"The Baby Farm."

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 13727, 17 October 1908, Page 4 (Supplement)

" The Baby Farm."

By Clarence Rook. We had looked into S. Columba'r. to see the children make t heir afternoon prayer and sing their final liyinii—with a iu-.li over the " Amen "' to the playground. And H. Columba. if you have the tmt.ll for heresy, will suggest at once the tort of church that is sonKwhew between a Little Bethel and the St. IVter's of Rome. To others is is one of the placts that are tlie engineering shops for rhe things of the spirit. To the sensible man it is a centre of light—however he mav calculate the candle-power. But I do not. think you will find a burglar in Hoxton (supposed to be the home of burglars) who would not arm himself in defence of S. Columba. "And now we'll go and see the baby farm," said the novelist, being a person who had come through fiction to fact.

Babies abash me, but we turned into Harman-street, which J6 just to all appearances, a street .of bandboxes. Nevertheless, the window-sills were alive with flowers, and the novelist noted'them with pleasure. Xo. 45 had started the fashion, and there wasn't a woman in the street who would fall from it, even if she docked her husband's tobacco. Up the steps we go, and enter a bandbox of a •house.''to discover that here are two bandboxes, knocked into one, and so dreadfully clean that we blush fpr our dripping umbrellas,. A clean and almost empty room, with a weighing machine and a few other appurtenances. "That's where the doctor ueiglsts the babies," said the novelist. And then the sister arrived to conduct us to the baby farm on the first floor. S. Columba has had for some year? a medical mi-sion—if I -may arrest you for a moment on the stairs. And that nicdi cal mission has been very good to lhmothers who have to do the double I»rn of maternity and wage-earning. But then came a fictionisf of imagination. Mr W. Peft Ridge, in his walks at home, found that there was an enormous waste of babies in Hoxton. It was a purely economic question. The doctor and nurses were ready enonsrh in attendance. But tfie first year of life is the critical one with the baby, who starts upon the race of life, as you may reflect, as (Ikmosj helpless of mamniaV. The habitft did not get- the requisite attnitrr>n in the first few months of their lives, for the mother was off to work again, and bearing the burden of another child in anticipation, while the latest infant wa* in charge of the elder bister. It w;i* left to a bachelor with imagination (» start the baby farm in Hoxton. whi.-h he hopes will be the beginning of certain other small holding*.

Xow. perhaps, yon will come upstair.into the email room* knocked' into one where pale babi«s li- in i>ink coirs. Xotone of them would be above ground but for this intervention: not one of them turns the scale at half of what a likely starter in life's race tdinnhl weigh. Yet we may presume that ;*> they have arrived among u.«. so helpl<*=s. and so r>ug-g-.-stive of possibilitH6. we should give tliem tlieir chance at the beginning. Here they have it until their weight approximates to the average weight of a baby born in Park-lane—*o that they m'y start fair. Their weight » watched by the doctor, and Dr. Simpson charges no fee for his da : ly attendance. We pas* round the cot*, "while the sM< r in charge carries the pale baby (growing heavier ••very day now) who is never hi happy a" in her anus. While the imaginative no relist cnrfSß little hand." with one finger. dangles a watch, talks tin- VHiest babytalk. . . - "Yes." savs the sinter, "he

is a horn unci-." Powibly I have hinted at the difficulties »f the working woman in looking after the baby. The baby who had escaped was on the Siller's aim. Its mother had t» go <" work at the earliest pos'ild- moment, but bad her own mother in the house, who took the infant in hand, and Ihe grandmother was m>< a ■success —in the human sense. "Its clothes were sewn on." sad the Sister, setting her nose against the immaculate child.

"But what about allowing for growth!' I asked innoccntlv.

"The baby wouldn't have grown." replied the Sister, "because the grandmother gave it gin to suck from a flannel—just to keep' it quiet. Sho was a horrid gindrinker."

Then tlie "maginative novelist explained that the gin-soaked grandmother «« not quite so bad a<s she seemed. Sh- saccilvcd a drop of gin—that fhe loved better than Co.' -»n III" altar of i liiVli-o,|. Kiiteen babi ■> I ime'vieu. and learn thai when tiny aio t"p i« s'andurd they mill go home, .md !••• visited one., a week by |*oplc who know Ili ' iin|«'itance of niilk and clcaiihu. s». iniiil you have learned to ciiilniv tth'sky ami li'nt. They do not go into tiiiiiitiy residences, rdnce I hey must live iheii li\v>. mo-, of them, in London. "If yon can get iluough your first year in Hoi on." i* ihe dictum of the bom uncle, "yon tan stand lloxton." Hut when these babi«.» r.tuni to the small bonus in which they weie Iwirn, they will have enough milk and courage inside of th'lil to taec [lie m.ili. It wa> lathei distinctive of the imagina'. ive l<> reiliso that if a •■■«'•> ha- lo •.pend 'ls childhood in Motion.',: li..u].| Is- Haiti cd on the Hack.

Not- a l»Ur fall" :<li» nllPlr. li'il ;l Mii.lll b.iby farm "n tli- •■nrli' <|imiipi*. •>•« was the notion »l Mr IVU Itnli;--- A nut wry h.-tc anil liii- foi ;bc ■ hildfii who have no po*?ibl'- ntii>< iy .«i lionir. w h>« c mother!- rnnr.t be away woikiti;: on «n--setond shift. The iiici has i.tk«-n nxii in Hannan strc-t, ami it ypran;; int.. !»•• ine from the brain of th-- nov.lr-t. who '<> neither ,-»n Anglian nor an Anabap ,iM. and ha.\ m> timr-' r<Ti|;ion than yon ian write on a thr< e j>cnny |>Kic. Nciri'h- !••>». he yathvi.il his fiicnd* loyr.liei. fiivn<l> o| all -oris who w.f p..-,,it.1» uni'le*. A Icr'.nrin;.* Jour -iart..l .up baby (arm's tiiiaiicc*, ami All.*) w.i* laid down as th'- Ita.v*. "1 lion i.nne thr r:i ilmilii-Ii: of rotv FomtTti |>o<jiid- a i.-.u-will Mip|M>it a col. Ax yon walk n.iiii'! the little rooms you will find >oin<- nol.ilii. name t—t ujMin the fmcfiont of tl.f U-il». anions them a ••mall rem ndcr that this *-. in nnniory of (J. \V. St.ev.n-. .\ll . ,i>unirh > in London w.rv .haw 11 upon (01 ihe Mar! of this system of -in ,11 I, iliv faini". ami one mi ahcady Ihmih tin- name •if W. Somerset Maiicliam. It «a> a |'i" HUM- that if lb.. MTitiiil play should i„_. ~ »uer«»*. a rot noulil \f .liuow.ii; .1 |>f• • mi"- prnt in a moiut<iit ..f exhil.itati.ni. ".Jatk Straw" itaixcdcd : the rotiinhu tion wax demanded, and t;ivcn with a hti inoii.i wryiHtvs. Tlk- rv|i)y of th.- 1.i1.v farimx n> that "ill.- I.otd lov.-tli a 1 liccrful pver. but I'm not mi dani)* it rlt-i ."