Radio Mirror (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

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Parahydrecin kills germs, yet Norforms are positively non-injurious. There is no danger of an "over-dose" or "burn." MILLIONS SOLD EVERY YEAR Send for the Norforms booklet "The New Way." It gives further facts about modernized feminine hygiene. Or, buy a box of Norforms atyour druggist's today. 12 in a package, with leaflet of instructions. The Norwich Pharmacal Co., Norwich, New York. NORFORMS Known to Physicians as '"Vasiforms" © N. P. CO. 1936 90 The Threat to the Quints' Happiness {Continued from page 17) for the Quintuplets' welfare, and if harm of any sort should come to one of them, a hue and cry of criticism would immediately be raised against him. People could so easily forget that it was his prompt action which saved the lives of the babies during the first few weeks after their birth. It was the knowledge of how every action of his would be watched and criticized, in fact, that for a long time kept him away from radio work. He hated to appear to be capitalizing on his position, for one thing; for another, he absolutely refused to leave his post in Callander very often or for very long periods of time. Early this summer, however, he agreed to broadcast from Toronto once a month for the Carnation Milk people. Toronto is a little more than two hundred miles from Callander, and only one day's absence would be necessary. When that contract runs out, he will go on the air under the sponsorship of Lysol three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11:45 a.m., over CBS, broadcasting direct from Callander so that he will never have to leave there. "Frankly," he told me, "I do want the money my sponsors are paying me. I'm not as young as I might be, and I have a nineteen-year-old son of my own, William, to provide for. But even so, I wouldn't broadcast if I didn't believe I have something to tell mothers, out of my own experience since the babies were born. With conditions as they will be, I can't see how my broadcasting will harm the babies." AND that, born of Dr. Dafoe's realization of the tremendous responsibility placed upon him, is the signpost to the one unbreakable rule he has set up for himself and his charges. It is the rule which will guide the Quints' lives until thev are eighteen, or as long as Dr. Dafoe and his two associates, Judge Valin and the Hon. David Croll, minister of public welfare in Ontario, remain their guardians under the Canadian Government. This is the rule: Never to do anything, or permit anything to be done, which could conceivably harm the children, physically or mentally. "In all the contracts we have signed for them," the doctor said, "we have held to that rule. It was part of their movie contract, for instance, that they were to work under the conditions and at the times I set. I was to be the boss, the contract said, and I was. It's the same way with news pictures. A large part of the babies' income is from advertising tie-ups with firms who want to use their pictures and names in connection with their products. That's all right; it can't hurt the children, since I must always be assured that the product concerned is good for them before I let them use it. "We could make more money for them, I suppose, by charging admission to see them, but then we'd be put into the position of having to show them whether we wanted to or not. As it is now, people come from all over the world to be their guests — but if one of them should happen not to be feeling well, or if the weather was bad, we'd be under no obligation to show them." So much for the present. What of the future? I asked Dr. Dafoe what steps he was taking now to fit the babies for the time when they must surely realize that they are objects of great interest to the entire world. That time can't be far off, incidentally, with such precocious and intelligent children. Only a day or so be fore I talked to the doctor I had seen some recent movies of the Quints, and already, it seemed to me, one of them was showing a very human and amusing disposition to watch the camera and keep herself in front of it all the time! Dr. Dafoe smiled ruefully and ran his hand once more through the shock of close-cropped gray hair which is, I'm convinced, perpetually rumpled. "What can you do?" he asked. "What I hope for is this: to fit the babies so that when they are grown they will be able to make their livings at some useful work, some work they like to perform. They will probably never have to, but they should have the ability, for their own happiness. If one of them should want to be an actress, or a musician, or a dancer — why, very good, but it should be something through which she can take her place in the world, aside from the fact that she's one of the quintuplets. "Financially, we are doing all we can to make them secure, not only from some accident which might take their money away from them, but also from fortunehunters who might victimize them after they come of age. Their estate is in trust, and by the time they are eighteen it will be arranged so that it will be impossible for anyone else to gain possession of it. "They won't leave Canada until they are eighteen. Then they will be of age, able to leave if they wish. But until then — why should they? Up there in the north country we have the most healthful climate in the world, dry and clean. The children play out of doors in zero weather, and it doesn't do them a bit of harm. I've seen them playing in the snow with their cheeks as red as roses, having a wonderful time. Why, even I — " he paused and chuckled — "I never have a day's sickness up there, but lots of times I've come down here to Toronto or some other city, and in a day or so I'm likely to start sniffling. "I can't tell you what the children's individual characteristics are. They change so, from one month to the next. I'm keeping careful records, all the time, and maybe in a few more years we'll know what special talents each of them has — but even then, I'm not so sure. Until recently, I thought my own boy was going to be a doctor, but now it seems he's interested in the technical side of radio. You can't tell how children will turn out. All the babies are bright, intelligent for their age, they all love music, and they like to dance. They're getting so they can carry tunes in their heads now, too. WE'RE rearing them to the religion and language of their parents. Nothing but French is spoken in their hearing, because I think it will be easier for them to learn English as a second language than it would be for them to learn French. Maybe that's because my own French isn't the best in the world. And as soon as they are old enough to understand, they will study the Roman Catholic religion." As I listened to him, I understood that Dr. Dafoe is rearing those children sensibly and well with love but without sentimentality. He looks upon his work in connection with the Quints rather as he looks upon his broadcasting: "It's a job, for me to do as well as I can." He doesn't hold out any promises that he will be able to defeat entirely all the disadvantages the Quints' fame will bring to them. But — by doing what he can, always— he is certainly going to do much to minimize them.