Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-03-24
A YOUNG MOTHERS TRIALS.
Feelings of n Woman Who Has Passed
Through the Most Trying Ordeal

Here is what woman who has brought
up n large family and is grandmother to
many children said the other day: "There
is no one in the world to whom all the sym
patty in my nature reaches out as it does
to woman who is mother for the first
time, especially young wCman-one who
has always depended upon some one else
usually upon her own mother-when she
finds herself left alone with the awful re-
sponsiblity in the cradle"
She was gray haired, with face full Of
soft lines that wrote her life history. She
was turning over the contents of a bureau
drawer that had been for long years closed
and locked.
She took up a tiny gown yellow with time
and perfumed with lavender
How well | remember my first expert
ence," she went on. The baby was very
welconSe and such a fine boy. Everybody
praised him. His father WIS justly proud
of him, and his sIother cried for JOY"
She turned the little gown over and
seemed lost in meditation
at was all joy willie the nurse re-
NAMED" she continue II can see her
now gathering up her things to go to an
other case | can St, the Young mother
pale, faint hearted forluu, Watching the
kind soul, who had beer more than mother
to her, as she folded up the long apron and
rolled it around her night slippers.
longed to grasp them and beg her not to
leave me. She knew the struggle that
was going on. She never once looked
She had been there before
The girl mothers heart was in her
throat, swelling to bursting When it be-
came normal il had become the heart of a
.
maternity. The young mother. who had
so short a time before shed tears OF iov
over her first born, now cried in earnest
because She didn't know what to do with
him.
The first ordeal was the bath. 1t
seemed so easy in the hands of the nurse,
so dreadfUlly difficult in mine
Next came the visitor with advice.
Every one who called came for the express
purpose Of supervising, making sucges-
tions, correcting mistakes and Inspecting
the flannels. They asked to see his feet-a
mere pret+Xt to find out what he had on
and how much embroidery adorned his
garments.
cone said, you pin him too tight-he
can hardly breathe In an agony Of fenr
his clothes were all loosened. Whereat
the next Inspector who happened in would
eXClaim, You pin him 50 loose-he will be
pot bellied.' This last horror was of all
calamities to he avoided, and again his
clothes were frightened.
"Yhe next good soul would recommend
saffron tea for rash. | would no sooner
give it than some we'll disposed caller
would rshearse the benefits Of peppermint
and anisced tea.
when he needed to be fed was simply
swamped. Everybody had an experience
TO relate, and no two experiences were
alike. One good angel said, you make
his food too rich; another, You don't
make it rich enough One said. Give
paregoric;' another said, DON'T One
said, Look out for Group another said,
Measles are in the next house
Then his father would make sugges-
tons. 4 told you so three weeks ago he
would say when new experiment was un-
der way. You wouldn't believe me. but
when some old hen comes in and cacklcs
you tale her advice when you scorned
mine
so we learn to be mothers as we learn
everything else, by experience" went on
the woman with gray hair and the win
kles.
And sometimes, when | meet a pale.
weary looking young mother trundling a
baby carriage, | feel like saying to her,
Come, my dear, let me take your baby and
Keep it for you tO'fight, so you can get a
good nights rest for you need it,"
Then she folded up the little gown, vel
low with time and periumed with laven-
der, and laid it away in the drawer Then
she wiped her specialization they were
moist.-New York Recorder.