26-4 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
ggp” For other Household Items see “ Basket ” pages. 
An Iron Pot Scrubber. 
The cleaning of pots and pans is a -work that 
housekeepers would gladly avoid if they could. 
Pots must be cleaned, however, and to save the 
finger nails, chips, spoons, knives, and other sub¬ 
stitutes are used. In some parts of the country, a 
pot-scrubber made of 
iron rings, as shown in 
the illustration, is used, 
but it is by no means 
so well known as it 
ought to be, as it serves 
a most excellent pur¬ 
pose. It is shown as it 
appears when spread 
out; but when taken in 
the hand may be gather¬ 
ed up, in the same man¬ 
ner as a piece of cloth. 
When anything sticks 
to the pot or other uten¬ 
sil, or has been burned 
to the bottom of it, a 
little hard rubbing with 
this scrubber quickly 
removes it; and when the pot merely needs rinsing, 
the scrubber may be loosely rubbed around a few 
times. We do not know who the manufacturer is, 
but as the scrubber is kept for sale at some of the 
hardware stores in the city of New York it can be 
procured by any retailer of hardware or house 
furnishing goods throughout the country, if it is 
only inquired for. Its cost is 25 cents. 
WIRE DISH-WASHER. 
A Home-made Toasting Fork. 
A fork that will hold bread, cakes, muffins, or 
even chops, steaks and slices of bacon, that are to 
be toasted, before a fire, may be made of any refuse 
piece of tin, as the bottom of a sardine box, or the 
side of a fruit can. A piece of tin of convenient 
size, 6 to 8 inches long, and 3 to 4 inches wide, for 
instance, is flattened out; the corners are cut off, 
and the edges are turued up as shown in the en¬ 
graving ; this is done to make the tin stitler, so that 
it will hold its shape. Three angular pieces are 
then cut, and bent up as shown ; and three wires 
are fastened into holes, and then twisted to form a 
handle by which it is held. It is best that the three 
points should be turned up a little so that what¬ 
ever is placed upon them may not slip off easily. 
This is a little useful thing for the boys to exercise 
their ingenuity upon, as it can all be made with a 
jack knife and a sharp pointed nail with which to 
punch the three holes for the wires of the handle. 
Home Topics. 
BT FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Tending Baby. 
Now here is Grace with her first baby ; and some¬ 
how she has to “ tend ” it a great deal. Don’t you 
believe that she “ has to ” ? But the baby worries 
if he is not taken up when he feels like it, and if he 
is neglected long, the worrying usually turns into 
hard crying. “ What of that ? Oh dear ! If you 
have not been “ through the mill,” either as mother 
or as sympathizing friend, please don’t speak in 
this meeting. We don’t care to hear about Indian 
babies, strapped to a board for hours at a time, 
sucking a bit of sour bread or raw meat. Our chil¬ 
dren do not inherit the fortitude of the Indian char¬ 
acter, nor the robustness of the Indian constitution, 
and no single-handed efforts will bring individuals 
of the Anglo-Saxon race to an equality with Ameri¬ 
can Indians in these respects. 
Grace is a woman of good sense, tender in heart 
and in judgment. She wants to do the right thing 
by that baby. Triends advise her not to tend the 
baby too much—teach him to take care of himself, 
as far as possible, and Grace herself resolves to do 
this. But if the baby, after his short nap (for he 
does the bulk of his sleeping at night), and a little 
season of quiet and happy open-eyed meditation, 
announces in baby language that he would like to 
sit up now—why, isn’t it fair that somebody’s lov¬ 
ing arms should support the frame whose bones 
have not yet grown strong enough to support it ? 
Human beings were not made for a steady horizon¬ 
tal position, and young babies have a right to lie 
up over their mothers’ shoulders, and look at the 
world as others see it, and to find how it seems to 
sit up, safely supported by a loving arm and breast. 
But, presently, the baby worries again, and it is 
not hungry and has no other apparent cause of 
complaint. It continues to complain, making every 
body in its vicinity more or less uncomfortable. 
Since the baby cannot explain its troubles, and 
since there are in human experience almost infinite 
sources of discomfort, it is quite fair to try to dis¬ 
cover what ails the baby, and so relieve it. 
I have tried to give baby’s side of the subject. 
But now, how shall parents protect themselves 
against infant tyranny ?—How can the little ones 
be early taught to know their place and not en¬ 
croach needlessly upon the rights of others ?—If I 
could, I would inquire of the mother of John 
Wesley, who is noted for this, among other things, 
that she never allowed a child over four months 
old to cry aloud. How did she manage it ? And 
she had—was it eleven children ? or was it four¬ 
teen ? Iam unable to believe the story about her 
babes not crying aloud. 
Well, mine do; and so do yours. Some babies 
can be turned off more than others. Perhaps they 
are less social, perhaps less selfish and exacting— 
these babies who take everything good-naturedly. 
Perhaps they are simply healthier. There are little 
children who, by the time they can talk, seem to 
have gained a complete mastery of their parents, 
and the only way to have peace—a wretched peace 
indeed!—is to let them have their way in every¬ 
thing. This is a most deplorable state of things, 
but it is not always the result of parental imbecility. 
Sensible people sometimes find themselves the 
natural guardians of babes with so nervous tem¬ 
peraments, and so mountainous -wills, that it seems 
extremely difficult to establish proper government. 
