Wichita eagle., 1888-07-22
WOMAN AND HOME.
a SACRED PRIVILEGE THAT Is TOO
OFTEN NEGLECTED..


Jennie's Dainty Appetite-Talking to In
vaIids - The faded Wife - Kitchen
Aprons-Romps-A SuIky Beile-The
Teacher-Cheap Livins-Notes-
An acquaintance of mine who had removed
from Newport, r. l.. TO Cambridge, Mass,
was asked what was the social difference. He
said that he could perceive none except that
there were fewer handsome equlpages. and
that young mothers wheeled their own baby
wagons. This last point of observation quite
restored the balance, for what gorgeousness
of livery can compare with the proud faces
of such parent. and what occupants OF
phaeton or a Reconsideration can have such
felicity as beams in the face of that rosy
little creature, to whom every individual
atom of the great universe Is an inexhaustiole
roveitya NY friends remark was, fear,
lust one: can recall but two young mothers
among nv immediate circle of acquaintance
in Newport who nabitually took out their
own babies for an airing. while In Cambridge
/ can NOT think OF one vino does not, except
one who mentioned this 10 ME as the greatest
privation OF long illness, and the one loss
Der one who did it in New York. and when
her father, a clergyman was congratulated
on the good sense OF his daughter, ne replied,
SIN our family we believe IL the natural
affections
1t would, OF course, be very unfair to deny
an ample suoply of natural affections 20
those who habitually send out their young
children with a nurse; there are many pre-
-fsa- may
De in the wsv. The thing of which one may
Justly complain is the tradition prevailing
among the well TO do circles Of many cities,
east and west, north and south, that the
mother Is never 10 take out her child THIS
seems to me a wrong both 70 parent and
child. as much wrong SIS the habit still
lingering in France of sending young chlld
to dwell with a nurse, the mother only visit
ing her occasionally; or the baoic Formerly
prevailing in the English upper classes,
which forbade mothers sucking her own
child-a habit 50 fixed that when Georglana,
Duchess OF Devoushire, broke through II,
the poet Coleridge wrote her 8 resounding
ode, as Il she had done some great deed:
o lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure,
Who taught you that heroic measure:
In the presen, case the heroic young
mother who wheels her own baby wagon
gains the felicity OF the fresh air, to begin
with: she shares the happy little cooings and
pointlngs of her young charge; she l. asso-
ciated with lis first contact with the world
outside; she viii never forget these sweet and
simple associations, and she viii always De
part OF them 20 her child. She las, beyond
this, the inestimabie satisfaction OF knowing
that her child is cared for; that 1t is not
wheeled against the broad sunlight TILL lis
ewes water or pushed backward TIL It's
brain whirls; that it Is not left TO CRY Tn
needed while the nurse gosslpS with her hfth
cousin or taken furtively into some base
ment kitchen reeking with tobacco or onions,
and not u1lsuspected OF diphtheria.
read the other day In woman's essay,
which had many good points in II, t"o as
: sertions which seemed 70 me very wide OF
the mark The first was that there Is now
/ hardly such thing in America as fresh,
( simple, unspoiled child; TO which statements
! I should oppose the objection that there are
at least dozen OF these rare beings IN the
one short street where | happen 70 dwell
( The second point was that We should md a
remedy for this alleged evil IN introducing
the English system Of keeping children as
much as posi- Die IN nurseries, and having
them IS little as possible in contact with the
family life Had this statement been turned
: lust the other way IT would have seemed
more reasonable, for surely 1t IS where there
are most nurses and nurseries-in America
st Ieast-that one finds the artificial and self
conscious children, while the simplest and
most genuine are in those households here
/ servants are few or none. This whole phllos-
/ ophv seems TO me far less sensible than that
OF little boy Of my acquaintance, who once
made protest against the whole race OF
nurses In these plain terms: Mamma, l dc
I wish could De taken care of by somebody
that lives in the front part OF the house.
This criticism involves no injustice 70
those kindly and child loving races who sup
DIV nine-tenths Of our nurses-the Celts, the
( negroes-and one sometimes finds among
them individuals Of quality 50 superior
that they are wholesome and innocent COM
panions for any child, ard even Ignorance
| forms no bar to q life long and genuine
friendship. But what risks ara run to tenn
Der. to health, even TO morals, in the effort
to find this paragon! How many poor little
things owe horrible, frightful terrors and
+ nightmare superstitions and manifold last
ing injury TO being intrusted almost m
watched TO persons to whom no one would
intrust the training Of a pet ANIMAL One
NAV see households where a man servant
who should kick favorite dog, or even
speak angrily 70 a high bred horse, would be
dismissed instantly, and yet where delicate
and sensitive children may be scolded and
twitched about and even chsstised by nurses
Of no higher training and principle
know a family whose sweet faced nurse
was the admiration and envy Of all who
came 20 the house, il was nevertheless not
intended for an instant that the power Of
furnishing should be placed in her hands; moi
was il discovered until weeks after she had
left the family that she had been in the habit
OF taking her little charge privately into the
pantry and putting mustard On her tongue
BY way Of punishment for such Sins as car
be committed al years old. The innuInani
ties of psrsuts, on which a brilliant Arreri
can woman once wrote an essay, may be bad
enough. but it has always seemed 70 me thai
the worst inhumanisy, II the long run, wa
to leave a child TO the unmatched control Of
hired attendant / say unmatched but
after all, how can any watching Do NOR
than superfi-iaIa-T. W. Higginson In Har
pers Bazar.
The Tired Out Housemother.
And when you go home at night and hnc
her faded and worn, think Of some way II
which IN holm her instead Of finding farl