over the mahogany. He must, forgetful of the allegiance sworn under like circumstances the evening before, at the square below, vow that the red-faced cherub dandled up to his nose is the finest baby he ever laid eyes on, handle the precious burden thrust into his arms as gently as his awkwardness will admit, and restoring "Time's noblest offspring" to awaiting nurse, handle the snow-white, ribbon-bordered blanket which forms the outer robe of the minute dignitary, with as reverential a touch as if it were royal purple. In default, however, of doing justice to our theme of baby-dom in plain prose, we must have recourse to the higher powers of verse, and in this call to our aid the lines of no less a master than Thomas Hood. He describes the accession of the opulent Miss Kilmansegg, distinguished at a later period of her history as the possessor of a golden leg, which replaced the article of a similar character furnished by nature, but hopelessly damaged by an accident. "She was one of those who, by Fortune's boon, For although, by the vulgar, popular saw, Of this world, was a whiff "And how was the precious baby drest? In a robe of the East, with lace of the West, Like one of Cræsus's issue Her best bibs were made Of gold brocade, And the others of silver tissue. "And when the baby inclined to nap, She was lull'd on a Gros de Naples lap, Of notions so exalted She drank nothing lower than Curaçoa, And, on principle, never malted. "From a golden boat, with a golden spoon, The babe was fed night, morning, and noon, And although the tale seems fabulous, 'Tis said her tops and bottoms were gilt, Like the oats in that stable-yard palace built For the horse of Heliogabalus. "And when she took to squall and kick- "In short, she was born, and bred, and nurst, And drest in the best from the very first, To please the genteelest censorAnd then, as soon as strength would allow, Was vaccinated, as babies are now, With virus ta'en from the best-bred cow Of Lord Althorpe's-now Earl Spencer." All this, however, presupposes the mouth which so soon after its advent into the world roars so lustily for food, to have brought in it a silver spoon for the furnishing thereof. As, however, the per-centage on babies' mouths of silver spoons is a figure so minute as to be a dividend not worth declaring, we must turn our attention-and, as in duty bound, our chief attention-to the majority. We have in this country no foundling hospitals with revolving baskets, in which a baby may be dropped as easily as a letter in the post-office, and dispatched on its journey through life with equal confidence in the government by the authors of the flesh and blood as of the literary production. Nor, in truth, do we think we want the basket aforesaid. It is too great a temptation to the needy and the vicious. Foundlings are, however, amply provided for, as they should be, by our city charities. But we have nothing to do at present with anonymous babies. We have an eye to the parent as well as the child. The poor baby (especially if the first-born) is as important an individual in the eyes of his parents as your heir to thousands. The same "pride, pomp, and circumstance" may not attend him, but equal or greater sacrifices are made to his welfare. He is hugged as closely, kissed as heartily, lauded as loudly, dandled as daintily, wrapped as warmly, as his richer contemporary. His mother, however, must live, in order for baby to do so likewise, and in this getting-a-living process, baby is sadly in the way. The Indian squaw gets over the difficulty by swathing up the small specimen to a board, with a hoop to it, which has the double advantage of helping to make his back straight, and enabling him to be commodiously disposed of on his mother's back or a neighboring tree. A French woman on her travels tucks baby up nicely in a shallow one-handled basket. This we know from personal observation, having once, in answer to a polite request from a cherry-cheeked Normande, reached down our arm from the banquette of a French diligence for what we sup posed to be a basket of eggs, and consequently drew up with a care still more befitting its actual contents of humanity in a more advanced stage of race and age. It appeared to answer the purpose, as the infant slept well, and was done up in a much more convenient form for handling than long clothes and blanket, and was an article of luggage decidedly preferable, in a quiescent state, to a bandbox. Neither of these plans would, we fear, answer for the laboring woman. She could not fall to scrubbing a floor with baby pick-a-back, and to hang him up with her bonnet would not answer. For women who work together, as in binderies, large clothing establishments, or factories, it would be still worse, as the most tender-hearted proprietor, the most philoprogenitively organized head, could hardly stand the united chorus of sundry shelves or peg- | staggering about with it like a very little porter with a very large parcel, which was not directed