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Two Babies, and How They Were Born!
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Copyright, 1912, br Amer.can Journal f A amines.
Groat Britain Righto Kcecrved.
Rp 5 AST week in New York City a
»$rT baby was born and was named
* >f°bn Jacob Astor VI.
\ The baby’s father, John Jacob
, aaSitoaSfrXEwL Astor V., was drowned on the
Titanic and left a will which gave three millions
to this baby that has just arrived.
Not much more than a hundred years ago an
ancestor of (his baby bought land on Manhattan
j Island. Since then the birth of millions of other
babies on that island has added tens of millions
of dollars in value to that land. And so the
Astors of to-day arc worth tens of millions, hav
ing done no work.
And this little new Astor arrives with three
millions at least to make efforts seem useless,
three millions at least to condemn him to a
waste of life—and many more millions, per
haps. if his mother decides through a lawsuit to
tight the other Astor boy born of a different
mother.
* #
A “fine writer” with time and patience to
spare might make an interesting picture con
trasting the birth of .John Jacob Astor VI. with
some poor baby born the same hour in some
one oi the > > west Astor tenement houses over
on the East Side.
The picture of these two births would show
you mam interesting contrasts.
In the s<or F run you would find at least tw o
highly paid ctor- on hand for days in advance,
with I ■' and ever.' detail prepared
—masses of hea itiful clothing for the child,
masses >o wers for the mother, dozens of
servants walking on tip-toe. idle, gaping crowds
standing in front of the house.
And in another room at the same hour, you
would see born one of the babies w hose arrival
helps to build up the Astor fortune and the for
tune of all other land ow ners.
You wot? hl see that other baby arriving, un
welcome perhaps, in poverty and in sorrow . The
father would be at his work unable to return.
I /hich Baby Has the Better Chance?
What Develops Genius in a Child?
The Handicap of Wealth Inherited. The
Little Astor Baby Born Last Week
With a Three-Million-Dollar Load of
Gold Weighing It Down!
unable to forfeit a day’s pay. A child of ten
would be sent in haste for a midwife, called only
at the last moment to save expense.
The new-born baby would be hastily washed,
hastily wrapped in some convenient piece of
linen or flannel, and laid on the bed beside its
suffering mother, while the midwife would
hurry away, and the oldest child, almost a baby
herself, wouid be called upon in feeble tones
by the mother to help in the first few dreadful
hours.
.♦ ♦ •?.
The angels above can look through the cop
per roof on the Astor house and the tin roof on
the tenement and see into the rooms where the
babies arc born, and if the angels did not under
stand conditions down here they would form
very false opinions about the opportunities, the
happiness and the probable future of the two
babies that we have* described.
The Astor baby, it is true, lies in silk and in
lace, and trained nurses watch him.
The poor baby lies in rough linen or flannel,
and an older sister holds him and wonders about
him as tin mother lies weak and exhausted.
I'he Astor mother is watched, protected with
all thi care ot science. For days she will be
forbidden to move, lor weeks all effort will
He forbidden.
The poor mother will be on her knees scrub
bing. three days, and perhaps one day, after her
baby is born. Her health will be injured per
manently because she has neither the scientific
knowledge nor the time to care for herself.
Sad is the contrast between the future of
these two babies and their two mothers.
* e w
There is another side of the picture that muse
also be considered.
Conditions in this world are not as unjust, as
unfair as they seem.
That baby w ith its little fist doubled up against
its mouth lying at the foot of the bed in the
tenement house, w rapped in an old, rough piece
of flannel, has. perhaps, a hotter chance in the
world than the Astor baby with all his finery
and the millions that are left for him to save or
to squander.
The love that the poor mother gives to her
child is as great as that given by any mother to
any child. And children thrive and grow upon
the love of the mother.
The rich baby will be swamped and dazed
with toys and flattery and servility.
The poor baby will see wonders in the rag
doll, and w onders in the superior wisdom of the
little sister nurse.
The imagination of the rich child will be
stunted and kept back by TOO MUCH.
The imagination and ambition of the poor
child will be awakened and stimulated by pov
‘ erty, by TOO LITTLE.
The rich baby will have everything, and to
thatboy it will never seem worth while to work
or to try.
The poor baby will have nothing, and for
everything it gets it must rely upon its own
effort.
The poor child w ill try.
The rich child will not try.
Therefore, the poor child will be the happier,
for al! happiness on this earth comes from
effort, FROM TRYING.
Mysterious is the spark of genius that lifts
one human being to the heights of wonderful
achievement. We do not know whence it comes,
but we do know that it can be killed beyond
resuscitation—and too much wealth is the de
stroyer of genius.
Contrast the birth of that Astor baby with
another birth, not with yesterday’s birth in a
tenement. Contrast the birth of this Astor baby
with the birth of another baby early in the last
century—the baby named Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln was born in a hut of one room with a
dirt floor, with no window. His mother and
father were poverty stricken. His mother prob
ably could not read or write.
You know what Lincoln did.
Do you suppose that he would have done his
work if he had been born as that A. tor b by was
born and crushed at his birth with the heavy
weight of three millions of dollars?
No greater curse or handicap can come to a
child than the curse of great wealth. Let that
be the consolation of those that foolishly envy
poor little John Jacob \stor VL. of those foolish
enough to wish for their own children the sad
late that meets him at birth. Many thousand:;
of babies were born on this earth in the hour
that saw his birth. \ cry few of them have a
chance as poor as hi*- rhanc*' of eve? doing any
thing really worth while in ’bis world.