The morning times., 1896-08-16
Types Found On a Summer
Day In Washington.
LUXURY AND souALoR
Tales For Those Who Do Not Apare-
ciate the Love of the
Little Ones.

babies? Summer is very hard period Tor
the babies Men and women may seek cool
places refresh themselves with cool drinks,
stimulate a breeze with a vigorous motion
of the fan, adjust their apparel to the Their
mometer, or reason it out with them selves,
and in philosophical durance wait for the
inevitable drop OF the mercury.
The poor babies, alas, are smothered in
flannels for hygienic conformity, be-
flounced with laces for the sake Of a
mothers vanity; they are buried in pill
lows for no reason at all, and left, nolens
voiens, to weather 1t out on their backs in
in bed, with no recourse OF their own, ex-
cept to revenge themselves Oh cruel Tate
with vociferous cries.
Who that sees baby smothered in
cab does not believe the infant would rather
roll on the grass or masticate pebbles!
Did you ever notice the hopeless expression
on baby's face as it lies on its back
across its mothers knees and its helpless
head hanging over the too narrow lap like
an over-ripe melon, and not feel that
dispensation OF Providence has kept
knowledge of cuss words ont of its innocent
mouth lest at that m oment 1t soil its soul
and its lips with their issue? You have no
heart il you don't sympathiZe with the
babes who are planted on their backs
when they long to turn on their stomach.
who long for water and can only cry, who
need rest and are dragged forth to parade.
The hapIess condition OF the babies is a
calamity for they suffer without beiE.
able to complain, and want without the
satisfaction Of a refusal Thus While We
suffer and drink and fan and wear cool
clothes, and take hope from unreliable
weather predictions and steal away at
night tail for car, boat or carriage rides,
poor baby can only suffer with no escape
valve OF complaint.
What baby does is not worth record
ing 1t does nothing; it can't dc anything
much. 1t is environment that makes
their lives Not SO much what they are,
as where This is what gives individ-
ualty to q baby. The innocent creatures
come into the world on a universal demo-
cratic footing. They each have an allot-
ment Of one father and one mother and a
license 10 live. Everything subsequent
is acquired The eXternals are what give
characteristic and distinction and caste
to The infant until they become old enough
to assert Themselves. and the heir to rags
IL ulStbNcItu Il HtlO, uiiStpsldtiN
princeling can give no better account Of
himself than stupidity OF dishonesty.
WASHINGTON BABIES.
The lives of the little Washington crea-
lures of environments are as varied as the
variety OF all you see about you. Into the
infant Brotherhood come all the life that
surrounds them. Hclplessly and uncon-
sciously they absorb it, and as beauties
and deformities of nature are formed by
the gradual falling of mere drops of water,
So these impressions are forming little
characters and little lives all these sum-
mer days.
So few care for the babies, SO few think
of them The bachelors and fatherless
and busy and careless regard them as a
necessary evil, else there would lie no
subsequent generation Others knew bet
ter. Trey know that baby is the most
precious thing i'll the world. They are
ties of love when all tie other clements
10 the world rent hearts asunder, they
are sunshine in sorrow, company in loneli-
ness.
Have yon ever really taken an interest
in babies? What is the marvellous secret
OF their preciouspess? In tie face OF some
facts DEFINITIONS are impotent: they can
only be ans wcred by other facts. This is
one of them.
Every afternoon when the shadows grow
long there comes into Lafayette Sqaure the
procession of baby cabs, with neatly
capped maids in attendance. The maids
wheel their charges about the paths and
nod and smile to other familiars, who are
regular Ia their attendance upon the after
noon perambulations.
Among them occasionally comes sweet
faced woman in a neat, plain dress, wear
ing a modest sailor hat, and carrying her
baby. She seats the little one, as plainly
but neatly dressed as its mother, on the
bench beside her, and, after a little cooling
TO settle the infant, she unwraps some sew
Ing and plies her needle with fleet fingers.
ONE WHO KNEW.
There used to come a peasa Mt faced man
among the trees soon after the babies came.
lie sat and played with them as they were
wheeled by, and often took them on his
knee in q iatherly way, and held them
easily and tenderly as mother might.
The last time he was seen in the park
he had come over by the little sewing
mother. and was making faces while the
baby laughed.
Don't you find the baby great Dui-
he asked, but in his voice there was
no expression that would denote a convic- |
ton had prompted the question.
The woman stayed her needle for mo
ment and answered quickly: mo, indeed; |
l don't know what l should do without |
baby
Then be made as If to depreciate the |
blessedness of children, and the woman |
thought him quite a cynic She did not |
continue her sewing, but pleaded earnestly, |
and sometimes with au eloquepce, though |
crude, for the little ones. He listened |
to her every word, and knew the inspira- |
ton came from deep down in the most |
organism in the world-a moth
er's heart. she did not know whether |
she was convincing him or not.
Finally, with an inspiration that came
only OF conviction aud itself, she said: !
Il You do not know the great secret OF /
love of children. Love is knowledge, and
is possession, and Possession is
ngain love-
As she paused and turned her fun eyes |
upon him he was looking very earnestly |
into her face, and almost CONT nuing
her own sentence, be said: And loss be-
gets the greatest love of ALL
In another moment he had made Some |
excuse and was gone. and since that day
he has never been seen in the park. But |
with one who understood he left his secret |
behind.
Possession, or possession and loss, is
the only answer to the enigma Of their
preciousness.
Washington is anidealcity for the babies,