The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1901-10-26
SHE'S A REMARKABLE MOTHER
Mrs. ormsby Has Had Fourteen
Babies In Seven Years.
CNeU York SIM

ChlCago.-Ihe record of motherhood
in this country at least. is Mrs. Joseph
X. Ormsbys. in her seven years OF
married life she has had fourteen chill
dren, an average of two a year, AMI
she is only 80. Twice twins have been
born to her. once her babies have been
triplets and d few days ago she gave
birth TO bankruptcies.
OF her big family three children were
! living when the four came. Only one
twin and two of the tripletS survived.
| But the four new babies are all
healthy. They weigh three pounds
! apiece and everybody thinks they will
live, though that isn't often the case
with bankruptcies.
Mrs. Ormsby's is the most remark
able case of maternity ever known in
| this country, so the Chicago physicians
say. All the same it is a hard case
| for the mother. for the children have
| only her to look to for support Her hus-
band became insane last June and dis
! appeared. His delusion was that he
had invented a perpetual motion ma
chine
He is two years younger than his
wife. She is not large-rather a frail
little woman, with fair hair and blue
eyes. Ormsby was a plumber when
they married in 1894 They went to
housekeeping in a cottage in West
FOrty-third street, and there in the
first three years three babies came.
Then it was twins. then still more
twins. and finally triplets. The trip
let's won a gold cup at the Chicago
baby show, and the Ormsby children
who survived-the first twins and three
other children had died-became a sort
Of curio exhibit in the neighborhood
and the subject Of paragraphs in the
neWspaDers
To help to feed the early corners, the
wife persuaded her husband to take
out the front of their cottage and build
a small grocery store before ii. She
tended store herself besides doing all
the homework and taking care of the
children. But with the increased rev
enue came the triplets. Then the
plumbers ideas began to run to in
venting things. 1t was the old delu-
Of him. Day and night he worked on
a machine that was never to stop. Last
summer he thought he had solved the
problem. He had given up work to
devote himself to it and he thought he
saw success in sight. He finished the
machine and started it. 1t was Won
derful contraption, and it actually ran
for siXty-two hours, so the neighbors
say. Then it stopped, and the plumb
q y III ain SlOppGu WI hlllS WIN II. IN
one of his fits of frenzy he vanished.
Nobody has seen him since.
That was last June. The deserted
wife went on tending store. doing her
housewoIk and keeping her children
tidy. They were the incest children
in the block, so everybody said. Then
in the last week of September came
the four, three boys and a girl, all at
once. Now the mother is almost in
despair about how to feed a family
double the size of that she had before.
1t was a hard struggle then. ana
how to get along now she doesn't
know. Fortunately for her the news
papers printed stories about it, long
stories with pictures of all the sur
viving babies, and charitable people
have come forward to help along so re-
markable a mother,
They are the dearest little babies in
the world, she said TO reporter who
went TO interview her. and she glanced
over the four little faces in a row in
the cot beside her. I hardly know
what ] shall do with all these children,
but I'll do my best
She didn't look as if she could spare
one of them, and there are seven left.
George Dewey, Carter Harrison and
Helen Gould We're the names given 10
the triplets. Carter Harrison didn't
get over it. He died in early infancy
but George Dewey and Helen Gould
are fine, healthy youngsters. So is
David, one of the twins. The latest
fables haven't been named yet--for- |
mally, that is; but for one, the lustiest |
in the lot, it is settled.
What are you going to call him?" |
Mrs. Ormsby, when the re- |
porter asked that question. why.
Theodore Roosevelt"