THE LADIES’ WORLD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2745, 25 February 1910, Page 3

THE LADIES’ WORLD.

THE DUMMY. (Bv “D.L.L.” in the Sydney “Morning Herald.”) L.H. is no doubt quite correct in say- ■ ing in a recent page that the babj s dummy is an evil, but if L.H. had a baby crying for hours on a stretch, and showing symptoms of convulsions, while all the neighbors wore craning over the back fence, wondering if you were an unnatural another or’ a baby farmer, she would find it a necessary evil; in fact, -a, blessing. It- is generally the people who have least to do with children who are always advising you what to do when it cries, and in nine cases out of ten if you gave them a baby to nurse, and it began to cry, would put it down and run. A friend of mine vow'ed that never, come what might, -would lie allow any child of .his to put a liaii<Uul of genus, in the shape of a dummy, in its mouth. .“You only cause trouble for it in ilie future,” he would say; “you give it tonsilitis, or some other itus, and grow tils in its nose; and after ail me tiling is only a “have 1 and a “take in” for the child. 3 here is no refreshment in a piece of rubber and bone.” I met him the other day, carrying Ins baby girl, and I noticed she was contentedly sucking a dummy, and I also noticed"how promptly he put it back in her mouth whenever she dropped it. “I. thought you said you would never let any of your children have a dummy,” I remarked. “A.., well,” he said, “we live and learn. That was in my salad days, when I thought children were little tcherubs, and omy wanted firmness, and lie led into the right land dununyless way, before I had walked the iloor for hours at night to an accompaniment of earsplitting yells. I was becoming a physical and -mental wreck when an angel, in the form of an old-fashioned aunt, came along with a dummy, and bad the child quiet in two seconds, and I got my first sound sleep since it arrived. Great things dummies!” “But the .germs,” 1 objected. “Pooh, what's a germ, anyway; they’ll float on to your dinner plate, as well as a dummy. I’d give her fifty to suck at once to keep her quiet.” Crossing in a lerry the other day (where you see more babies in five minutes" than in a month anywhere else), n young mother came in with a baby in arms ; also with the everlasting dummy. The babe was the picture of peace, and two ladies sitting next it commenced a conversation on the evils of dummies; oik: with glasses and a classical nose leaned over and addressed the mother: “Are you aware that you are ruining your child’s digestive organs by allowing it to er—er —hold that dummy in its mouth, besides the germs which collect on it, and give rise to all kinds cf dreadful complaintsf" she asked. The young mother looked up. “I never thought of that, and it really is a comfort to them.” she said ; “ami if you had four to look after—” “I four!” exclaimed the other, sitting up with a, jerk, and an expression of outraged modesty and closing her moutli -with a click like a rabbit trap. 'llia other lady leant forward to take a hand in the game. “Well, the little thing does look lumpy. Now, supposing you were jo try it without the dummy for a tlayf” she asked. “I wouldn’t care to,” smiled the mother. “ignorance,” breathed she of the classical nose. “.May I try f” asked the other. •’Certainly,” handing baby, dummy, and all. The dummy was lemoved, and the infant dandled and called “Itsy tootsie wootsie.” ft stood it for a luii minute, and then, bending its ; ody back in the shape of a bow, opened its mouth and howled. “Dear me,’.’ shaking it up and dowa. and endeavoring to bend its rigid buoy into a natural shape. -uhlum-wantsum-dumdum, nervy-er-mind, c! ;iy duindunij itsy wit.sy sing.” By tins time its mouth resembled a gramophone, and sound was pouring from it in volumes. “Dear me,” handing it hurriedly back to the mother; “I'm awfully sorry.” Baby hushed for a minute, cxLau-.t-ed, and eyeing its mother, ex-peciantl.v ; no dummy forthcoming, it .'.bowed symptoms of becoming rigid again, and lifted up its voice and wept. “I think you had better let him have it,” the mother said, reaching for the dummy. All the passengers were taking a vast, interest in the proceedings by this time, and when, in the midst or an ear-splitting scream, the dummy was popped in, the noise ceased as if by ■magic, and a calm, seraphic expression came over the baby’s face, as it closed its eyes, and lay back with a contented chuckle, and all the passengers sank hack into their seats 'with a sigh of relief, and the mother smiled, the smile of one wiio knows. “Only force of habit,” snapped the classical nosed one, as we went through the turnstile. No doubt, as L.II. remarks, it is a dirty habit, and an ugly one, but if the baby had no dummy it would suck its thumb or anything it picked up, which 'would be worse for it. It is also remarkable that, though all kinds of horrible diseases have been .attributed to the dummy, babies have in past years lived and fattened on them, and grown up strong and healthy afterwards. The only way is to find a substitute, arid a fortune awaits the inventor who does, but until then the dummy habit will certainly continue.