The Ordway new era., 1922-07-14
TAKE TO 'KIDDIES'
Writer corrects Misapprehension
Concerning Bachelors.
Really They Have Better und.-
standing of the Childish Heart
Than Have Many Parents.

nave long been convinced that tho
people VINO have no children are So
cretiy malinged and treated with in
justice by those who have. and IT is
FOR the purpose of defending them and
setting them right that these lines are
written, Thomas l.. Masson writes In
the New York Sun. There is a
KIND of confraternity of those who
nave children arrayed against those
who haven't
Inc 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 | 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 nv
self, and l have heard it said so often
that 1t 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 a kind of sense about chill
dren. very much-like sixth sense. and
which appears to have been given to
them to take the place of the children
themselves.
l could give many instances that oc-
cur to me to cOrroborate this view. l
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.
l have seen boys considered thor
oughly bad and denounced and
trounced by their parents, and made
to feel quite worthless and unredeem-
able crawl under the wings of some
spinster lady, and he Immediately re-
vived 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
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
ority 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-
spOnsiblities 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, if his newspa-
per was ten minutes late, or was fold
ed the wrong way, would fall INTO a
profound rage. l have seen this gen
tleman submit to any indignity I'M
posed upon him by small band of
children at q week-end-and cry for
more.
Thus, you see, there are two sorts
of miracles; there is the miracle OF
the childless 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 joyousness the
heart of the crusty, chidless person.
who has become immersed in the ma
chinery of his own seltishness.
Then, again, have you noticed that
childless persons love all kinds of chill
dren? Their impartiality Is as vide as
the world. A nice little girl with
Haxen hair blowing back of her as she
runs In the wind, and who sits on ones
knee in the twilight and asks Tor a
fairy story-such II 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 sniffs at any
other little girl like that who doesh
belong to him. The prejudice ana IN
tolerance of parents have never Deeh
measured!