The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1922-09-29
TAKE TO 'KIDDIEs'
Writer Corrects Misapprehension
Concerning Bachelors.
Really They Have a Better Under
standing Of the Childish Heart
Than Have Many Parents.

Thar Have Many Parents.
have long been convinced that the
people who have no children are se-
crefly malinged and treated with in
justice by those who have, and 1t Is
for the purpose of defending them and
setting them right that these lines are
written, Thomas l.. Mason writes In
the New York Sun. There Is a
kind of confraternity of those who
have children arrayed against those
who haven't.
The thing has gone far enough.
In the interests of good fellowship
and all-around sport, 1t certainly ought
to be stopped.
frankly plead guilty myself to this
sort of thing. l can recall the many
occasions in which l have remarked
to somebody else who had children,
speaking of some one who had them
not:
You see, he doesn't understand. He
has no children of his own. Great pity,
isn't it,"
Yes, / have said this SO often my
self, and have heard 1t said so often
; that it Is now high time to record my
sense of cOntrition. For it isn't true.
The truth Is that those who have no
children quite generally understand
them much better than those who do.
They have kind of sense about chill
dren, very much like sixth sense, and
nh, 10 hox mi, 10
them to take the place of the children
themselves.
could give many instances that. oc-
cur to me to corroborate this view. /
know two or three old bachelors who
have devoted their lives to the bring
ing up of boys, and the astonishing
insight into boys that they have GER
tainly could not be excelled, If paral-
leled, by any parent. As for maiden
ladies, their perceptions about chill
dren are uncanny.
have seen boys considered thor
0ughly bad and denounced and
trounced by their parents, and made
able crawl under the wings of some
spinster lady, and be Immediately re-
yiyed and mentally and morally set
upon their feet, merely by the fact
that the spinster lady was able to look
into their hearts and to have such
faith in them as to accomplish this
miracle.
For this is the real miracle after
all-that one may ~touch human be-
ing, perhaps only by the pressure
of the hand or an understanding smile
4. and listening ear, and Immediately
restore him to moral health.
/ am free TO confess that there are
so many things about those who have
no children that indicate their superb
GRITTY to those who have that find.
1t difficult to know where to begin.
They may be lost in every other way.
Owing to their freedom from re
sponsibilities of this sort, and Joy
BUSINESS the heart Of the crusty, in
their ways and cranks, and all that
sort of thing, it is nothing less than
marvellous the way they will let chill
dren upset them.
l have seen an elderly gentleman
who had lived in bachelor apartments
all his life, and who, IL his newspa-
per was ten minutes late. or was fold
ed the wrong way, would fall into.
profound rage I have seen this gen.
tieman submit to any indignity Inn
posed upon him by small band of
children at a Meek-end-and cry for
more.
Thus, you see, there are two sorts
of miracles; there is the miracle Of
the chiidless person understanding
and seeing into the child's heart when
the parent is blind, and there is the.
miracle Of the child bringing back to
responsiveness and j0yOpsness the
heart of the crusty, childless person,
who has become immersed In the ma
chinery of his own selfishness.
Then, again, have you noticed that
childless persons love all kinds of chill
dren? Their impartiality is as wide as
the world. A nice little girl with
fiaxen hair blowing back Of her as she
runs in the wind, and who sits on ones
knee In the twilight and asks for a
fairy story-such a divine creature as
this will appeal to any childless per-
son, no matter who she is or where
she comes from.
But the average parent shifts at any
other little girl like that who doesn't
belong to him. The prejudice and in
tolerance of parents have never been
measured
Mass Of cameIs