The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1908-12-24
PITY THE UNKIsSED BABY.
The Lot Of the Modern Sterilized
Young One Not Wholly Desirable.

Don't let the microbe bite the baby"
Don't let a germ fasten its claws in his
chubby arm" Don't" don't" don't"
about a thousand "don'ts" seem to be
the first course in the science OF baby cul-
ture.
OF course, all of us who have infants
want to have a thoroughly clean and
healthy child-an antiseptic baby. But
some of these germicide mothers, who try
to rear infants by rule and book, as il
| carrying out a receipt for cake. are likely
to bring up fiaxen-haired "mollycoddles"
Two English parents have set the pace
by never kissing their own baby and new
er allowing anyone else TO kiss it. and
have posted up in the hall of their house
the following set of rules; -.--
Don't kiss the baby.
Don't handle the baby unless your
hands are very. very clean.
Don't bring baby's face close to your
own or to your hair
Don't allow baby TO touch your face or
hair
Don't talk. breathe. whistle. blow.
cough or sneeze into baby's face. We
want him to live.
Don't use your handkerchief to baby's
hands, face or mouth.
To some these rules will appear conf
cal or stupid, but they are not written as
a joke or without thought. Therefore
any person infringing these rules after
having read them will incur our displeas-
ure extremely.
Think of a baby who has never been
kissed. never fondled, never crooned to
sleep in its mothers arms. What pleas
ure does he have in life if he can't crawl
over the floor and root around the car
pet? Why, he can't even pull papa's
whiskers or mammals hair. Every time
you want to pick him up you have to
wash your hands with antiseptic soap,
and change your clothes to hospital pro-
tectors, and pick him up with porcelain
kid-lifter Of course if you want to keep
the child absolutely free from germs you
should battle him every hour, and have
him steriized and keep him rolled in cot
ton batting.
Perhaps most of us will get along with
the good old-fashioned way of rearing
babies. The old saying is that each one
of us must eat his peck of dirt, and if
we start young we get used to it by the
time we grow up.
The greatest men in this country have
been reared by hand, so to speak
reared when the people let the kids and
the germs fight it out. and the germs gen.
orally got licked We always pitied the
poor little incubator babies who could not
go back and caress the baby machine
WIN tHe same warmth VI dlleCtlOu tHdt
they could bestow upon the woman who
rocked them to sleep.
The antiseptic baby is great inven-
ton, but we will stake against it every
time the child who crawled around in
the sand, made mud pies, painted himself
with chalk or SCOT and could with ease
dispose of thirteen fresh dresses in a sin.
gle day. The baby that the mother holds
in her arms while she sings it to sleep
with an old-time lullaby-the baby that
can bring his troubles to her and have
them smoothed away with a pat and a
kiss-is the one who makes the man. The
soft songs that he heard as he was rocked
to sleep linger in his memory like some
soothing strain to lull the cares and trou-
bles of life.
All the germicides and antiseptics, all
the rules and regulations will furnish
against the trials. troubles and vicissi-
tudes of the world no protection like the
memory of mothers love and tender
kiss.
Poor little unkissed baby Baltimore
Sun.