The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-02-03
The Baby of the Period.

They've stopped rocking the baby
now. and before he is two years old he
is taught to say isn't instead of amt.
This is part of the kindergarten system
which is death 10 goo-goo talk. and
teaches a child to parse with blocks of
wood and toy horses, before he has
seen five The old-fashioned
fat. clumsy baby who went to sleep
While he was being tossed from one
end Of the room to the other in the
hereditary cradle, and awoke to STUN
bile round and humble. ~unrebuked. a
language of his own-that Laby is a
back number.
They are saying nowadays that rock
ing a baby is not at all good for him
and if o keep on rocking him his
brains will get scrambly and he will
become Anticipated. The modern baby
recently imported. is placed in a sta-
tionary basket. just as if he were a
newly purchased Maltese cat, and no
matter how dear he may look when he
blinkS his eyes to sneeze, or puts his
pink toe in his mOuth nobody ever
thinks Of leaning over him and telling
: him he is a toOtSie-WOOtSie. He has
three syllable words pounded at him
While he is still breathing out of the
ton of his head and before he has any
backbone at all. Of course this will
breed pride. a disinclination to put
everything that he sees in his mouth,
and an early aversion to mud pes.
He is W against an entirely new con-
dition. All. or nearly all, the old hack
mammies are dead: the young nurses
have a grammar school education, and
his mother is a member of a latter day
cult which treats an infant as If he
were a rational human being.
The subject is not laughable. You
go out on the streets any day and
you'll see a lot of babies that look as
if they had lived in Boston before they
We're born. They are so proper n
knowing looking. And if you forget
yourself and indulge in n of the SIM
pering, minus-g talk that soothed you
when you first imbibed out of the neck
of the bottle. you are apt to get a dignl-
fed, reproachful look that will chill
you to your marrow. The modern baby
is really very fearsome. Nobody ever
sings Him a foolish old plantation dit
ty; nobody ever edifies him by crying
hoo-ah, boo! Nobody even lets Him
endeavor to pull the tail out of a cat
or tOddle around with a face that Is
sweet beyond his ears and years.
The future only can declare the wis
dom or unWisdom of the new plan
Manhood is but the dusty Wareroom
wher are stored life's broken
and the journey that began with a fast.
jerky ride in a cradle. ended on the
first summer day that brought unused
shoes to young feet, and included un-
limited dirt and goo-goo speech. is the
only period in life that is allowed to be
perfect.
Speaking of juvenile things have o
read the children stories of Miss Jose
phine Dodge Daskam, the most de-
lightful woman writer in America? In
Philip" and containing a number Of
short stories, she exposes the heart OF
a child. or the hearts of many children
In all literature the DOC has no like
ness. The majority Of authors stoop
to write about children, treat them in
a p~atronfzing. ~unknowing sort of way.
But Miss Daskam shows the inner
emotions of a child's soul and her
words ring true. She is anything else
but conventional; but her art is a deli
cate, beautiful realism. And the true
picture OF q child is always refreshing.
Charlotte Observer.