The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1915-09-18
STORY OF THE DOORSTEP BABY,
Being the History Of Waif Who Won New Name and
Real Home-How You Can Coax the Fairy God
mother, Good Health, to Guard Your Baby's Future
A True Story with Real Moral

! Jersey City should have the contest,
q month or two later.
Now among those who had been
invited to attend this meeting were
directors of the City Hospital, a
doctor on the hospital staff and a
nurse from the institution. They
were interested in the Better Babies
Contest because they knew that many
babies could be saved in Jersey City
by proper care.
Then came very happy idea. Why
not enter a hospital baby and show
the examiners and the judges and
she parents, to say nothing of the
newspaper men, what could be done
Tor a motherless baby, just by in
selllgent care and feeding.
Every nurse of them turned in
stinetively to Edward, star baby as to
growth, appetite and smiles. Edward
was entered in the contest. And then,
if such thing were possible, Edward
was given even more careful atten-
ton. His life became a regime Of
nursely guardianship that ran by
charts and hours. He was weighed
and measured before an interested
audience of white-clad women. He
was fed by the clock, each feeding
weighed and measured, even as Ed
ward had been.
And then came the contest. Of
course, everybody knew about Ed
ward. The dispensary doctors were
interested because they wanted to
see what scientific care had done for
IN unknown child Club women5 End
board members were Interested be-
cause they wanted to prove that a
good institution gets results from con-
tributions. And mothers we're. in
terested because they felt quite sure
that an unmothered baby had no
chance against their home-raised dar-i
llngs.
Then came a morning when COM
mittee of contest workers arrived at
the Better Babies Bureau of the Wo-
mans Home Companion, in New
York, bearing the score cards of the
highest scoring babies in the Jersey
City contest. Scores were very close.
Would the director Of the bureau
please do the final computing7
And without knowing one baby
from another, without having seen a
single baby examined in Jersey City,
the director and her clerical workers
began to figure the cards, as they
had done for many other nearby con-
tests. The work went forward in
business-like way until one of the
with uphfted pencil exclaim-
ed:
Here's perfect baby e
Now, finding d perfect baby is an
event even in Better Babies Bureau |
to which a hundred thousand score
cards come in a year. Much excite
nent and comparing of figures and |
followed, and when it was
Ill over, with the 100 per cent record |
above challenge, the Jersey City COM
looJIsd au4 4eq4 peaunouue oo44!uu
oaby was a founding, who owed his I
good health and fine looks to the un-
emitting care of hospital nurses.
So it came about that Edward
Dean won the Woman's Home Com
,anion gold medal and was duly
scheduled for exhibition at the clos
ng exercises when prizes were to be
awarded. But Edwards fairy god
mother had not yet finished her work.
Among those who attended the clos
ng exercises of the contest were Mr..
md Mrs. James Hanley, of Gautier
venue. They just needed Better
3aby in their home, and who could
,e better than Edward, with a per-
ect score and a sweet disposition to
lis credit? So Edward was taken to
lis new home and placed on trial.
tt the end of six months he bad
,roved himself best baby indeed,
nd on April II Judge Mark A. Sui
ivan pronounced him the legal son
f Mr.. and Mrs. James Hanley.
Luck?
No, care. For this prize baby's
airy godmother was good health, by
i'd of which success, happiness, all |
he good things of life are achieved.
Your baby can have the same fairy
odmother if you ask her to enter
our door, If you do not believe this,
ttend the Better Babies Contest to i
e held at Donaldsonville under the |
uspices of the South Louisiana Fair,
)ct. 1871
There you can enter your baby and {
nd out how nearly he approaches
he standards of normal, healthy ba-
les. If he does not come up to the
tandard, you will learn why. And
why, you will be in posi-
ion to coax the fairy godmother,
ood health, to guard his future.