Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1885-12-03
CARE OF INFANTS.
The Grave Responsibilities Resting Upol
tho Good Mother.

l Inc 0I8vC RCSPVAoADAASAOD h03tI0R U000
tho Good Mother.
The mother should remember that
: the introduction of human being into
mortal life is an abrupt change, even
under the most favoring circumstances
"a new life. Light, sound and sensa-
tons, dependent on outward conditions,
the changes of climate, ETC., seem sud-
denly to burst upon the babe. Aside
from a reasonable care, these influences
must be too startling. The organs of
sight, before unused to light. are UNI
prepared for the brightness of the Or
! binary light of the sun or even of a
lamp. The organs of hearing are just
as unused to sounds, and of course can
bear but little; while the tender body.
! having known no marked changes of
/ temperature. must shrink from cold
blasts and even moderate GOODNESS.
/ And since every power is more or less
developed by being called into action,
it is manifest that these senses should
be educated to the new order of things,
gradually, and with great care.
And also since the most helpless
creature in nature is, for its infancy, the
young of the highest in scale, demand
ing the average life of the lower orders
since some insects dance in the sun
beams for a brief moment and then
die, having passed through all of the
changes, from birth TO maturity, and
then to old age, in single fragment
of time-it must be remembered that
bones do not become such at once, that
the natural position is not at first as
sumed; and that the joints, the muscles
and the senses must all be trained to
perform their functions, gradual in
PRODUCTION only being safe. For exam
pie, while a horizontal position is at
first the most natural it is worse than
folly, nay, downright cruelty, to allow
the child at once to attempt to steady
the head or control the spinal column,
the back. Common sense and a con-
slant care and prudence are in special
demand at all times in the proper man.
agement of the bodies of the little ones,
while the mind and soul-still higher
demand the molding hand of the most
expert, those the most thoroughly
trained for the important position in
which to mold characters for eternity,
q kind of co-creator.
Let the mother remember, and that
with full cOnsciOusn .ss of her respon-
sibilities, that she mas be such mold
er of character, that she must, in
practical sense, create, develop, nour-
ish, sustain and direct the interests,
physical, mental, social and moral, of
her charge, a charge granted her, not
as a pet, toy, a thing to be caressed
and loved not simply for her pleasure
though, in addition to these weighty
responsibilities, or as necessary or in
tended result of them, there is deep
fountain of pleasure and the develop
ment Of the affectional nature. If she
is true to her nature, as mother she
must furnish nourishment from her
own life-blood, so that her babe will be
''bone of her bone and flesh of her
flesh"
But this is no truer than that its men
tai and moral sustenance comes from
this same source. She is the model, and
must be, for her babe to follow, imi-
tate and be modelled by. and all of this
without her special effort. The child
aS udtuIdily iOOkS W neT lOF SuSleudnce
and mOlding as the plant looks up to
the sun for its light, nourishment, or to
the soil for its substantial food. Her
physical being, her form and outline.
her expression of countenance, are no
more certainly transmitted-Often al
most fac-simile-than are her mental
peculiarities impressed on the album of
the mind. her moral characteristics
daguerreotyped on the soul, as her
products.-Dr Hany0rd, in Golden
Rule.