1372 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
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“Better Babies Contest” 
Judging Young Human Stock 
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11 By Mrs. Cora Hamilton | = 
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The “Better Baries Contests’’ 
started in Binghamton in 1913. It is 
held under the auspices of the Itest Room 
Club, Miss Viola Lee, the president, hav¬ 
ing charge of the Contests. Six days in 
the week Miss Lee is to be found at the 
to its mental development, 
being the youngest age at 
are admitted and five years 
Weighing The Baby. 
helping 
and ex- 
comers. 
Babies 
Best Room busily engaged in 
babies to become “better babies” 
tending a smiling welcome to all 
For remember this, the “Better 
Contest” is not a matter of a few days, 
but is steady, constant care for all the 
little ones entered in the contests. Al¬ 
ready some are enrolled for another year; 
parents are waking up to the great ad¬ 
vantages secured for the babies by enter¬ 
ing them months ahead of the contests. 
Entering Tiie Baby. —When you take 
your baby to be entered its name and 
age nre written down on a card which 
will serve for a full year’s record of 
baby’s growth. Its exact height is re¬ 
corded, then the little one is undressed 
and given a thorough examination by Miss 
Lee, who often finds some physical defect, 
which otherwise might have gone unsus¬ 
pected for years until it caused serious 
trouble, but which, taken in time, is 
soon remedied, thus giving baby a much 
better chance when the contest comes; 
to say nothing of the great gain to it in 
having any trouble righted before it gains 
much hold on the child. Miss Lee sug¬ 
gests many things to the mothers that 
help them wonderfully in the care of 
their little ones, both as to proper care 
and feeding, and also how best to correct 
any trouble discovered by the examina¬ 
tion. After the examination, baby is 
carefully weighed and its exact weight 
recorded. Once a month for a year it 
is carefully, measured, weighed and ex¬ 
amined, then at the end of a year Miss 
Lee has a monthly record of baby’s pro¬ 
gress, and it is wonderful what gain some 
of the babies have mane under her wise 
care. Just think, all this care and ad¬ 
vice free for a year for only the one dol¬ 
lar membership fee. and then at the “Bet¬ 
ter Babies Contest” which was held in 
the Broome County Court House Sept. 
15-16, each child was examined by four 
specialists. 
Scoring Contestants. —On first en¬ 
tering the court room, the mother filled 
out the baby’s score card, giving name, 
age in months, whether bottle or breast 
fed (or both), how long it was so fed, 
what its principle food is at the present 
time, whether it sleeps in the open air 
or with open windows and how many, 
sleeps alone or with some one, and who 
that some one is, its nationality and also 
its parents’ ages and whether it is the 
first, second, third or fourth child, or more. 
After the score card is filled out so far, 
it is given to the mother and she is told 
to go into Room 1. Here is the first 
physician and his helper, who takes the 
score card and fills in the blanks as the 
doctor tells her. He talks to baby and 
gets it to do certain little acts, such as 
looking out of the window when told, 
recognizing a ball and throwing it, nam¬ 
ing different objects on being shown their 
pictures—such as a horse, cow, cat, dog, 
etc.—or if it is a very young baby just 
trying to see if it will grasp at a bright 
object or turn its head on hearing a 
sudden sound, recognizing its mother; in 
fact just giving certain tests according to 
its age as 
six months 
which they 
the oldest. 
The Physical Test. —After babies 
were through in Room 1, they were taken 
out and undressed and then snugly 
wrapped up in a kimono, bathrobe or 
blanket, to await their turn in Room 
2. Here Dr Hall was waiting, with two 
nurses (these nurses are employed by the 
city -schools and spend their whole time 
looking after the welfare of Binghamton 
school children under directions of the 
school physician). One of the nurses 
steps forward and takes baby and stands 
him on a table in front of the doctor, 
if old enough to stand alone, if too 
young it is laid on a blanket and then 
its exact height is measured (using the 
measuring board, same as Miss Lee uses). 
As the doctor called out the measure¬ 
ments, Nurse No. 2 recorded them on 
the score card, the length of the arm and 
leg measured, the distance around the 
head, chest and abdomen was taken and 
the thickness of the chest measured. Then 
¥^1 
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parents were 
child had any 
ists gave the 
Measuring The Young Stock. 
after being carefully weighed baby was 
wrappel up and given back to mother. 
