Then at last we should begin to have some notion of what to expect in children, and how to get it. The girl would look forward not merely to some vague little ones to love and care for, but to having finer children than anyone else—if she could! And she would naturally have a new standard of fatherhood, and sternly refuse to accept disease and the vice which makes disease.
Then, when the children came, she would know the size and weight that was normal, the way to feed and clothe the little body so as to promote the best growth; the kind of exercise and training essential to develop that legitimate human beauty and power which ought to belong to all of us.
We have our vulgar "Baby Shows," where fat-cheeked, over-fed younglings are proudly exhibited. A time is coming when, without public exhibitions, without prize-money or clamorous vote, we shall raise a new standard in child culture—and live up to it.
HEAVEN FORBID!
When I was seventeen, you'd find
No youth so brash as I;
Things must be settled to my mind,
Or I'd know why!
I knew it all, and somewhat more,
What I believed was true;
The future held no task in store
I could not do!
If I had died in my youthful pride—
And no man can say when—
Should I have been immortal
As I was then? (Heaven forbid!)
When I was forty-two I stood
Successful, proud and strong;
Little I cared for bad or good—
My purse was long.
My breakfast, newspaper and train,—
My office,—the Exchange—
My work, my pleasure, and my gain—
A narrow range.
If I had died in my business pride—
And no man can say when—
Should I have been immortal
As I was then? (Heaven forbid!)