Sunday morning globe., 1901-10-06

There is an unrestrained freedom in
the actions Of the young Of all the ami
NAL kingdom, which expresses the
ideal Of that absolute independence so
much sought after by man, after he
has reached the age of reason, but
which he never seems to attain. In his
swaddling clothes the immature bit or
the animal creation is utterly irrespon-
sihle for his acts, positively and even
hilariously incOnsequenual In his
movements-hence, we find him cute.
Cuteness is the only word qualified
to express the multifarious idiosyn-
crasies Of organic atoms, whether they
be OF the species man, beast bird, fish
or insect. Even an infant, wiggling
worm possesses a charm which brings
grave and reverend scientists down on
their marrow bones to inspect and ad-
miie. In my own salad days, long be-
fore the tender. ye.iowish white cotyle-
dOns OF my embryOtiC days had become
tinged with the greenness Of heralded
maturity. IL was a constant pleasure
. me to play with baby mud turtles.
So awkwardly cute and so villainously,
beautifully funny they were, that 1
could not resist practising crueltes
upon them to see them sQuirm, like the
fond mother who was so transported
by the cuteness of her darling babe
that she hugged it to death. lnfantile
crabs, Holsters and clans were so IT.
resistibly attractive to me that ! often
imperiled my hereafter by deserung
Sunday school to hunt them and gloat
over their very quintessence Of cute
ness.
It is not on account of their beauty
that we admire young things for they
have none, they are merely raw, un-
cOuth prototypes Of perfect maturity;
nor is any reason to be found In their
abiect, helpless and tender weakness,
for there is not an infantile animal
that will not defend itself The micro
scopic baby clam will shut it's shell
down hard on an infnitesimal intrud-
ing hair. and a transparent, newly
hatched mosquito will bend up its
feeble proboscis in the vain effort to
reyengefully puncture the skin of the
inimical hand raised to strike it down.
Partridges just out Of the shell will lie
down on their backs and hold a con.
cealing leaf over them to hide away
from an approaching enemy. A thread
like worm will eNude slipperiness to
w,ggle out of ones grasp. A baby ele.
phant family trumpets its anger, and
the small human kind roars and yells
until the disturber of its peace takes
alarm and fees in alright. Everything
young in nature possesses some weap-
on Of defence peculiar to its kind, and
it is therefore proportiOnately as
strong as the mature Of its species.
In fact, cuteness is as cuteness does;
this is the whole gospel Of infantile
comicality in an epigram, Did you
ever see a flock Of children, hundreds
of them, Of different and assorted sizes,
come tumbling out of the schoolhouse
of a great city? Perhaps, and II so,
the buzzing and the frantic bewilder.
ment of a swarm Of bees who can not
locate their queen is but a faint shad.
'ow. Hopping, skipping, dancing,
shouting. young. ruddy and also pale
faced rascals. forgetting all about the
pedagogical atmosphere they have just
quilted. They are the little men of the
nation, talk marbles, discuss football,
argue, dispute. quarrel and fight. Some
times they tear one another's clothing
and do other reprehensible things, but,
looking at the small independent BIZ
peds from a distant corner, they pos
sess a cuteness in their performances
that drive ones thoughts far from
business. politics and worry. Il has Of
ten been a delight to wickedly indulge
in the gamble Of pitch penny" and
deliberately lose to the immature, en-
bryotic doctors, lawyers, clergymen
and statesmen, just TO enjoy their fran
tic delight and extraordinary gestures
at beating a grown man. Say. mister.
come around again tomorrow after
noon and well give you a chance to
win your money back" Then they
would nudge one another and explode
with laughter at the very idea of such
a thing being liable to happen. The
little cheats knew they were con-
spring to best me, but / didn't care.
Their very cuteness so entranced me
that I would willingly have goaded
them into robbing a bank II / had
thought they would enjoy It.
Then the little girls under like cir
Cumstances, all hippity-hopping. with
their little slim legs nearly always in
lue air luaNthl Ol on lut 6lOuuN
where Miss Prim declares they ought
to be- Their Marguerites twirling and
whirlng and the curious little old wo
manish bunches Of hair bobbing about
in a chronic state OF restless youthful
spirits They talk and gesticulate, but
they do not fight or pitch pennies
They are little mothers, and they talR
about dolls. housekeeping. They tel
each other about the pinafOres they
have at home, and pull out Of theii
pockets crude little bits Of crochetinl
or needleWork. "Oh, my, amt thai
finei BY and BY hurdygurdy, stree
piano or blind fiddler comes along
Then the little mites OF women droI
their books, and cover the Sidewalk
with their graceful dancing figures
and they keep It mp as long as sOmt
bVstander puts silver OF money #
the piano grinders hand. OF courst
all this is wrong. but it is aWfully cute
everything that Is cute and pleasan
is usually wrong in the minds Of som,
folks. But, thank goodness, they arr
not in the majority, so cuteness Is no
a sin
Il is my candid belief that we're 4
not for the fact that men and Womei
unbend and surrender to the attrac
tions OF youthful cuteness, the who'll
world would soon become a hades or