Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-05-16
CUR FIRST BABY.

young man of twenty-five, and the cry
of a baby was to me as the screams Of
the hungry panther in the wilds of the
forest.
It was d boy. OF course, or there
would be nothing worth relating, for
girls are always so quiet, they seem to
be maturity endowed with the instinct
that it is necessary to rest their tongues
while little that they may have a
larger reserve when they grow older.
OF course we had no means of know
ing what tempest was comming, and
were caught entirely unprepared. His
first salutatiOn was sQuail equal to
half dozen tom cats holding midnight
circus. L coward as l Wasl bolted out
of the honse like d scared dog, unde-
cided as to what l had better do, flee TO
the mountains or jump into the we'll;
but l acted wisely, l did what custom
has made law, fled for assistance to
my neighbors and they came bravelY to
my rescue. And oh! how we'll L
remember their eXclamations when they
entered the room where that raging
little red faced william was Monarch
of all he surveyed ''Whyl the dear
little thing, looks and acts just like his
papa" This was terrible. Their first
act was to fit the proper harness on
him and bring him under the rules OF
the house, which for the last few hours
l. 6iarQ00r6nH
large amount of cotton goods was torn
into small flags and soon decorated the
clothesline and bushes round the house.
This l supposed was to keep the
witches away, >or notice to the pub
lie generally of what had happened, at
any rate we soon had flags enough out
to have brought to standstill the New
York and Chicago limited. L have
since learned that it was an old and
we'll established custom. Under so
many skilled hands it was not long un-
til all things assumed a tem Porary
normal condition. In the mean time
my wife had gained control Of her
reasoning faculties and mildly limited
that our kind visitors might need some
refreshments during the cessation OF
hostilites, and as "a hint to the wise is
always sufficient" our good nelghbors
soon had full possession of kitchen,
pantry ard cellar, each one trying to
do more than her share, literally inter
spersed with fattering comments on
that remarkable baby. Our choicest
hams, canned fruits and jellies were
soon brought into requiSition.
This work of demolition had but
barely begun when yell from the bed
room served notice on all parties that
the truce had ended, down went the
the dish-rags, over went the pots in the
scramble to get there first to see the be-
ginning of the second act; some were
armed with different kinds of soothing
syrups, some one suggested an addition
al bandage to prevent all of his life
machinery from forming into knot.
I suggested more flags.
But our united efforts soon restored
order and the work in the kitchen was
resumed, to finish this time.
had supposed that all this ado
would end in one day, confidence
would be restored and business revive
but 1 soon learned that my knowledge
of such events was very limited. All
the women young and old must come
and pay their respects to that wonder
full baby many and varied were their
comments as to his future possibilities
. some thought he was destined to be q
great statesman and politician, and
would some day be the governor OF
Kansas, others thought he would be q
preacher and help to spread the gospel
among the heather, this idea struck
me as being about the correct thing
as my short experience with him had
impressed me with the belief that ht
would easily assimilate with that class
of people. But the continued flow o.
company went on undiminished, oul
larder was running down below the
the danger line, it began to look like