to any body, and could never be delivered any where." rows tenanted by crying-for under such circumstances it is naturally to be expected that they would be crying-babies. We occasionally see a fruit-stall keeper with There are the other lodgers or the neighbors as a baby in her arms; but how could the active ap- an occasional resort; but they have their own ple-women, who glide about the composing cases little responsibilities, and will require a reciproin printing-offices, manage a baby as well as a cation. It is evident, therefore, that a portion basket; or the energetic females who vend oranges of hard-earned wages must be paid to some old to travelers leaving our city shores balance a pyr-woman or "half-grown gal" to look after baby, amid of globular fruit in one set of digits, and and a proportionate retrenchment made in beef clutch a baby commodiously in the other? If and bread, or baby must look out for himself. the mother has to go out, therefore, to earn her The mother must give a morning kiss, and dedaily bread, her baby must be left at home. But part for her work with her head full of the awful in whose charge? The eldest sister-for we will stories she reads in the papers of little children suppose our young friend one of the junior mem- falling out of the window or on to the stove, or bers of the family-should be out at work, the rolling down stairs, being maimed or killed in a next oldest at school, the third is too little to be hundred ways. trusted for much supervision. The boys are ready enough for the kindly care; but they should be at work or at school too, and if they are not, are too full of animal spirits, and somewhat too clumsy for the office. It is hardly fair, too, to tax their good-nature continually, even for the welfare of brother or sister. Baby, in place of a never-ending source of delight, at due intervals, may degenerate into a bore. Remember Johnny and Moloch in Dickens's Christmas story, and to make sure that you do, we will freshen your recollection : "Another little boy was tottering to and fro, bent on one side, and considerably affected in his knees, by the weight of a large baby, which he was supposed, by a fiction that obtains sometimes in sanguine families, to be hushing to sleep. But oh! the inexhaustible regions of contemplation and watchfulness into which this baby's eyes were then only beginning to compose themselves, to stare over his unconscious shoulder! This poor baby ought to be looked after; but how is it to be done? None of our existing charities can do it. They will help to bring the child into the world, and, if its parents abandon it, take care of the bantling. If the parents know their duty better, and shun such a crime as they would infanticide, they must take care of him. The Dispensary will vaccinate and drug, if needful; but if the child be healthy, he must not look for any thing more from the city until he is sufficiently advanced for A B C and the Primary school. His future course through the Free-school and Free Academy to manhood is well provided for; the hospitals will attend to him if he fall sick or get run over; and the last scene of all will be kindly and decorously cared for like the first. These infant years are, therefore, the heel of Achilles of the body politic, almost the only chance left, as it seems to us, for the ingenuity of philanthropy to exercise itself upon. As, The want has been supplied in Paris by institutions called Crèches (a child's crib). thanks to some philanthropic American ladies, who have brought home ideas as well as bonnets from that great city, an establishment of the kind is about to be opened in New York, we have thought that an illustrated account of a "crèche" would be acceptable to our readers, and lead to the good example of our New York ladies being copied elsewhere. "It was a very Moloch of a baby, on whose insatiate altar the whole existence of this particular young brother was offered up a daily sacrifice. Its personality may be said to have consisted in its never being quiet, in any one place, for five consecutive minutes, and never going to sleep when required. Tetterby's baby' was as well known in the neighborhood as the postman or pot-boy. It roved from door-step to door-step in the arms of little Johnny Tetterby, and lagged heavily at the rear of the troops of juveniles who followed the tumblers or the monkey, and came up, all on one side, a little too late for every thing that was attractive, from Monday morning until Saturday night. Wherever childhood congregated to play, there was little Moloch making Johnny fag and toil. Wherever Johnny desired to stay, little Moloch became fractious, and would not remain. Whenever Johnny wanted to go out, Moloch was asleep and must be watched. | two years. Whenever Johnny wanted to stay at home, Mo- The first Parisian crèche was that of St. Pierre, loch was awake, and must be taken out Yet at Chaillot, situated in a region inhabited by a Johnny was verily persuaded that it