A Baby Show.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 859, 17 August 1888, Page 4

A Baby Show.

A crowd of perhaps fifteen hundred people stood in front of the grand stand, looking up and constituting themselves a Committee of the Whole to utter humourous remarks and judge the judges. Tho grand stand had a throng of ladies and children, who stood, those on the benches farther away being on tiptoe, to watch the further proceedings. They heard the comments of the spectators below, tbe most of whom were of the supposedly * sterner sex,’ with poorly-disguised contempt. It took some time to get the baby show into running order. It had been supposed at first that physicians would ba called as judges, but the crafty members of the profession could nob be so entrapped. No very young man was found who had sufficient courage to act. As the judges finally appeared in front of the babies it was noticed that there was a general suspicion of grey hair on their uncovered heads. Mr Cox had additional announcements to make. ‘After the live stock show,’ he Baid, ‘we will now have the other kind. Any mother who has a child here which is aged under twelve months, and who wishes to exhibit it, will now please make her entry. There is a great deal of interest manifested in this baby show,’ he added, looking at the large aud amused crowd below. ‘ Every one is anxious to see it. This is our first attempt on this ground, but next year Dr Saul wishes me to say that he will double the prize and make it 50 dols., and I wish to give notice of that fact now. Any child under twelve months of age will be eligible for entry.’ The work of the judges now fairly began. The day was warm, but it was not alone the heat that made the judges perspire. Secretary Cox circulated among the babies with a sheet of paper on which hs entered in full the names and age of each baby. The youngest is believed to have been one entered at two aud a half months. This extreme juvenility was seen at once to be a hopeless handicap when the age and experience of the rather gray judges was considered. The judges took up the twentyone babes, one after another, iu an experienced way, and as soon as they had concluded the inspection one and all left the stand. They were absent quite a time and the crown jocosely suggested that the verdict would be telephoned down from Healdsburg, where the judges would pass the warm weather. During the delay it seemed possible that a suspicion entered the mind of some babe that it was destined to remain a permanent exhibit, unjudged, by the intimidated judges. Ihis babe cried, and nearly all the other babes—eaoh touching its neighbor off like a string of exploding firecrackers—united in a chorus of discontent. It was finally adjudged that a baby from Two Rocks, aged eleven and one half months, entered by W. G. Hunt, was the premium baby and entitled to the ribbon and prize. The baby was held up and the audience gave it three hearty cheers.