The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1888-03-16
might be filed with tales of Indian massacres
and captivity, deaths by thirst and hunger,
and all the manifold tribulations by which
the great west was redeemed.
GIVE THE TODDLER A CHANGE TO
LEARN HIS MOTHER TONGUE.
Young America, Even in His Cradle, Has
His Rights Endearing Epithets for
Baby Are Admissible, but Not Gibber.
ish and Jarson.

often wonder If otherwise sensible people
realize not only how supremely ridiculous
they make themselves, but what injustice
they do their children by deluging them with
that lingual dish wash, popularity known az
baby talk.
am well aware that in denouncing this
little luxury am flying in the face of public
oplnion, or rather of public practice, for I
doubt If opinion has much to do with the
matter This is a free country. Life, lib
erty and the pursuit of happiness belong even
to tho poorest, and you invade one of man
Kinds most precious privileges when you as
sail the right Of the individual to make an ass
of himself
But be it remembered that baby, too, has
his rights. Young America, even in his
cradle, has his constitutional guarantees.
Let them be respected. Give him chance
at his mother tongue. Don't defer his edu-
cation i'll order to indulge yourself in the
pleasures OF adult idiocy. Don't demoralize
his ear for the sake of the satisfaction it
gives bis pri'n and severely proper maiden
aunt to avail herself of her only legitimate
chance at billing and cooing Let that esti-
mable spnster bill and COO by all means-if
not to lover, to a baby; but, in either case,
for the sake both of the victim and the
language, Let her do It without actual VIC.
lence to the vernacuar.
Be the family rich or poor, high or hum
BILE, nothing is too good for his baby; and
such mangled and mutilated fragments of
language as fall to the lot of the average in
nocent are not half good enough for him.
Moreover, they are an insult to his intelli-
gence. No wonder the little stranger some
times surveys the family field with depre-
catory gaze of dignified disgust that says
palmer than words, "Have I come into
world of utter idiots?"
Far be it from me to enter protest against
diminutives. These have their uses. In GER
tain-and sometimes in uncertain-emergen-
cies, they are priceless In fact, there is moth
ing handler to have in the house. They are
very present help in time of trouble, buffer
in days of domestic vicissitude and danger
Would You appease an angry sweetheart, cir
cumvent cantakerous t'other half, pacify
an incensed infant, the worth of the diminu-
tive can scarcely be overestimated. It is
most invaluable auxiliary of moral suasion.
But, even i'll the Shadow Of your own lares
and penates look to it that it does not get the
best OF you. Facilis est decensus Averni
There is no law Of God or grammar to pre-
vent your denominating the dog doggy, or
persuasively appealing to puss as pussy.
Baby itself is a diminutive, and infinitely
sweeter and dearer than its prototype The
trouble is that when people begin taking lib
critics with language they don't know where
to stop. merely and modestly file cayeat
against the further maltreating of our mother
tongue by the multitude.
- The odd thing is that the majority of man.
kind seem to think there is sort of virtue in
tortnring and twisting the language out of all
semblance of symmetry and sense before ap-
plying it to infantile uses. Milk for babies is all
right and has scriptural authority, but how
about skim mike Possibly, genuine, unadul-
terated, vigorous Anglo-Saxon is pretty
strong meat for toddler. But, however
that may be, baby must learn to manage it
at least half way decently if you expect him
to be president of the United States, and of
course you do. And how is he ever going to
learn it if he never hears it? 1t is not only
the first step that costs, but the first that
counts; and it is q standing marvel that chill
dren ever speak correctly when you consider
the mangled and mutilated condition of the
language when they first make its acquaint~
ance.
Call the little ones "precious pets" and "rosy
posies" and "pretty pearls" By no means
abolish the one beauty of baby talk, its low
ingness. Administer every sweet and endear-
ing epithet you can lay your tongue to, but
don't let the good old English words degener-
ate into gibberish and jargon. Put your
caresses into your wholesome OF our New
England voices need them badly enough
and put not your trust i'll dropped or trans
mogrified consonants. It isn't so much what
you say as the way you say it that matters
Some of E1iiton's stately but melodious lines
would fall upon baby's tympanum with far
sweeter and more soothing sound than the
senseless s,ep that is usually ladled out to him.
You might call him parallelopipedon, and, |
provided You pronounced the polysyllable |
torture of O'ConnelI's fish fag with caressing
I'll be bound baby would like it bet |
ter than your "pitty itty sings,n etcetera, ad
Baby talk per Sc is all well enough its true
inwallresS ap.tsals to everybody. animad-
vert oiiv upos, is abuse and perverson by
The thought IS. The truth is that baby talk
'as it IS spoke is a luxury only INDUCED i'll
IS dissipation by the adult without regard
10 the tlemo.;iiZing effect it may have upon
The infant tar and tongue.
Most of You VIII are addicted to the prac-
ice probably. thinks baby likes it. But does
ae! Bless ;t. little apostle of sweetness and
light, and ;,l,ate :o jot or title of his joysl
Give him pleasure i'll full measure, pressed
granted that this sratutous display of idiocy
delights liln9
Oh, ye Of little faith! Why insult baby by
him as big fool as you are.-
Mary Norton Bradford in Boston Globe.