Arizona weekly citizen., 1883-12-08
What a Baby Costs
MiInankar Snn.

H written by an editor who thinks he is smart, very likely: "A baby can wear out a dollar pair of shoes m tweniy-fDur hours. lt can keep its father busy Hd- vertising m the newspapers for muse. It can occupy both sldes of the largest sized bed manufactured simultaneously. IL can make the author oi it's being wash bill foot up Co five dollars week and not be feeling at ali well. It can crowd to sutfocatIOn the smoking ca- of a railroad train with indignant passen- gers between two stations.
 It can make an old bachelor in the room adjoining use language that, if uttered in the streets, would get hirl in tue penitentiary for two years. it can, m a few minutes, drive a man frantic from his home and cause him to seek the cOmpanionship of a locomotive blowing of steam.
 It Is cOwardly to abuse person who cannot talk back, and the man who thus abuses a baby, poor little thing that is not responsible for coming into this world to annoy people, is fit for treason, or jump a board bill. A baby never au- noyed any person with a soul. uules- there was something the matter with l., for which a grown person WAS respOnsl- ble. It is true a baby can wear ont a pair of kid shoes in twenty-four hours, but if the proprietor ot the baby does not like the expense he can buy cheaper shoes that will last a year. It can keep father busy advertising for nurses, It the father is a fool. but if he dIslikes Co advertise for a nurse be can nurse the baby himself, or Ee needn't have Rn. baby. II the kicking father doesn't liky to pay the wash bills he cau wash the baby's clothes himself. The baby is not Co blame because sec ond-class boarding houses do not want children around, and the boarding
 houses are not to blame either. The father of baby should have home before he does baby, and then he will not be iusulted. But the last sentence of the above item IS what makes me hot. "A baby can, in few minutes, drive a man frantically from his home, etc" No man" could be driven from home by his baby. A person who would be driven from home frantically by the crying of his own baby is a coWGrjly iackass, and baby ought to be gshcmed ui such father. SucL man Is e. thing. A man would stay a. home and help seek the cause of the baby's peeyish- ness, and correct 1t. The Sun does not believe the writer of the above article ever had baby, but II he dld, he Is a no-accouut sort of Journalistic dude, without a soul. II the man has a baby, what precious reading the article wu be to him some day when he comes home and is met ct the door by his pale faced, frightened wife. who, with -gsrs in her eyrs, says, "Go for the doctor at once, the baby, I fear, IS dying The cold chills will creep up his bacs, and his hair will feel as though It Is turning gray; as be starts for the doctor, he will feel as though his legs never acted SO slowly, and ne will pray to his God that the life of the abused lttle one may be spared tlll he gets back, and he will think of the cruel words he has written about babies, and wonder If the doctor will be at home. He is "irIven frau-ical- ly from home" now, but not to seek 'the compauionship of @ locomotive bloElug of steam" He Is after the doctor Go save the life of the baby that wears out a pair of kid shoes in a day, and he would buy all the kid shoes in the world if baby would live. He gives the doctor a lively race back to the house, and be Is not thinking about five dollar wash bill. The father who writes such stuf about babies, Lurries to bis home wondering fl the httle treasure is alive or dead, and the coward dare not go into the room and face the little sufferer. Men may find fault with the trouble of raising babies, and think they are smart, but when they have stood by tLe bedside of one of their own, and watched its last breathing and see the little life go ont, and felt that tugging at the heart that can never be described by mortal tongue or pen. and have followed the little one tO the grave and heard the cold, cruel clay rattle upon the coffin and go home tJ the deserted house and see baby's play things everywhere, through tears, they
 will never again talk funny abuut a baby being nuisanCe. The smart Aleck who wrote the above could rever
 have witnessed the baby smile or wei come to papa when be calua home, CT felt little fat arms around his neck. and looked into little eyes that hre heaseu'- windows, or seen the hearty laugh that shows sharp little new teeth coming through the swee, red gums. or hal the little one get straddle of his foot for Q AAAAG OA oEtAA tAAf AaAAN lsA NaaN ff4ANl.. ~ t-- he came up the street from day Uf toll. Had the writer of the above cx
 perienced these pleasures be would have written different, aud said, "a baby is a ray of human sunshine, sent c. earth tO brighten the pathway Of people who have souls" No, the writer of the above IS a man without heart, whose idea of bliss Is a second class boarding house where babies are not wanted, and whose death-bed will be in a hospital, his attendants charitable people. his mOurners will be those who can get a free mack ride Co the grave yard and his monument should be piece Of soap stone engraved. Here lays the remnant of a star idiot, who, hating babies, hated everything that was good, and he didn't die a moment too soon, and tEank- be to God he didn't leave any pOsteritv.~