WANT OH THOUGHT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 274, 12 August 1908, Page 5

WANT OH THOUGHT.

After a.visit paid.to a hospital one begins to geta faint realisation of all the suffering there is in existence, and ■ also how much of it would have been prevented by a little thought, j The wickedness of that wqnt'is apparent wh'.a it is sometimes responsible for tho :presence of little-children, white and suffering, brought there, some of them, by carelessness and rough handling, or by pure neglect... There are mothers and nurses who have much to answer for in regard to the deformities that children suffer from, simply because they do not realise wliat they are doing. . Often one sees a woman walking along the street with' a; tiny child stumDling-'along as fast as it can go, in fact, dragged, and the mother, goes calmly, on her way quite oblivious of the distre'ss,of tho little one till it falls or cries or refuses to go on. Then it often gets shaken or slapped, and made ten times more .miserable. Again, watch a mother get' in or out of a tram.' Whether she'is afraid of the oar going on before she is ready it is hard to say, but at any rate sbo often does not stop to lift her child gently out. or in, but simply .".yanks" the unfor-, tunate little souj-up or swings him down by the hand. Possibly she does not know how delicate the • muscles and tendons of a child are, and so when the boy or girl. gets to have a crooked back, or one shoulder higher than the other (a fairly frequent thing), or a displaced spinal column, she puzzles over it and'eamot understand, why such a thing could have occurred when the baby originally was such a healthy, well-made littlo thing. If /the samo treatment could only be . meted out to her it might dawn upon her, though too late.

AMBULANCE ASSOCIATION. ' The Wellington and Petone Nursing Divisions of tho St. John Ambulauco Brigade met last night in a. friendly competition in "roller bandaging." Mrs. Perry, lady uuperintendent of tbo Petone Division, kindly gave the use of her house for the occasion. A team of : eight members of the Wellington Division" defeated a "similar team of the Petone Division by two points, the figures being 107 find 105 respectively. Dr. Hector, of tho Lower Hul u, acted as judge, and congratulated the members upon their . work, i'he two teams and a number,of visitors from Wellington were entertained by Mrs. Porry during the evening. ' DAINTY FRENCH WOMEN. Tho 'French woman is a much daintier person than her more prosaic English sistor. She lias her breakfast and does her morning writ ins- and housekeeping in tho -prettiest tisfiise —a two-piecc garment that is. infi-. nit,ciy less slovenly' than our ordinary dresniii Both she and her • household ahlinr marking ink, and every aritcle of underwear, as well as handkerchiefs and house-linens, is marked beautifully in red, white, or blue colour, as is most suitable.