The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1881-10-07
Baby Talk.

Well, time flies, the summer is almost
over, the mackerel have come up to the
bay and are biting like poison, the ferns
are growing old, and the boy is Learning
to talk 80 that other people can under
stand him.
"If you would let me have him about
one month, said the pleasant-voiced and
pleasant. faced school mistress who came
down here from up the river last week,
81 could break him of that careless habit
of speaking"
Just because the boy had asked his
stern, dark browed father
'Poppuls, whurs is mines fitlin pole
you peakin mama um day?"
Which by Interpretation is, as the
pleasant 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?"
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 your head is not
hilly; it is as level as new mown lawn.
But you don't want to teach baby gram
mar and you don't want him to speak
good English. You want him to be 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 III just what points
there should and must be exact harmon,
between the verb and the subject; wher
he is confident that he will die before h,
can remember how many fellows besid,
'ad, ante, con, in or inter- are followe,
by the accusatve; when he knows tn,
world will stand still for just two hour
after school if he cant recall that all ter
limitations in something or other, TAX
the what you may call it after some kin,
of things; when he is so trusting and ha
80 much confidence in Mr.. Davies tina
he is not only willing but anxious to aC
cept his statement that the sum of tn
three angles of triangle is equal to tw
right angles, without going to the boar
to prove his truthfulness by demonstrG
tion along in those days the memory G
his baby talk will come back to us lik
sweet music, He will have troubl
enough with the English language an
all the appurtenances thereunto appe
tanning by and by. No" he responde
Q in answer to silent inquiry of til
pleasant-taced school mistress, she doe
not know his alphabet, thank Heavcl
and ho shall not be bothered with i
Ics, he has alphabet blocks and know
all the pictures on them and many pr
posterous stories about the pictures. OI
q yGs, no can count; hear him now coun
ing the pebbles he has brought from Il
,. beach: one, free, seven, free, seven, te
free. five, seven free; certainly he ca
count, by system of his own, too,whiC
IL more than most people have. Dor
make prig of the baby, school mistres
From the day on which they are $
| years old they must, under the scho
system of the states, begin to study al
sit up straight, and behave properly al
"a speak correctly, and from that time u
til the grave hides them they live al
O speak and act-verbally speaking, tn
ID be and do and suffer-under social al
educational surveillance. And clai
,s that at least six years of the life of m
and woman should be free; free as t
/. air; free to talk as the brook runs, wi
n untrammeled musical prattle and babb
70 Why here, few weeks ago, came a IN
ancholy looking child, about four YET
old, and, in my presence and heariI
pointed TO me and said TO his mother,
MAMA, of whom is that gentlen
st speakingi"
~ 'Poor little pigl My heart bled