---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Retsloff, Dorothy C.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 24
number: 11
published: 1921-09
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Dorothy C. Retsloff, "To Babyland," *Improvement Era* 24, no. 11 (September 1921): 1017.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera24011unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera24011unse
start_page: 1017
end_page: 1017
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1921-09)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera24011unse
  publication_year: 1921
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1921, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# To Babyland

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I took a trip to Babytown,
How wonderful it seemed!
How did I go? Listen, I'll tell,
I went to sleep and dreamed.

I thought I boarded a gallant bark
With sails as white as milk;
With masts of gold, and silver spars,
And shrouds of corded silk.

Fashioned of cedar was the hull,
The seats of padded down,
Softly and swiftly away sailed we
To the harbor of Babytown.

What did I see in Babytown?
Why, smooth little hands and heads of curls,
Hundreds of laughing, romping boys,
Hundreds of shy, sweet girls.

Heads of hair like golden floss,
Others like flax, so white,
Some were auburn and some were brown,
And some as black as night.

Hundreds of eyes of deepest blue,
And hundreds of softest brown,
And black and gray and hazel, too,
Were winking, in Babytown.

Babies were there from every clime,
White, yellow, black, and brown;
From Arctic shore and tropic isles,
They had come to Babytown.

There were beautiful queens in Babytown,
Queens gentle as a dove,
Who soothed the baby ills and fears
With the magic wand of love.

But, as I gazed, in pleased surprise,
On this scene so fair and sweet,
The vision vanished and I found
That I had been—asleep.

San Diego, California  
Dorothy C. Retsloff