Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-05-18
AS Well as Can be Expected.

AS Well as Can be Expected.
Pecks Sun.
The custom of newspapers making
funny mention of the birth of children
is very common, and there is no Gus
tom that CRATES more harshly on the
feelings of mothers than this. We are
frequently asked to make some funny
comment on the fact that some friend
is the father OF new baby, or twins,
but have invariably declined. About
fifteen years ago we made such COM
ment on an event of that kind because
we thought it would please friend
who came down town with his thumbs
In the arm holes of his vest and horse
collar smile on his face, and the next
day after our 'funny" item appeared.
We Published an obituary notice of the
wife and child of our friend. and acted
as bearer at the funeral. and as we
looked upon the dead faces in the cof-
fin, and the agonized face of the chief
mourner, who had been so happy two
days before, we registered a solemn
VOW that we would never again play
fully allude to the birth of child to
please any man on earth. These occa-
sions are too dangerous to be treated
lightly, and before editors make their
mirthful allusicns to the affairs, with
the stereotyped remark that another
and child are doing WELL" they should
turn their thoughts from the happy
rather who wants to "set 'em up" for
the boys, and who has not done much
suffering to speak of, to the Door moth
er who is nearer dead than she ever
wants to be again. We doubt if there
Is woman on earth who ever read
one OF those joking notices of an in.
crease In family, but that shuddered
and wished that the heartless writer
could endure half the suffering the
mother has. The writer's are not heart.
less, they are simply thoughtless. 1t
is easy for man to make fun of such
events, and say that "the father is
as well as could be expected under
the circumstances" because they do
not realize the terrible ordeal that
the mother has gone through,
and the danger of death which
she realizes. There is not q wo-
man but would rather give almost any
thing than to have local paper speak
in trifing manner of the birth of her
child, or to speak of it at all, and when
papers are lead to woman on a sick
bed, and she sees that the affair that
has been of so much seriousness to her
Is looked upon as a joke by her hus-
band and his companions, scalding
tears invariably flow down the pale
and wan cheeks, and her heart is
touched as with a knife. And often
we think editors are more heartless
when such events occur in their own
families, and make broader comments,
because they are better acquainted with
the sufferer. Recently we received
paper in which an editor commented
in half dozen places in his paper, in
the jolliest possible manner, on the
fact that he was the father of twins. |
and many would get the idea he was
heartless, when he is one of the best
fellows on earth. 1t is pure thought |
essness on the part of the editors, and |
they do not realize how deeply they
wound those who are the sufferers.
and who have endured the unpleasant |
feature of having babies for years,
murmur, and probably will
continue to 10 so. But we wish the
lime would come when editors would |
cave such subject alone, and when |
rather comes down to putting on seal |
ops, and talking about the "boy," and
asking the boys what they will take, |
ell him to "take walk home" and
see If he can't be of some use around
'he house. We never have studied
ibis baby business much, but we know
hat ninety-nine women in hundred
Tread the newspaper comments more
han they dread the sickness, and we
nope never to see another funny article
n paper about such a serious matter.