1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



581 



they have suitable playthinos, and their edu- 

 cation commences with the best up-to-date 

 methods. Good trained women who love 

 babies have the care of them. Now, this is 

 not all. The mothers are questioned and in- 

 structed in the best methods of caring for 

 the health and manners of the little ones. 

 Not only this, but during the very hot 

 weather of the past season competent trained 

 nurses have been employed by the city to go 

 about among the mothers and instruct these 

 same mothers in regard to the very best and 

 latest methods of preventing sickness and 

 death during the heated period. Just a few 

 years ago not only hundreds but thousands 

 of babies died every summer, especially in 

 the densely populated cities of our land, 

 from a lack of proper food, fresh air, and sen- 

 sible protection from the depressing in- 

 fluences of our hottest summer weather. 

 Great sums are now being expended in every 

 large city of our land in providing parks 

 where the babies and older children may be 

 taken for their health during the summer 

 time. What a glorious work this is ! Like 

 the chickens (begging your pardon for going 

 back to the chickens again), after they have 

 come into the world they have in times past 

 been dying by the score ! The fathers and 

 mothers mourn their loss, but seem to think 

 it could not have been helped. Now, thank 

 God, this great nation of ours proposes to 

 stop letting babies die when a little money 

 judiciously spent might prevent this sickness 

 and death. May God be praised for this 

 Christian work. Caring for the babies is a 

 kind of religion that everybody believes in. 

 May the Lord be praised when such practical 

 Christianity is now taking the place of sense- 

 less discussions in regard to theological dif- 

 ferences. It is not alone the mothers in our 

 large cities that are being instructed, but 

 through our excellent home journals the 

 mothers on every farm and in every little 

 village are being taught the best methods of 

 keeping the babies well and happy. 



When we returned from Florida last spring 

 the baby in our home was having trouble 

 from indigestion. This particular baby had 

 some relatives besides her grandmother and 

 grandfather. They did not propose that she 

 should suffer from lack of any thing that 

 could well be obtained. A cow was pur- 

 chased, partly for her special benefit. Our 

 " Wise " doctordirectedhow the cow should 

 be fed and managed. The stable was to be 

 ventilated — well, something as we ventilate 

 our best up-to-date poultry-houses just now. 

 The man who milked the cow was to wash 

 his hands with sal soda and water before he 

 proceeded to do the milking. A veterinary 

 surgeon examined the cow's pulse and made 

 her put out her tongue to see if she was in 

 good health. May be I have not got it ex- 

 actly right, for I did not see it. But he pro- 

 nounced the cow in good health. A certain 

 portion of lime water was added to the baby's 

 milk, and she \\xst jumped right up in health. 

 They weighed her every Monday morning 

 for quite a spell to see how many ounces she 

 had gained. I can not remember now about 



the avoirdupois, but I shall always re- 

 member her bright smile and her crow of 

 delight whenever her grandfather came in 

 sight. I watched her growth and develop- 

 ment just as I have watched the chickens. 

 She has grown so in intelligence as well as 

 muscle that she is saucy and "bossy," es- 

 pecially wheneverhergrandpacomesaround. 

 They give her her milk at stated hours; but 

 she is getting so now that she is aware when 

 it is pretty near time for her ration, and she 

 pretty nearly raises the roof off the house by 

 her good-natured shriek. She does not get 

 cross and cry; on the contrary, she laughs 

 while she is using her lungs to send forth 

 peal after peal that almost prevents one from 

 thinking, let alone talking, until she can get 

 the "bottle" in her hands. There is no 

 more smile then until she has tipped it up 

 and exhausted its contents. After she has 

 been fed, then she will talk and show off her 

 tricks. 



Now, I have gone into this lengthy detail 

 just to show you that a baby that cries, per- 

 haps a good part of the day because it is suf- 

 fering and in pain, may be transformed into 

 one of the happiest and most joyous babies 

 you ever saw by simply looking after a few 

 necessary things. This baby sleeps alone, 

 and always has, so far as I know, either out 

 in the open air or in a bay window which is 

 practically open air. She is now eight 

 months old. She has never even tasted any 

 candy nor any thing of that sort; and I do 

 not know that she would have ever tasted 

 any thing but her milk had not her grandpa 

 given her a Battle Creek graham cracker 

 when she had two teeth to bite into it a lit- 

 tle. Let us now go back to our text. 



Is not this work we have just been discuss- 

 ing right along in the line of our text? We 

 have finished our discussion in regard to 

 what happens immediately after death; but 

 does not this verse at the head of my talk 

 to-day seem to indicate that these little ones 

 are with God the great Father from the time 

 they leave their earthly home away down 

 into the great future? Perhaps it is not pos- 

 sible to decide that matter just here; but we 

 know this: That God must be pleased, and 

 that the angels in heaven are pleased, to see 

 us protecting and caring for the children. 

 There are better schoolhouses for the little 

 ones now than ever before. The great kin- 

 der-garten work has been taken up and car- 

 ried forward since the time that I can re- 

 member clearly. Better food is provided 

 for children; and I hope the fashion of giv- 

 ing them candy and cake and sweetmeats all 

 through the day is being done away with. I 

 can remember "the time when I saw a near 

 neighbor of ours give a baby whisky and 

 milk in a teaspoon; and then they all laughed 

 to see the baby make faces. It used to be 

 the fashion to give the baby ever)' thing; then 

 people wondered why so many of them sick- 

 ened and died suddenly. I think it was in 

 yesterday's paper that 1 saw an account of a 

 baby that crawled under a cupboard and got 

 hold of a cracker on which strychnine had 

 been placed to poison rats and mice. The 



