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Two Babies, and How They Were Born! t ' LST 1 liiMiß .. # I s ' x x ~-'x\ jjym.Wßßh ..< IMBwWb w J x >% J B - ||||w fXxp''' f:Wl| x 8 ■Wifi JkT Tr . /''■■ ■■ ■ O# ‘ ' J ,L 1; ■ "'< ff- I, x iw ' X»3> z i& ‘ 1 - . ■ mPw< ~ wMb- • JMaHWfck ' xZ 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.