was a fault-poor population, although in the neighborhood of less baby, without its peer in the realm of En- the Champs Elysées. It was founded by the gland, and was quite content to catch meek glimpses of things in general from behind its skirts, or over its limp, flapping bonnet, and to go The object of these establishments is to provide a place where mothers going out to day's work may leave their children in the morning and come for them in the evening, secure that, during the interval, their infants will be fed and carefully tended by good nurses. For this they are charged a small sum daily, designed as much to impress upon the parents the duty of providing for their offspring as for the support of the establishment. Infants are received at any age up to curé of the parish and some ladies who had established an infant school with success, and saw that this institution was the next step in the same direction. The doors were opened on the four- | by holding on to the rails. If they fall, they teenth of November, 1844. It was provided can easily pick themselves up by taking hold of with twelve cradles and a small cot. This was the meshes of the net-work. The wall is hung followed by the Crèche St. Philippe du Roule, with representations of familiar objects, and on opened April 29, 1845, and by numerous others each side of the door is a large cage filled with in various parts of Paris. singing birds, which the children are feeding. A few toys are scattered about the floor, and we see in the little garden beyond a few nurses off duty, sewing. M. Jules Delbruck, a gentleman of Paris, has written a little volume on the subject of the Crèches. It contains brief reports of the condition of these establishments in the year 1848, and from these, his own researches on the subject, his own ingenuity, and, to some extent, the Phalanx of Fourier, he has drawn a picture of a model establishment of this character, which, with the aid of his illustrations, we shall endeavor to set before our readers. A second apartment is devoted to cribs and dining-tables. Both are designed for children from one to two years of age. The cots are, of course, for the use of the infants when tired; but it is found that, with the exception of an hour or so after the principal meal, they are little in request, the attention and consequent wakefulness of the children being secured in the play-room during the day, so that their sound sleep, as well as that of their weary mothers, is unbroken on their return at night. The third room is designed for those whose We enter from a garden the apartments of the Crèche Modele, all of which are on the groundfloor. We are first introduced to the play-room. It is a lofty and well-ventilated hall. In the centre is a circular railing, formed of net-work, just high enough for an infant to reach when stand-age is reckoned only by days and months. Here ing. Within this, a nurse has a group of children playing about her. The net-work keeps them in bounds, and does not hurt them if they fall against it. Outside the inclosure is a circular rail-road, in which a joyful car-load of children are propelled by two comrades, a little farther advanced in years, visitors from the neighboring infant school, one pushing, another pulling. Close to the wall, on each side, are two parallel ranges of railing similar to that in the centre. They are designed to aid the children in learning to walk, we find a triple row of cradles, not on the obsolete rockers of our infant days, and which were so readily stumbled over, but suspended from a neat iron frame-work, and so arranged that part can be rocked simultaneously, and part separately. In the aisles between the cradles are net-work railings, as in the play-rooms. A small organ occupies one end of the room, whose notes will soothe the senses to repose, or gently rouse them from their rest. The idea is as old as Montaigne, whose father, he relates in the delightful gossip of his Essays, took great pains with his education, and had him awaked in the morning by strains of soft music, merging sleeping into waking as gently as Aurora's blush dispels the shades of night. The nurses who are seen in these pictures in neat cap and apron, are, of course, the all-important portions of the establishment. Of little use will be its admirable mechanical organization if these, its rulers, are not of kindly heart, winning smile, gentle, patient, motherly endurance. M. Delbruck illustrates the needfulness of this by his statistics regarding the crèches in actual operation. The uniform and admirable rule in each is that every infant received must be clean. If the mother has neglected the duty, the nurses must make vigorous use of the soap and water, sponges and towels provided. This sponging process furnishes M. Delbruck's test question. Do the children cry when sponged? If they do, he sets the fault down as much to the nurse's hand as to the sponge or child; if they do not, it is a strong proof that the nurse is gentle