PARTIES
Every mother who reads these lines has had to meet this question: "Shall I let my little one begin to go to parties?" and every mother will have to answer that question for herself. We personally feel that the social life extended by the school, together with the meeting of the companions at Sunday school, in the park, or on the playground, is quite enough; and we deplore the fact that many children grow into the idea that much time must be spent at "parties" in the drawing-room under unnatural surroundings, in dressed-up clothes, eating ice cream and cake, etc. Outdoor gatherings of children are wholesome and hygienic, but most of these indoor gatherings of groups of children we consider decidedly unhygienic. One child coming down with scarlet fever, measles, or whooping cough can infect twenty others at an afternoon party. The eating of so much ice cream, candy, and cake is deplorable in that it upsets the digestion, and all this is irritating to the developing nervous system of the child; and not infrequently brings on a lot of other symptoms, resulting in discomfort and disease. We believe in outdoor picnics but not in too frequent indoor parties.