The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-03-04
On tbe Difficulty
If
Being a Baby.

!. anne folks claim, It gets har Ter
Tt.S harder with each passing genera
- N he q man or woman who
80 nm with the procession. and Is
-, n life and can manage II, II
sq.~, ,s tbat II is daily becoming more
ano 4, he a baby. Did you ever
rs ssyiously about this2
un. ~ Nrst place. babies are not as gen.
muaa,,Iar as they once were. before
Halu cre "a many other things to amuse
PEI s.,hsrs and mothers. Modern babies
us ~ ~ compete with mems clubs and
49,. rIubs: with football games, with
.sssss with afternoon teas, with lee
-. snd lunches. and games of golf; with
w W .syiatIons in the stock market, with
- yachts and private cars and music
VA .syfies. and Paderewski and grand
80 and the thousand complications of
g..,rsss and society. 1t Is really getting
Z q difGcut for well-intentioned baby,
~ would like permanent situation IN
s'v ~, family. where there is not too
: ~. s,se going on, to find such a family
n's ssss,s with. There Is no doubt about 1t,
IN ..niaces" are scarce, and no one can
IN. baby for not wanting to become
.s,,her o. a family where 1t will have to
NV. ~ lists as a rival attraction with
i, ~ dIssipations of modern social life.
y ~ : steam engine could hardly make
s,s<s for Itself in some modern fami-
~ Iet alone baby.
+ r +
m, eveu supposing that the baby who
!. ,s,nking Of taking up an earthly resi-
h.rs l. able. By some superhuman good
s.,,uve 10 pick out a pair of parents who
ssser,t too many other things to think
.sout. II stl remains for that infant to
sastfv the neighbors and the world at
800 This very winter a bachelor living
: New York fiat assaulted and beat
!. ,s,ghbor because her baby cried so much
~, che was unable to think" and then
.,oc.eded 10 have her arrested as tho
sasher ara "maintainer Of a nuisance
n ~ courts had sustained this action
i wcuId. indeed, have been time for a
paher Union to boycott this degenerate
IA unappreciable old world. But even in
NV York the courts still have an inkling
y vhs, Justice is. The irascibie bachelor
Al moi prevail, and II was decided that
bsby has a legal right to yell in this.
n world. no matter whether the neigh
tpn object or not
+ r r
strsws show which way the wind blows.
Ana that brutal New York bachelor Is n
straw Of the largest size. In fact, he Is
whos mountain Of chaff. He ought to
n held up TO the scorn of the civilized
World. and my one regret is that the New
Yofk papers did not give his name. SO
hat Ne could be publicly pilloried before
continent Of indignant human beings.
Rthms were any patent process by which
1ns could pick out the babies likely to
rm W into brutal bachelors OF this par
t<ular type, there would be some Justice
n atne their parents for maintaining n
hf6anc<." But the blessed thing about
hblss Is that you never can tell how
sihey are going TO turn out 1t Is Just this
doubt. or uncertainty. which keeps tho
wheels Of civilization moving. For tho
me eaernally anuring fact about baby
h The possibility that II may be of a
rassr type Of mind and character than
~ world has yet seen. This Is what It's
mother always believes about II, and
sqnstlues she communicates the delusion
70 is father; and by dint OF believing 1t.
they sometimes make IL come true. And
thb b how the world keeps getting bat
ter and better. and It is all strictly in ac-