THE QUINTUPLETS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 209, 17 June 1935, Page 8

THE QUINTUPLETS

CONTINUING TO THRIVE. NOW WARDS OF THE KING. TORONTO, May 4. The celebrated Dionne quintuplets— Marie, Emilie, Cecile, Annette and Yvonne—daughters of Mr and Mrs Oliva Dionne of Callander, in Northern Ontario —continue to thrive as they approach their first birthday. They were born May 28 last, and these most famous infants in the world still are front-page news in the newspapers of this continent. At its recent session the Ontario Legislature enacted what is called The Dionne Quintuplet Guardianship Act, a piece of legislation without parallel in the world. It declares the babies to be' "the special wards of His Majesty the King, lepresented therein by the Minister of Public Welfare for Ontario." The Minister of Public Welfare is made their special guardian, and Dr. A. R. Dafoe, the country physician whose delivery and preservation of the babies was the medical sensation of last year, is a co-guardian with him. The effect of this Act is to give the Minister control of the quintuplets' estates and affairs until they reach their eighteenth birthday, with the provision that they are to be raised in the Roman Catholic faith. It saves any danger that their lives will be put in peril through public exploitation. No contract of any kind affecting the babies may be made without the Minister's approval, and he has complete authority over their property and assets. The little Dionnes are to be supported by the proceeds nf such legitimate perquisites as the sale of picture rights and pictures, the endorsation of* articles selected by their guardians for their use, etc. The home of the quintuplets is in a small private hospital put up for them cjose to the family homestead. It is the Mecca of tourists in the tens of thousands,, of whom" the fortunate ones have a glimpse of the babies through a glass window. At eleven months the infants had a combined weight of eighty pounds, their first teeth were items of news prominently displayed, and a cold in the head was a major incident. In the passing of accounts concerning the quintuplets' property, before the North Bay judge, 'it was revealed that at the end of March, they had assets valued at 151,187 dollars (more than £30,000). The greater part was in contracts witli picture syndicates and commercial houses, but the guardians had more than £3OOO in cash, a private hospital worth £2OOO, a £2OOO Government bond. Certainly no infants in the history of the world, not ■even the most precocious stars of the screen, had earned so much money in their first eleven months of life.