and kind. These nurses are all dressed in a simple uniform of blue and white, colors which have been generally adopted at the existing crèches in place of the more sombre tints, or of the appalling black of the religious orders. Those who are familiar with the French bonne, and any one who has ever set eyes on her trim figure, set off by an always admirably-fitted though plain dress, and the little muslin cap which forms her only head-covering summer and winter, in-doors and out, running on an errand around the corner, or crossing the ocean to America, will know that she is a model of neatness, and apparently of good nature. Those of the crèche should be young and have pleasant faces, and such it is not difficult to find. Blue and white are also the prevailing colors in the simple fittings up and decorations of the rooms, and of the light and simple bed-draperies. Every thing is made as cheerful and simple as possible. M. Delbruck has some excellent remarks on the religious paintings which, as is the custom in Roman Catholic countries in all charitable establishments, decorate the crèche. The Crucifixion, which he finds in some of the existing establishments, he regards as a more fitting accompani ment to the maturity or the close of life than its commencement. Then, the dread import, the blessed significance of the Sacrifice can be understood-the dying man looks upon the dying Saviour. He would have the infant's eyes rest on the Holy Babe-the Child in his mother's armsthe most beautiful subject within the range of Christian art. This may be accompanied by the beautiful scene of Our Saviour calling little chil dren unto him. This care in the decoration of the rooms is carried out in minute but wise detail in all the arrangements. In every article of furniture rounded are preferred to angular forms, not only as more graceful, but as protecting the infant from many contusions young flesh is heir to, in parlor as well as kitchen or garret, from sharp corners. The terminations of the little inclosed nurse's knees, and allow the spoon to pass in regular and impartial sequence from mouth to mouth. But there was a difficulty in the way of carrying out this. The children who needed this care were those lately weaned, and just learning to stand. Though their appetites were strong, their legs were weak, and the jar of a rude con walls are semicircular for this reason, and the model crib is composed entirely of net-work, attached to an oval hoop of light iron. It is chosen not only for the superior safety of the heads of the little outsiders, but for the comfort of its occupant, as its pliant material will allow the use of thinner and less heating mattresses. It is a matter worth noticing, that the ends of the up-cussion of that part of the youthful frame by rights are decorated with little figures of angels, keeping their "watch and ward." M. Deibruck claims the spiral table, which is found in our picture of the crib-room, as his own invention. He presents it to us again in a somewhat modified, and, we think, improved form. Is it not a cosy and delightful affair? Who would have planned it but a Frenchman, familiar with the snug restaurant corners, sociable tables d'hôte, and comfortable salles à manger, of that city of good dinners and good digestion-Paris? Here we have dinner and digestion combined, the promenade encircling the dining-table. This happy design was the result of deliberation. M. Delbruck found, in his visits to the different crèches, that the dinner-hour, instead of being, as in advanced civilized society, one of enjoyment, was a scene of discord and confusion. Children cried then who cried at no other hour. And good reason had they for doing so; as, while one was dining, seated on the nurse's lap, and fed by her with a spoon, five were waiting their turns. An obvious improvement on this state of things was to place the six around the which appeal is usually made to the moral sentiments was calculated to impair good digestion and good temper. Besides, who ever heard of any one, young or old, except through-by-daylight railway travelers-and even they are abandoning the bolting process-eating one's dinner standing? The obvious plan to protect the exposed portions of the tender infant frame from too sudden contact with mother earth, was by the compromise measure of a seat. This, and the accompanying table-a virtual extension of the nurse's knees-constructed, its inventor sought at once to have introduced them into the crèches. To his and our surprise, he was met by an objection, "such a thing has never been done," ergo-after a more common mode of logic in the Old than the New World-can't be done. Repeated visits and entreaties are of no avail; but the projector, though disgusted at meeting difficulties in so small a matter, persisted, until one fine morning he met "excellent Doctor Moynier," who pointed to the wind-mills of Montmartre, with the words, "Here you will find what you want; the nurses feed several infants at |