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Show THE LADY AND THE CRADLE. Doctors Are Discovering That, the Baby of All Countries is Put to Sleep in the Wrong Way. The latest discovery of the scientist is that an infant, instead , of being lulled to sleep by a gentle swaying j movement, must fall oft' into slumber, stationary, as it were, with all parts of the body resting in absolute repose. "The body of the child," say the medical medi-cal experts, "is never at rest in a era-, die; and this perpetual movement o the muscles tends to injure the SDine I and to tire the body. The child, should sleep upon a bed, with light, warm coverlids, and not be disturbed until waking." From- all agea the cradle has been the resting place of the young of the human race, and this new dictum '. against its use will cause consternation in all countries of the world; for no land but has its own style of cradle. It will be laughed at, that is sure, and possibly it may dia the death of unpopularity. un-popularity. Even the Laps have their cradle, and' ingenious ones they. are. The lovely soft mota of Lapland is gathered and is used for a lining. The. queer-looking receptable, reminding you of a submarine subma-rine boat, is fashioned out of pliable wood. This ia suspended from a tree and ia lined with' mosa' After the baby ia laid in his soft cradle a thick cover of moss is placed over him, and in this sweet home he rests, gently swayed by the zephyrs in the tree to which his bed 1j swung. The Laps have little cotton and wool and the soft moss takes the place of bedspreads and coverlids. The Indians made a cradle of deerskin deer-skin fitted to a wooden foundation, which can be strapped upon the back. When the Indian mother desires to rest she stands her cradle against a tree; when she goes on again tne picks up the bed and straps it to her back; so she and the papoose journey along in each other's company, until the lit tle one can walk. In some tribeg they have a very pretty mourning cradle, corresponding to our little white coffins. The cradle Is made of fancy woods and dressed with grains. When a baby dies its mother carries it in this cradle, if she be on the march, or she tenderly lays it in this bed and the- simple: funeral rites are performed over it. The Indians are fertile in the invention inven-tion of cradles. In one tribe a flat head is considered a mark of beauty; and the little occupant of the cradle is provided with a board which comes down over his forehead and flattens it. This is not such a painful operation, if performed by degrees, and the flat-headed flat-headed Indian boys: grow up as strong j aa their white cousins who have never 1 been subjected to such a process. The cocoon cradle is another Indian invention. in-vention. It'is madeT'fif.m tough watertight water-tight skin and J sewed, up in "such a way that only the head of the infant protrudes. The inside is soft and comfortable, com-fortable, and when the baby wishes to sleep he can draw in -his head and snuggle down in the depths of his bed. Some -of the, cradles are, very ingenious. in-genious. The Swedes place their babies in little hammocks suspended above the mother's bed. ..At night, if the little lit-tle one beVreslless, a touch from the mother's arm will set the cradle swinging swing-ing This plan is adopted in some parts of tin's country, and ther sight of a pretty grass hammock swinging gently over a handsome bed is not an infrequent ona in houses of plenty.' The Swedes also have 2- springing cradle, which constantly jumps the child, gently or not. ? -, Tihe Chinese employ a balancing system sys-tem which is very easily arranged. The ! baby is placed in a wicker basket which ;e tied to one end of a balancing rod, on the same plan" asa "see-saw." A weight' is attached to -t he other end of the rod. And eo the :aty see-saws all dav long. If there' be two cradle occupants oc-cupants in the family, both ends of the balancing rod can be. Well employed. The Norwegians utilize thair abundance abund-ance of tiheepskin for. the makmg of these little swingiiig beds.-Taking a skin, they fit it to-' a rope hammock. CHE.Yf;NNTRJBE , Bit' line it with bedding, place a pillow in it. and swing the happy baby off to sleep. It is agreed, however, that a bed which is not so heating is the ,best. Many of the savage tribes, and all of the civilized ones, build their beds in suc h o. way that the eMeia are free and open. Even a wooden crib has its slats upon the side, allowing ventilation to reach the bedding. In countries where wood and carpentry carpen-try are expensive, and whore grass is cheap, they take square basket cradles for the child, using all the tough pretty grasses that can be found, and making really pretty articles of furniture. The Kaffir mothers, who are very fond of their children, trim the cradles with beads, and ornament them with wild grass. A Kaffir baby has a fine vleTV of the world, for Us carrying cradle is so built that its nead stands well erect when the mother walks. Many of the small ds.lands have a boat cradle, which ia made by the man of the house during his leisure It is fashioned from pieces of 'driftwood, and is constructed con-structed aftT the flat-bottomed row boat share. The boat cradle can be swung; and when the father takes his child to eea the little ewlnging boat takes up little or no space. The modern cradle of our country haa its faults, but -it also has its virtues. If constructed ' that It will not tip over, an3 if well ventifeted, and kept perfectly clean, it ranks very favorably favor-ably with the cradles of other countrie. |