Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-09-07


of business you going put him into?' he asked
question. sBusiness!@ gasped the father. I'VE shall
allow Santas Perfection to go into any business
Think of the dangers of mirgng with the outer world
1t would be fatal to hopes and purposes. No, he
shall be cared for and guarded by from all possible
contamination until the time of his marriage to of
the opposite who shall have been reared tendery
as he he
dent of the United States, said Mrs Briggs (which
with the training shall give him he no doubt could
hands at those big receptions with all sorts of peope
"Horrible!' gasped Miss A1andrver, rubbing her
hands together under her trnic though to brush off
imaginary germs.
"But now" said Briggs Il fear must withdraw
Sanitas from the room. The temperature has risen
from our re- enc IN suen mum ne
And Santas was withdrawn to his little nursery thus
ending the ceremony.
FROM the foregoing it will be gathered that Santas
Perfection Briggs had been brought into this world
with task already cut out for hl-a task that would
have made infants round and leave at
His parents what YOU might call Eugenic Enthus
asts. and Sanitas, poor baby their sacrifice upon
the altar of Humanity! Through him, brought up
apart from the unfumgated and undisnfected world,
was to grow race, perfect and strong. And
you can see they had put him in training for it from the
outset.
There were some, Miss Eugenia AIandrver, for
pie, who thought that Mrs Briggs less enthusiastic
on the subject Of Santas career than her husband
Il sometimes fear said Miss Mandrver to fellow
member of the association day, that Mrs. Briggs
had been unable to stife some traces OF maternal
and personal affection toward our child She always
spoke of Santas "our child. "On several occasions,
when calling Unexpectedly at their house, have de-
tected guilty look in her eyes, though perhaps she
had been embracing him showing him of that
ridiculous gentleness which has enervated the present
race
"Oh, trust not, said her friend "That would be
fatal7
1T would" said Miss NIandriver. ~we must watch
For Mrs. Briggs say. however that, while at
first she had found her task OF abandoning all old
fashioned motherly instincts difficult one, she had
mastered it, that by the time little Sanitas had
reached the age of ve-which he mlraculousy did-it
only in her weakest moments when she ever felt
desire clasp him in her At least it seemed SO,
Judging from her mehodical manner toward him, and
not even Miss Mandrver could find the slightest fault
with the upbringing OF "our child
Santas Perfection continued to thrive, thus proving
either one of two thngs-that scientific child rearing,
conducted in his case, good thing; or that he
had the constitution of Nantucket whaling ship
crossed with Galapagos tortoise. Feed him with
proteds swab him with antiseptcs surround him with
the most fatal safeguards they would he persisted in
fourshng like green bay tree: only little more san
itary for the green bay tree II we are not mistaken
nurtures many, many little germs and bacllh beneath
its leaves while for Sanitas Pertectlon-but perish
the thought
Against germs and bacil hero-you wont object
to our calling him hero that you have learned
what he going through-was guarded increasingly
His was germ proof his clothing was germ proof
his food boiled to kill some germs and frozen to kill
the rest. He had tutor who all but baked before
being allowed to enter the room where, amid his anti
septic schoolbooks. Sanitas awaited him at regular
hours. Even his education dsinfected and ster-
zed for he taught that the outer world was hot
bed of lurking bacteria whose sole aim was to catch
little boys and sting them to death AS tor other little
boys
Sanitas was looking out OF his window day, in