
rapidly as it was. The pleasant face of
the school mistress wrinkled up into an
interrogation point.
"SchOol Mistress" the Jester said, son
all matters of education yonr shapely head
is not hilly it is as level as new mown
lawn. But you don't want to teach the
baby grammar, and you don't want him to
speak good English. You want him to he
a baby and you want to encourage him to
indulge in baby talk. In the years to
come, when the pudgy little fists will dig
great tears out Of the blue eyes because
they can't remember i'm just what points
there should and must he exact harmony
between the verb and the subject :; when
he is confident that he will die before he
can remember how many fellows beside
'ad, ante, con, in or inter, are followed by
the accusative when he knows the
world will stand still for just two hours
after schoO! if he can't recall that all
terminations in something or other
take the what You may call it after
some kind of things q; when he is SO trust
ing and has So mich confidence in Mr..
Davies that he is; not only willing but
anxious to accept his statement that the
sum of the three angles of a triangle is
equal to two right angels, without going
to tho board to prove his truthfulncss by
demonstration along in those days the
memory OF his baby talk will come back
to us like sweet music. lie will have
trouble enough with the English language
and all the appurtenanccs thercunto ap-
pertaining by and by. No." he re-
spondcd in answer to 4 silent inquiry of
the pleasant faced school mistress, "he
does not know his alphabet, thank Heaven,
and he shall not bc bothered with it, Yes
1,o1 hoe ,l,,l, n},,tl l,l1.k and knnuS oil tho
pictures on them and many prcpostcrous
stories about the pictures. Oh, yes, he can
count hear him now counting the pebbles
he has brought from the beach ono, free,
seven, free. seven, ten, free, five, seven,
free certainly nc can count, by a system
of his own to-. which is more than most
people have. Don't make 4 prig Of the
baby, school mistress. From the day Oh
which they are six years old they must.
under the school system of the states. be-
gin to study, and sit up straight, and be-
have properly aud speak correctly, and
from that time until the grave hides them
they live aHd speak and act-vcrbally
speaking, they be, and do and suffer
under social and educational surveillance.
And L claim that ut least six years of the
life of man and woman should be free :;
free rs the air free to talk us the brook
runs, with untrammclcd musical prattlc
and babblc. Why here, few weeks ago.
came a melancholy looking child, about
four years old, and, in my presence and
hearing, pointed to me and said to his
mother
''' Mama, Of whom is that gentleman
speaking -
"Poor Iittls pig! My heart bled for
him. That afternoon | took that boy
down by the &; rgct and tau;s him to say,
Ma'am, what is dat man speakin' you
about?' and reconstruct his general gram
mar on the same easy basis, and-look me
in the cyc-if that boy didn't tan up like a
young Indian in two days, and he gained
seven pounds in three weeks.
"You sce,' the Jester concluded in all
apologetic tone, for he had Gonc an un-
usual amount Of preaching that day, ''you
see, We haven't very broad experience in
training children we have only one chick
to cluck over and scratch Tor, but we're
bound he shan't go to school until he's
through being a baby. and we know,
school mistress, that he's the happiest
baby that ever mangled grammar