The Washington herald., 1911-11-05
BY JULIA CHANDLER MANI.

The Borden Baby Contest, which is be-
ing conducted by The Washington Herald
to determine the most beautiful babies
in Washington and its vicinity, has ex-
tended its influence beyond mere contest
confines, resulting in the awakening of
ideas and the propounding of many
questions that involve the wonderful
business of motherhood.
Following is one of the letters inspired
by the babies, a letter which deals with
question Of vital Importance to Wash
ington women:
Dear Editor: Your baby contest, now
interesting the many mothers of the Dis
trict, would imply that at least some peo-
pie in beautiful Washington are willing
that dear little children shall live and
enjoy life here. But how often are We
told, when seeking flats or apartments,
that nc children are allowed or wanted
there? In fact, to find one without such
restrictions is rare, indeed.
Wants Apartment for Children.
while Christians and those who are
charitably inclined are contributing to
the heather of foreign lands, would it
not be wise and we'll to erect an apart
ment house-a very large one-for chill
dren, with a distinct understanding that
wives who are deprived of the joy of
motherhood are cursed, and a childless
old age is especially deplorable.
In the old days a barren woman was
an exception. Now any other kind is a
rara avis.
A fashionable, hohble-skirted. CAD
about butterflies of the high-priced
apartment houses of Washington City
would be as much of a curiosity to the
colonial mothers and grandmothers as
the airships and electric cars, could
time only stop its wheels and they step
out of the remote past.
But what's the use of sermonizing.
II little children are not wanted, they
don't get here, and We often meet cir
cumstances in after Ife-when we regret
that we did get here. So let the hobble-
harem skirts and fashionable, high
priced, no-children-allowed apartments
keep up their good work. But a time
will come when even these things must
have an end.
'One who has made many investiga-
tions. McGINNIS.
That this letter. in spite of its nom
committaI signature is from woman
and a woman who loves the prattle and
laughter of little children is evident from
its thought. but 1 don't believe there
could be builded an apartment house in
all the world, no matter how designed,
that could fill the home need of our grow
ing, developing children.
Not the Place for Babies.
The great walls of an apartment are
utterly without the sort of home atmos-
phere that children require for their
highest development.
Better the most humble detached house
in the least fashionable suburb of Wash
ington and its freedom, than the most
magnificent apartment in its most fash
ionable thoroughfare as far as the childs 8
welfare is concerned.
The human plant needs for its proper
growth the same treatment that brings
into perfect blossom any plant of the
natural world-plenty of soil, air, sun
shine, nd nouTishment.
During the sweltering evenings of last
summer l used to watch the little chill
dren play who had no other playground
than the hot pavement, and my heart
ached because of their too big eyes in
wan little faces. All the joy of childhood
seemed dormant or dead within them,
and many were the JImes that 1 Won
dered why the very instinct of mother
hood did not pull so hard at the heart
strings and the brain strings of their
mothers that they would take three
little growing human plants out in the
suburbs where they might have a real
home with a real back yard for the price
that theV were having for. their feu hot