Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 293, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1910 — IN A DOLL HOUSE. [ARTICLE]

IN A DOLL HOUSE.

A little girl was playing with her doll “Ann.” She noticed that it was not as cheerful and active as. it ought to be. She said, “I don’t. know whaf is wrong with this baby. Pa put new sawdust in her body and Ma sewed a new arm on her and Grandma took the head off of my cousin Susie’s doll, Mary, and fastened it on Ann, and now we call her Alary Ann, still she don’t seem to grow and they say there’s a little girl living in this same flat that has a doll that really grows, and It says things and people talk about it, and it gets bigger every day and Pa says that when it gets as old as Mary Ann it will be bigger than all the other dolls in the world, and he says it may be as big as Ma. My Ma’s name is McClure. No, I never say It, -but then city people often live right in the same house with people they never know. Pa says that If you don’t know anything that if you just keep still, then a lot of people will think you are smart. Once two big bad men, that had on gum-shoes and talked that kind of :alk like my Sunday school teacher, '.vidnapped Mary Ann and made her say her name was Jones, and people iidn’t know whose baby she really vas, and Pa says that it is awful pad to be Kidnapped, and says he wonders if anvone ever tried to kidnap that ether girl’s doll, but Pa ;ays the leal kidnap man is chased iway and no one hardly knows where he is at. Pa says we don’t really own Mary Ann and he is just hired .0 be her Pa.

But she worried over Mary Ann, and so one day a “Doctor” said to herp “I know a little girl who has a doll that is growing and she gives it a few drops of red medicine every ime she brings it out and that makes it look nice and cheerful. Xow you give Mary Ann a few drops of red medicine; this may stimulate her and soon she may begin w grow.” After the doctor had departed, the little one began. “Now, if a few drops of red medicine is a good thing, why wouldn’t a tub full oe better? If a drop will help Mary Ann, a tub full will cure her.” So it was not long before she was busy stuffing red medicine down Mary Ann’s talking machinery. She poured some down the helpless doll’s neck, washed her face with it sprinkled her clothes with it, spilt some on her apron and Mary Ann had red streaks in her hair. She was full of red and still absorbing more. Now speaking of red, reminds me of the fact that The Spectator thought a little red on the cover might be a good thing. Still, it knew that there is a difference between Red” and being “Read.” Moral: When your doll won’t grow, all the red in the world won’t make her grow for she is not built on the right plan.