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Show The Woman with a Baby. 'Mid the herd of human porkers crowded on the trolley car All is selfishness and jostle, making age and sex no bar; Men collapse in seats and stay there, letting shrinking ladies stand With a look of indignation and a strap in either hand. Yet there's one thing that, you've noticed, no-ticed, never fails to make a stir, When a woman with a baby comes they all make room for her. I have sat in stuffy coaches on a crowded railway train, List'ning to case-hardened travelers who declared with might and main That they'd see the railroad company in hades' fiercest heat Long before they'd even think of giving giv-ing any one a seat. Then, ere scarce they'd ceased their boasting they would rise without with-out demur For a woman with a baby; they must all make room for her. There is something sweet, Madonnalike, Madonna-like, in pictures such as that, And it makes the lowest ruffian feel like taking off his hat; For it bears him back to babyhood, when loving mother arms Closely clung to him and kept off e'en the least of earth's alarms. So, no matter what his station, he will evermore defer To a woman with a baby he has reverence rev-erence for her. Once I dreamed I stood in heaven, just inside the pearly gate, While to every new arrival good St. Peter said: "You're late; For the palaces all are taken and the harps are all in use; Golden streets are just so crowded that I had to call a truce." Then a little, tired-out woman lugged a baby into view. And St. Peter said: "We're full up, but we'll find a place for you." Strickland w. Gillilan, in Leslie's Weekly. |