GIRL-BABIES VINDICATED.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1648, 30 September 1903, Page 70 (Supplement)

GIRL-BABIES VINDICATED.

AJIEBICAJSi: EDITOR'S PLEA.

A strong plea for the girl-baby is made in an editorial article by the “Minneapolis Tribune.” It starts Avith the assumption that beys are always Avanted by parents, and proceeds to show that girl-babies make an equally good substitute.

When the first baby proves to be a girl the congratulations offered her parents are polite but uneffusive. But to the dispassionate .-observer there is no choice in babies, points out the “Tribune.” All are “mere AA'obbly masses of muslin and lace in Avhich only a parent’s inspired gaze can distinguish a difference. Both are leatlier-lunged, and when a girl-baby goes after a liigh.C in the stilly Watches, of the night, she can fetch it-down with the same unerring precision ’ and murder sleep Avitli it as effectually as any boybaby/' Moreover, both are.claimed to be of equal value in training papa for a AValking match, and both prove that the art of oratory and eloquence is not lost by their spontaneous outbursts of ''Good.” Nor is a girl-baby’s logical faculty less highly developed than that of her small brother; she cries as loudly Avhen she is hungry, her face becomes equally crimson, and her hands beat the air with the same impotence Avhen things happen wliich she does not like. IN FAVOUR OF THE FAIRER SEX.

At this point cur contemporary makes sweeping pleas in favour of the fairer sex. “Girl-babies stay- babies longer, and take naturally to being dressed up and shown off. from the start a girl recognises that curl papers and acting pretty in company are her predestined lot in life, but the bey who dosn’t rebel against long, stringy Fauntleroy curls, and Avho dosn’t behave himself in a manner to bring shame and disgrace upon his family when lie is being exhibited to guests, ought to be taken out and chloroformed for the benefit of the human race. "Later on in life the girls are a greater comfort to their parents than boys. Except in very rare instances no Avecping mother sits up at nights to open the door to a prodigal daughter. It is the girls ay ho stay at home and bear the old people company Avhen the boys have gone away. "From the -time a boy begins life in the dairy business until ho ends it watering stock on the Exchange, he is usually a great disappointment to Lis parents. “By the time they get through nursing him A\ith measles, patching his trousers, paying his college debts, and harvesting hi® Avild oats, they have to begin putting up with his Avife, and the race is run. “Vet, for all that, except for the sake of variety in a family, nobody Avants a girl-baby!”