No very definite advice can be given to meet such 
cases. A baby’s rights must be respected. The 
helpless little creature has a right to smiles and 
tender words, and help about its exercise and self- 
education. But it ought to learn some self-reli¬ 
ance. Sooner or later it must submit to have its 
wishes crossed. We find how much easier it is for 
a baby to lie in its crib, or sit on the floor, or in a 
high chair, and amuse itself when it sees other per¬ 
sons busy at work. It does not seem to understand 
that sewing, or other sedentary employments, are 
necessary occupations for mamma, if she is much 
engaged with house-work. While she is going 
about the house with broom, or dish cloth, or ladle, 
baby employs and amuses itself as best it can, but 
when the work is done up, and mamma sits down 
to sew—now is baby’s chance ! And why not ? But 
the sewing must be done ! Alas yes. I wish mam¬ 
ma could take the baby out in the garden, and not 
know of a single thing that she ought to be doing, 
except to have a good time with baby for two or 
three hours every day. 
It is painful to see how persistently many people 
educate self-consciousness in little children. They 
give such over-doses of pity for all its little woes ! 
Better to cheer it than to pity it, when it mourns. 
Indifference to its real troubles is cruel and unlike¬ 
ly to educate the tender Christian graces in a child, 
but I am sure that the unconscious motive of the 
“ poor baby,”—“ did they ’buse it ? ”—“ well, they 
shouldn’t! ” soothing doses, is to make the baby 
delight in feeling its importance in the circle, and 
take a natural, but not ennobling pleasure, in excit¬ 
ing the compassion of others. Kiss the bruised 
portion ; rub the aching spot; let the little one- feel 
that you love it and wish to do it good; but try to 
interest it in something outside of itself. I confess 
I hardly expect to see a single American child 
brought up after this plan in my day and genera¬ 
tion, but this has long been my theory. If one 
parent pursues the sensible course, perhaps the 
child’s other parent, or some grandparent, or aunt, 
exclaims pityingly at every fall. 
It is poor policy to teach a child to be almost al¬ 
ways in motion, trotting, rocking, jumping, rolling 
in a carriage, or carried about in some one’s arms. 
When the wee bit baby grows uneasy, see whether 
a simple change of position will not answer as well 
as rocking it. Some babies will not sleep at all, 
night or day, unless rocked. Some babies must 
have also a regular din set up to drown out their 
cries and stupify them with astonishment, until 
they sieep. I even knew of one who required not 
only a din, but a real dinner—bell! At last it could 
not be got to sleep without having a big dinner- 
bell rung above its head. Eemember this, when 
you begin the practice of putting the baby to sleep 
with instrumental music, or any noise, except sooth¬ 
ing lullabys. Perhaps it is, as many say, the best 
way to teach babies, from the outset, to go to sleep 
alone in their little cribs, without any attention ex¬ 
cept putting them there, but I frankly confess that 
I should not like to have missed the pleasure of 
sometimes rocking my babes to sleep in my arms, 
to lullaby singing of my own heart’s making. “It 
takes time,” they say. Dear! Dear! What do 
women want time for, if not for the sweetest of 
womanly pleasures ? Because 1 believe in a good 
God, I am very sure that in some good time coming 
all mothers and babies will yet have a fair chance 
and a good time in this world. Until then, women 
and babies must simply do the best they can. 
Letting Babies Cry. 
The foregoing topic is unreasonably long, I 
know, and yet I did not speak of one important 
consideration in tending a baby. I have been asked 
whether I did not believe that babes would soon 
cease to cry, unless in pain, if their calls were usu¬ 
ally disregarded. Very likely they would, but how 
are you to know whether an infant is is pain or not? 
It would be simply cruel to leave it to suffer un¬ 
helped if it were enduring pain, or only discomfort, 
which you could relieve. Even if you suspect that 
its cries result from temper alone, you can not be 
sure of it, if the child can not talk ; a severe parox¬ 
ysm of crying may result in long and anxious pa¬ 
rental inquiry and experimenting with infant trasses 
of one kind or another, together with the necessity 
of using almost any means, rather than to allow the 
injured child to cry hard again. All this is matter 
of quite common experience, in the world as we 
find it, as they should know who talk dogmatically 
about letting little babies “cry it out and learn once 
for all who is master.” 
In a very interesting Autobiography, published a 
few years ago, l we are told how the author’s mother, 
by his father’s advice, let him sit upon the floor, a 
babe of six months, and scream out his rage over 
necessary denials of his wishes, time after time, un¬ 
til he was cured of such folly. Perhaps if only 
rage possessed the child, it would not be likely to 
scream until serious physical injury would result; 
but I should like to ask that man’s mother some 
questions prompted by scientific curiosity and phil¬ 
anthropic desire. If no immediate strain or rup¬ 
ture followed such paroxysms as the child indulged 
in, 1 think there may possibly have been some con¬ 
nection between them (in their effect upon the 
nervous system), and serious nervous prostration 
which followed an attack of measles some years 
later. Questions like this must occasion anxious 
thought to parents who have nervous children. 
There is, on the one hand, the danger of physical 
injury from excessive excitement; and a danger 
equally great on the other hand—the cultivation of 
willfulness, obstinacy, tyranny of disposition, by 