The Specialists Next. —Next came 
Room 3, where specialists were waiting 
to examine the eyes, ears, nose, throat, 
teeth, etc. Some cases of enlarged ton¬ 
sils, adenoids, defective teeth and en¬ 
larged glands were discovered where the 
entirely unaware that the 
such trouble. The special- 
parents much good advice 
on what to do for the child in such a 
case. Other physicians examined the ba¬ 
bies’ bodies to make sure that all was 
right, even their tiny fingers and toes 
coming in for a share of attention. Their 
hair and scalp was examined, and each 
and every point was noted on the score 
card ; also their behavior during the ex¬ 
amination, extra marks being given for 
good nature, while bad temper was the 
cause of more than one black mark. So 
mothers, you see that a sunny disposition 
helps out in many ways; while some ba¬ 
bies were laughing and having a fine 
time, others were yelling themselves black 
in the face. One mother had two little 
ones, and as she held the baby the ex¬ 
amining physician took the larger child 
in his lap. Then the fun commenced— 
of all the kicking, and wiggling and 
screaming you ever saw! He was one 
of those fat. jolly doctors with a smile 
that hardly ever comes off. but it came 
very near it then. First the little lady 
was doubled up as if in terrible agony, 
next minute she would throw herself back 
and stiffen out, and then kick and yell some 
more, I rather guess the onlookers en¬ 
joyed it more than the doctor by the 
way the perspiration ran down his face 
before he got through. Other babies 
would laugh and play and look at the 
crying ones to see what was the trouble. 
Sometimes a number would get crying at 
once, and os each one cried on a different 
key, we had lots of music. But the doc¬ 
tors and nurses were so kind and gentle 
with the little ones that the tears soon 
disappeared, to be replaced by smiles. 
Miss Lee was everywhere, first in one 
room and then in another, to see that 
everything was as it should bo. 
Tiie Score Cards. —After each phy¬ 
sician finished his part of the examina¬ 
tion he signed his name to the score 
card under the list of examinations and 
their results, that his attendant had 
marked on the cards. After leaving 
Room 3, babies were dressed, and then on 
leaving the court room each mother 
handed the baby’s 
young lady outside 
lowing week was a 
Lee and her helpers, 
seoro card to the 
the door. Tiie fol- 
busy one for Miss 
as each score card 
had to be added up. and the scoring done 
according to the rules furnished by the 
Woman’s Home Companion. Whore last 
year the highest score of any baby was 
95%%, this year a number scored 90. 
97 and 98%, and one three-year-old boy, 
G. Desmond Harter, seorpd 100% per¬ 
fect, receiving the bronze medal given by 
the Woman’s Home Companion to the 
highest scoring boy ; also a handsome sil¬ 
ver cup given by a local jeweler for high¬ 
est score, and also first prize in Class 3 
—a handsome little willow rocker. The 
girl scoring highest was Mary Crocker, 
97%%, seven months old. who also re¬ 
ceived a bronze medal and silver cup from 
the same givers, as well ns first prize in 
Class 6—a handsome dress. There were 
three prizes in each class, besides the ex¬ 
tra prizes for the highest scoring boy and 
girl. There were five classes for hoys 
and five for girls; six months to 12 
months, 12 months to 24 months, 24 
months to 36 months, 36 months to 48 
months, and 48 months to 60 months. 
The Woman’s Home Companion gave 
each child a pretty certificate for fram¬ 
ing. showing they had been entered in the 
contest and giving the percentage they 
scored on examination, 
are signed by Gertrude 
of the Woman’s Home 
Tiie Prize Winners.— 
cates and the score cards 
The certificates 
B. Lane, editor 
Companion. 
-Tlie.se eertifi- 
were given to 
the mothers September 25, when there 
was another gathering of the mothers 
and babies and their friends, this time 
in the chapel of the First Presbyterian 
Church, where Dr. Lawrence, tiie pastor, 
gave a short address to the mothers and 
congratulated them on the big advance¬ 
ment the babies had averaged over the 
previous year. There were 150 babies in 
the contest, and nearly all of them were 
present with their mothers and friends. 
