Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-09-30
THE BABY-GOD BLESS IL.

One of the most charming essays
on the baby. and the part it plays
in the household, in the development
of character, and in the happiness
of those about it, is to be found IN
the October Ladies' Home Journal.
1t viii prove a treat to any one e.
read it. 1t may open up an entirely
new vista Of thought to those WHO
nave never, even unconsciously, realiz-
ed the value of the baby to the home
circle, who have never appraised the
infant at it's full value in making life
worth the living. who may even at
times have felt that it was a sort of
necessary nuisance, that must be to-
Grated and cared for until it could
reach a more valuable and more int :
esting stage of life. AS the writer OF
this delightful article points out, there
is never time in life when one is 50
valuable in bringing out the tender
est, sweetest, most precious sentiments
in others, as in the crawling, pratt
Ting, gIeeful hours Of innocent baby
hood The essay is well worth read
ing in its entirety. Here are a few Of
the sentiments that every mother
heart and father heart will give fer
vent Amen" to:
A prosperous American family
spends a great deal of money on tue
means of enjoyment, and if any one
smashed the photograph, the auto
moSile or the piano he would surely
be held liable for real damages. But
a baby leaves all the other contriv.
ances of pleasure out fthe reckoning.
As in the case of the yacht that first
won the America cup; the baby is
first; there is no second Watch the
faces of the family while the phono-
graph is playing funny song, Watch
the faces af the same 7miiy when the
baby is brought in 4sL from his nap
wide-eyed, sh wing mis- one tooth in a
smile of broad benevolenee. If the
phonograph is not promptly abandon
ed, it is likely to drop into a mere adj
junct to the performances of the ba5v
high-grade orchestra living on the
premises, and could summon it at Will
for its pleasure .it would be a decor
ous, passionless, pale satisfaction COM
pared with the thrills Of joy which + IL
baby spreads. When a young mother
plays with the baby on her lap ami
laughs at his kicks and gurgles, or
settles back to the soul satisfying task
- feeding the little life from her own
breast, does such a look of heavenly
bIessedness ever come in her face at
any other time? And when the father
romps with his little daughter and
feels her little arms about his n9cz
and her soft cheek against his own,
the joy is often so intense that it
1urts A friend of mine who had ira
versed most of the Intellectual ex
periences of life, said to me with deep
feeling when he was passing away.
There is nothing worth while, eN-
cent children"
Certainly the immense majority o.
those who have both children and the
other sources of pleasure feel no dot BIT
which of the two furnishes the intenser
and more persistent emotions of iov.
Ny first claim, then, is that the baby
as a ioy-giver is an Incompatible sue,
~~ md when compared with the ax-
pensiveness of the inferior forms p,
amusement far more than earns his
living from the outset.
lAll the educators agree that tn
crown and flower of all education il
the training of character. 1t is also
the most elusive of all educational pro
cesses. We can easily hire man to
drill mathematics or modern language
into a boys head, but where shall VIZ
hire the inscrutable forces that shape
a strong character? Usually in an en-
tire college faculty there are only two
or three men who have that divine
gift To them the boys look back with
generation and gratitude because they
called the man in them into life. A
rich nau + light well rive hall nj or
tune to buy such an influence for his
boys life,
But almost every baby does just TINT
for his parents, He gives them al
postgraduate course in character. HeI
natures and ennobles them in way
that would seem miraculous, il it were
not so universal. He turns vain
selfish, idle, frivolous girl into a pal
tient, self-forgetful woman. He tethers
the vagraHt instincts of the young
fellow and makes a man of him, low
ing and strong. To the great mass OF.
men and women the baby is literally
the only means of winning through toI
a higher life. He is he only force
capable Of bursting the seed capsule
of their selfish life and of giving
them chance to strike root and grow
up into the larger reaches of human
ity
For the older children of a family
the baby is the best assistant educa
tor that the parents gould engage for
any money. He develops the nobler
protective emotions in them by appeal-I
ing to the dormant parental instincts.
He puts them In the position of teach
ers and by teaching they learn. mi
general he helps to turn selfish young
sayages into members of a fami y
community, willing to render help to
those within as well as to receive it
from those without
Tom Watson's friends ought to take
him in charge. The man has become
apparently irresponsible. In the las,
Jeffersonian he runs wild open letter
to Hoke Smith in which he says