Evening star., 1914-10-11
Mrs. William j. Macdonald Wife of the Representative
From Miehigam Gives Her Ideas of Teaching Children

will go through the first few years OF
life free from sickness. But it was a well
recognized state of mind in years gone
by to take it for granted that a child'wa
sure to catch one or more of the So-called
childrens diseases; that in fact, it was
better for child to have them when
young than to wait, as they would be
sure to pursue one through life. Take a
healthy child of today, and he need not
have these ailments at ALL
1t naturally follows. with such prin-
ciples as these. that Mrs. Mcdonald should
regard the home as one of the most i'm
portant, If not the most essential factor,
in the right upbringfng of children.
Children grow beyond the care of their
parents soon enough" Mrs. Mcdonald
said. land if they are allowed to grow up
heller skelter this occurs long before they
have sufficiently matured. The closest
companionship is necessary, in my opin-
ion, between a mother and her children to
yond their home before the proper time.
And what it means to a mother to keep
that close companionship!
She must have a deep understanding
first of all: child must feel in time of
need, be that need what it may that the
first desire is for mother'-that she is
the one persons who will best understand,
most sympathize and most willingly help.
If there is the slightest inharmony be-
tween a mother and child it will check
questions. all problems. And vet what
problems children can put up to US; what
difficult situations they can unwittinRly
makei
1T may sound simple enough, living up
to such principles as these but it has
1eus fulliillment of them entails a great
deal VI course, it may be gladly given
the time, and all else that is implied in
snch method of raising children, but it
naeans th nttie opportunity to keep up with
the social side of life
iail and slender Mrs. MacDonald's ap-
pearance emphasizes much of the per-
sonaity one would naturally expect from
one holding the ideas she does. Although
blonde, she is vivid" with ewes of a
deep blue and the high coloring not usu-
ally noticeable in people of her tyne,
Added to this is voice of more than
ordinary depth of feeling, one which car
r1es conviction with it and puts the final
seal OF emphasis upon any subject which
she may be discussing.
MIS-. Macdonald is interested in the
sunJects OF the day: in all the movements
winch stand for progress One of these
Whlch especially appeals to her is the
new doctrine of twilight sleep" as 4
IS being practiced at the famous Frauen-
kilnlk or Fsreiburg, Germany-the new
gospel of painless childbirth.
This twilight sleep" is state into
which the patient is kept. under the in
fuence of scopolamin and morphine,
with the result that the ordinary pains
of childbirth are felt. but not in the acute
degree of the average case. being usually
so deadened in their effect upon the pa
tents sensIbilities that she hardly real
ICES when the ordeal has passed.
For several years this twilight sleep
has been practiced at Freiburs. and more
recently has developed worldwide in
terest. At the present time it is being
practiced at the Jewish Maternity Hos
pital in New York. and is to be the sub
ject of an investigation by the Rockefel-
Ter Institute. And it is upon this sub
ject which Mrs. Macdonald is interested.
1T is a very wonderful thing to me,
she said. land something which will
mean a very great deal to women, if ever
it can be brought from its serhi-experi-
mental stage to a thoroughly practical
one. I must admit. however. that some
Of the cases which have been discussed
IN rscent magazines seem almost unreal
in their advance over ordinary methods. ''