FAMOUS BABIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22198, 27 August 1935, Page 15

FAMOUS BABIES

CANADA'S QUINTUPLETS GUARDIAN VISITS LONDON STORY OF THEIR PROGRESS Mr. David A. Croll, Ontario Minister of Public Welfare and the man who, as representing the King, has the famous Dionne quintuplets as his "special wards," was recently in London —and brimming over with enthusiasm and affection for his five charges. These wonder babies, born in the backwoods of Canada and now the possessors of a fortune of £-10 i ,000 by very reason of their existence, aro, Mr. Croll stated, just beginning to feel their feet. "Very soon," he said, with something liko awe in his voice, "thoy will be walking. "Do you know that at the present time 1200 people a day are trekking from all over the American continent to get a glimpse of them? At week-ends this number mounts to 2500. People I can approach within 30ft. of the 'quins,' who are shown three times a day behind their glass screen. Special Hospital Built "They aro just the sweetest things that over happened, though, bless my soul, if it were not that we have their footprints and fingerprints, we should not be able to tell one from the other. Thoy are as alike now as a row of pins. "The babies still live in a real backwoods spot. We had to build a special hospital for them, construct roads to the hospital, supply electric power brought from many miles away, and even lay on water. In that country it is difficult enough for a woman to bring up one child, and yet here is Mrs. Dionne with fivo other children besido the 'quins.' She is a wonderful woman and mother. "When the State stepped in to take a part in the lives of the Dionne babies thero was a good deal of adverse comment about it. Yet contracts had been negotiated for the 'quins' to appear at Chicago Fair when they were seven days old. "The Bast of Everything" "The State's job is to save lives, if possible, and it was considered impossible to save tli-3 lives of these babies if they were going to be exhibited in such a manner. So the State took control. It struck mo as the right and proper thing to do. The State is now playing a large part in the affairs of the 'quins,' and I have had to set up a special legal department to deal with their business. "We propose to keep them in their hospital until they arc four or five and then turn tlie hospital into a school for all the Dionne children. They arc having the best of everything and will have special chances to make their way in the world. Already the 'quins' are lisping words in French and English; they will be taughj; theso two languages and others besides."