AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
347 
18G4. 
Fig. 1.—The Baby Tender as a Bed (2)).—The Head-rest,/?, and the foot-rest, C, can be lowered, or elevated, or removed, 
as shown in the other figures. A Drawer with sunken knob, is seen at E‘. The foot pedal, /-*, enables one to keep the bed in 
motion while sewing or reading. The Bed may be revolved upon the standard, to turn the child’s eyes from a strong light, 
and its head in any desired direction. The whole rests on castors, and is easily moved around the room. A curved wire, 
cut off from the top of the engraving to save space, can be inserted to support a mosquito or fly net above the child’s face. 
Tending the Baby. 
As a rule, babies are “tended” too much. “Man 
is a bundle of habits,” says tbe old adage, and these 
habits begin to be formed before lie is two days old. 
Habits of eating and sleeping, are the first. A child 
limy become habituated to lying, for hours on its 
Fig. 3, shows the head and foot elevated for an infant, 
bed, or on the floor; or, if indulged, it soon comes 
to exacting a place constantly in somebody’s arms. 
Just as it is taught to do, it will either go to sleep 
when laid quietly in its bed, or it will require to be 
rocked to dizziness. When first laid down it cries, 
and the mother or nurse tries to soothe it by rock¬ 
ing in a cradle, or literally shaking it in her arms. 
Every time this is' repeated, the habit is being 
formed or strengthened. Let it cry itself to sleep 
a few times, and the cries will daily grow less. In¬ 
dulgence makes it more and more imperious and 
persistent; it soon learns if it can have its way by 
Fig. 3, shows the headrest elevated as a chair-back, 
with the foot-piece arranged as a toj'-table—a Baby Jumper. 
crying for it; and usually from the age of six to 
twelve or fifteen months, the spoiled baby is a very 
tyrant in the house. Its whims, rather its habits, 
must be attended to willingly and quickly, or you 
will soon be compelled to yield, in order to stop its 
noise. (Don’t call us a ‘ cruel hearted, inexperi¬ 
enced man,’ good mother, for we have a house full 
of little ones, almost as pretty and good as yours— 
not quite so, of course.) Human nature, or baby 
nature^ is about the same the world over, though 
we have sometimes thought that the Indian babies, 
as we have seen them in the Western wilds, are 
rather better than those of white folks, for the 
former usually appeared perfectly contented and 
quiet, though lashed to aboard and hung up all day 
Fig. 4, shows the foot-piece removed, the head-piece ele¬ 
vated as a chair-back, and part of a small horse inserted in 
front to hold the child in. A towel or napkin may be tied 
across the top for a child too young to take care of itself. 
The feet rest upon the Ottoman, or on a foot-pad or stool on 
the top of it if needed. The chair is raised to any desired 
higlit by turning the ratchet. This form is specially useful 
for wheeling up to the table as a High chair or Baby-tender. 
in the log cabin, (all theresult of habit, of course.) 
But enough of sermonizing now; we said our say 
in the December Agriculturist last year, under the 
head of “ Don’t Rock the Baby,” and will only 
repeat, that the best possible instrument for injur¬ 
ing babies, is the rocking, cradle which throws them 
from side to side, reversing the natural flow of the 
blood, and producing stupor and enforced drowsi¬ 
ness or sleep. Yet in spite of all we may or can 
say, mothers will “tend” the babies constantly, 
and we will therefore describe for their benefit 
one of the new-fangled “ helps ” for the nursery. 
Some time ago there came to our house, through 
the kindness of a friend, one of “Brown’s Patent 
BABY TENDERS.” We have tried it, the grown 
people at home have tried it, and the little folks 
keep trying it all the time. The unanimous de¬ 
cision is, that it is a good thing—handy, conve¬ 
nient, amusing, and all that, and that there ought 
to be one in every house where, there is a baby. It 
is a sort of changeable affair—now an Ottoman 
(fig. 5); now a Bed on springs (fig. 1); now a re¬ 
clining Couch (fig. 2); now a Playing Chair (fig. 3); 
then a Baby Walker (fig. 6); then a High Chair for 
the table (fig. 4); then a Hobby Horse (fig. 7); and 
finally a “Nursery Chair” (a picture of which we 
omit because it did not look well in print.) There 
are two or three other forms of using the appara- 
Fig. 5 shows the Baby Tender as an Ottoman or a seat 
tus, but we have not room for more pictures. 
(Mr. J. T. Ellis, 939 Broadway, New York City, 
who sells these Baby Tenders, will send a descrip¬ 
tive circular with full particulars, free of charge, 
to all who write to him for one.) The changes ot 
form above noted are so simple and easily made, 
that our youngsters of six and eight years generally 
go through them all, (particularly fig. 8,) several 
times a day, and especially for the edification of 
their young friends when they call. In fact, to say 
Fig. G.—The BABY WALKER. A double horizontal shaft 
clasps the child’s waist; it opens and is hooked together. It 
supports tlie weight at any higlit desired so that a child walla* 
around the Ottoman, pushes it about the room, and learnt 
to walk alone. We have found tills one of the most useful 
modifications of the apparatus, for a babe ten months old 
nothing of its utility, it is the most amusing and 
entertaining plaything our little ones have lately 
found. We have been so well pleased with it, that 
we have had the accompanying engravings special¬ 
ly made for the readers of the American Agricultu¬ 
rist .—The vertical motion is more natural, and 
therefore preferable to the swinging of a cradle. 
One may jolt up and down, as on horseback, for a 
long time, and feel none of the dizziness expe¬ 
rienced after a rapid motion of the head right and 
Fig. 7, shows the Bed removed and a horse placed on the 
shaft for a child old enough to hold on. By turning the 
ratchet to let the feet just touch the Ottoman, the child can 
move up and down, or turn the horse around, at will. 
left.—Fig. 8 (next page) gives an inside view of the 
Ottoman and the machinery, which is quite simple, 
and can hardly be got out of repair. The iron 
frame, B, E, has four hinges at the left, and swings 
freely, raising and lowering the shaft A , which 
