OF CHILDREN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19412, 21 August 1926, Page 6 (Supplement)

OF CHILDREN.

Ill' OK TEL. No. I. " The child is the father of the man," and, incidentally, mother of the woman; yet it has somehow been forgotten and ovelooked like other things that were written long ago. \ou remember the inscription that Dante saw written up over the gate of Hell—" All hope abandon ye who enter here." Well, it would serve a good purpose if the architect of each modern home that he designs and causes to be set up were to have inscribed over the door thereof " the child is father of the man." It might serve as a reminder to a few modern mothers. Mrs. Clubitis was essentially a modern mother. In her essentially modern home with her modern furnishings, her modern luxuries, her modern maids '/.wo of them) and her old-fashioned child—Mrs. Club'tss was extremely fortunate. Her husband,, being a man, didn't count; but he was less modern than Mrs. Clubitis vculd have cared to admit. The child of their marriage was, as has been mentioned, an old-fashioned child; there was nothing unusual in that, for what child is rot so until modernising enters into its soil' .' This fact was, it seemed, a great drawback in the mother's eyes at least;' and as soon as she perceived these leanings to a sort of old-fashioned simplicity inseparable from most 'children, together with decided plainness, she lost interest in her only daughter. If she had been a pretty, fluffy little thing with flaxen hair and silky eyelashes. . . But there—she was neither pretty nor fluffy, nor were her eyelashes anything out "of the common—she resembled her father more than it was right that any child destined to be a woman should resemble a plain unvarnished man. Mrs. Clubitis did not often express these sentiments; but she held them strongly nevertheless. Mrs. Clubitis never played with the child, never taught her anything, never brought her out of herself, never talked to her about fairies, hardly "ever saw her. One of the maids -fed her, dressed her, scolded her when she tore her frocks or upset things, took her out for walks occasionally. Otherwise she was left pretty much to her

own devices. Now the reason for all this was that ]\lrs. Clubitis had another child, a great fluffy baby that,did not live at home but in the cits'. This favoured child was the United Association of Women Bridge Players—in other words, the Bridge Club. Mrs. Clubitis mothered the Bridge Club, and the Bridge Club responded with grateful crows and gurglings that, it was delighted to be mothered by Mrs. Clubitis. She was an untiring mother, never weary of addressing, feeding, and telling fairy tales to this spoilt child; ( and the Bridge Club responded with more gurglings and crowings and other marks of appreciation of such a devoted mother as Mrs. Clubitis—. . . . Promptly -at 2.30 every afternoon Mrs. Clubitis went to play with her spoilt child; went on playing with it till 6 o'clock; returned horns to dinner with Mi*. Clubitis (the unspoilt child had previously been fed and put to bed by the maid); promptly at 7 p.m. she went up to dress for more play with the spoilt child peck which was meant for a kiss ( at the unspoilt- ,child); and, then away to amuse- herself with the spoilt one who usually remained wakeful till midnight; Mrs. Clubitis then rolled home in her limousine and retired to rest, quite satisfied; with, her days mothering.