After Dr. Lawrence’s address, Miss Lee 
came forward and was given a hearty 
This Baby Scored 95.5. 
welcome, the hand-clapping and welcomes 
showing how near she has grown to the 
hearts of mothers and babies in the last 
two years. She spoke for a few min¬ 
utes, and then Mr. Miehaelbaeh, chair- 
November 21, 
man of the Board of Health, gave an 
address, and then helped Miss Lee to 
announce the prize winners. As each 
winner’s name was called the mother 
carried the baby up front, where it re¬ 
ceived the prize, and then they were 
seated in chairs facing the audience. 
The first prize-winner, little Mary Crock¬ 
er, seven months old and girl champion 
in the contest, Mr. Miehaelbaeh held up 
so everyone could see her, and then be¬ 
fore returning her to her mother, gave 
her a hearty kiss. There were many 
nice prizes—high chairs, watches, coast¬ 
er carts. Indian suits, dresses, caps, or¬ 
ders on the photographers for photo¬ 
graphs, beautiful dolls, rings, silver 
spoons, and many others besides the spe¬ 
cial prizes for the champions, which were 
bronze medals and silver cups in addi¬ 
tion to the first prize in this class. When 
the 100% perfect baby was stood up on 
the pulpit so everyone could see him. the 
audience cheered him till the little fellow 
began to be frightened, so he was given 
his prizes and trotted back to his 
mother. 
Value Of Tiie Contest. —Many ba¬ 
bies were entered which the parents 
knew were ineligible for the prizes, but 
they wished them to have the advantages 
of the exnminnting specialists’ advice, 
and felt very much satisfied with tiie re¬ 
sults of the examination, as the doctors 
gave them much good advice which if 
carefully followed out will put Bingham¬ 
ton in the lead in “Better Babies Con¬ 
tests” next year. Only a few of the 
children were found to have defects which 
could not be remedied with proper care 
while young. During the week of the 
contest (which by the way was called 
"Baby Week” in Binghamton) an ex¬ 
hibit. was held in a prominent store, 
showing the proper fitting for the nurs¬ 
ery, and a trained nurse was in charge 
who gave demonstrations of the proper 
way to bathe and dress the babies. 
MRS. LORA HAMILTON. 
“ Rich Milk.” 
T HE “office boy” of the Holstein- 
Eriesinn Register is guilty of the 
following. If our Jersey or Guernsey 
poet desires to come back in equal space* 
—it awaits him. 
Our Mary lmd a Holstein cow. 
That gave no end of milk; 
Does anybody wonder then 
That Mary’s gowns were silk. 
Her dear friends tossed their heads and 
laughed 
(Nice pussies with sharp claws) 
They said tiie milk was horrid thin, 
And Mary thick with flaws. 
But Mary kept on selling milk, 
Her cow soon had a calf; 
The calf exchanged for diamonds 
Left Mary with the laugh. 
The pussies soon drew in their claws; 
Each bought a Holstein cow; 
They ail engaged in selling milk; 
All wear silk dresses now. 
—The Office Bov. 
Things to Think About. 
T O clean the dust from wallpaper, buy 
a roll of cheap cotton batting and 
go over the paper the first time very 
gently and a second time with a little 
pressure. 
For living rooms where the paper has 
become more or less smoked a delicate 
colored paper can be cleaned by rubbing 
the paper with the soft part of fresh 
bread (white). 
Very few men today are satisfied for 
long with ineffective, animated dolls—or 
animated clothes-horses either. They 
want their wives to be awake, to get 
together, to do things, as in their own 
business they are compelled to do. 
(From “The Business of Being a Bride” 
in Good Housekeeping). 
“The only saving that really counts 
today is the saving that comes from wise 
spending-—not bargain-limiting or striv¬ 
ing to pay less for things than they are 
worth, but getting the right tilings, at 
right prices and made under right condi¬ 
tions, so that everyone connected with 
the transaction, from the men and girls 
at the machine to the children who wear 
the clothes and eat the food, gets the 
fullest return from the outlay.A 
penny saved instead of a penny properly 
spent is a penny wasted. Why not re¬ 
member the parnble of the talents, and 
learn wisdom from it?” 
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