HOW TO CARRY THE BABY

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 10, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 41.

HOW TO CARRY THE BABY.

DEAR mothers of first babies, let me entreat you to learn the simple art of carrying your baby properly. I was once traveling on a cable-car that, among other passengers, contained two young mothers, each holding an infant under three months old. My attention was attracted to the first as soon as I was seated, and I noticed the eyes of other passengers wandering in the same direction. She was never still, and the child might have been a dish-rag for all the respect that was paid to its vertebrate system. First it was thrown over the mother's arm, between the elbow and wrist, its poor little head wabbling about like an apple just ready to fall from the tree. Then it was laid face downwards across her knee, and jogged about to a "rum-tum-diddy" that might have been soothing to its nerves if they were constructed on a principle different from those of all the rest of humanity.

Up to this point it had been quiet, but at the sound of the "rum-tum-diddy" it asserted a vigorous motion of resentment. It was then transferred to the maternal shoulder, and patted on the back with movements that must have appeared to the tender infant like vigorous whacks. It was next tied into a sort of true-love knot in the mother's lap, one little foot and one little arm sticking out here and there by way of loops. Unappreciative infant! even then it would not be silent. As a last resource, the mother opened her dress and forced nourishment upon it that it did not need, in the presence of a large car-load of mingled sexes, most of whom were looking on in amusement but poorly concealed.

At last, with overloaded stomach and flushed face, the poor little baby sank into an uneasy slumber, its face and limbs twitching from time to time in a manner that boded ill for its future. It had not asked for tossings, for pattings, or for food; it only needed rest. It did not get it even then, for two blocks further on the mother sprang up like a whirlwind, first to stop the car and then to get out, which latter she did with the now screaming baby tucked under her arm like an umbrella.

From time to time, when the exigencies of this little drama admitted of a moment's relaxation, I had glanced at the other mother. She had brought her sleeping and well-fed infant into the car shortly after my own advent, and, with her fare already in her hand, had seated herself quietly, and at once placed her little placid baby in such a position that its head rested comfortably on her shoulder, while its back was supported by her arm. To say that it then sank into peaceful slumber, would be a false description; for, in fact, so gentle had been its mother's movements, that it had never awakened. For seven long miles, through more than an hour's ride, the child slept in

Dr. Alexander Haig, the eminent specialist, of London, England, says: "The less animal flesh that people take, the better they come out in trials of force production, and especially in endurance;" and medical authorities everywhere are agreed that the eating of flesh meats is a prolific source of cancer, chronic rheumatism, and gout.