The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-08-08
ARE The 'QUADS' ABUSED
CHICAGO WOMEN INTERESTED IN
MRS. ORMSBY'S CHILDREN
Infants Are On Exhibition at a Garden
and the Workers Complain of the
Electric Lights, Long Hours, Mos
quitoes, Poor Food and Many Other
Things Regarding the Treatment of
the Quartette of Infants.

quadrupIetS are again to the front this
time in the hands of a child saving So
ciety and the juvenile court. Accord
ing to a report made to the society the
mosquitoes were eating them up and
an electric light just above their heads
/ was burning their eyes out. A South
side physician gave it as his opinion
| that it would take two months of that
glare to ruin their eyes. In addition
to these troubles the babies had a man
for nurse, which to the women char
ity workers is equivalent to no nurse
at all.
These charity women went to see the
"Ormsby quads' in the tiny cottage at
Sans Souci park where they are show
ing for the summer. They found the
babies under a mosquito netting which
guarded them from the love pats of the
crowd.
eff only the babies were under that
! mosquito netting alone" said one of
the women, while another counted the
mosquitoes that were then perched on
the persons of the three Ormsby boys.
| She counted as high as 200 and then
! quit. One of the babies cried and the
young man with the brown mustache
| took it out of the cage and cuddled it
did not stop crying and two of it's
| mates joined in the chorus.
Are Fed on a Queer Bottle.
| The young man, who is press agent,
business manager and nurse for the
babies, lodged behind a screen and APP
, peared with a queer bottle. "It looked
! like a bit of chemistry apparatus" the
physician said, land was filled with a
pasty stuff which might have been
chlorate of lime" The young man
poked one of the dispensing arms into
the baby's mouth and it pulled hero
ically at the substance within. mo
kind of food for a baby said the ply
sician, much to the young mans en-
barraSSment.
The charity workers., determined to
find out about the mosquito bites and
the food, asked for Mrs. Ormsby. The
young man said she was not in. The
women returned three times and each
time Mrs. Ormsby was not in. One Of
the women asked the doortender when
the mother might be found, but the
man shook his head Never" he said
laconically, she's out spending the
money"
1t was after this experience that the
Illinois Childrens Home and Aid Soci-
ETY. was notified. Miss Susan Clark
the visitor of the society, made a trip
to the park last night. She had visited
the home before. She did not count
the mosquito bites and she did not find
Mrs Ormsby She found it impossible
to do either.
Say the Babies Need Rest.
"VioIa Edith Ormsby, with her pink
bows, seemed to be the best fed and
best mosquitoed of the four" she said.
John James, William and Theodore
Isaac, in blue bows, had given up the
fight against adversely and were crying
weakly"
The nurse who accompanied Miss
Clark said the babies needed rest and
care. She said the exhibition hours,
from o'clock in the morning until IL
o'clock at night, were too long. The
heat, the crowd and the noise, she said,
were dangerous. And the light at
night she was certain would destroy
their sight.
Miss Clark was told that Mrs. Orms-
by is enga ging in Irritation with one
of the actors at the vaudeville theater
which adjoins the babies cottage in
the garden. "You will find her at the
theater most likely" said an attendant;
"She's got beau over there" Miss
Clark searched, but did not find Mrs.
Ormsby, neither did she find the beau.
Yesterday she consulted Judge Horton,
who is acting judge of the juvenile
court this summer, and together they
agreed that something must be done to
shorten the hours of exhibition and
make things more comfortable for the
babies.
Quads Have Earned Money.
This is the eleventh month that the
Ormsby babies have been in the world
and on the exhibition platform. When
they opened their eyes, Sept. 20 of last
year, they were in poverty stricken
house at 406 West Forty-third street
Their father had already deserted
them. AS soon as the public knew
about them it began to make things
worth while for the four. Baby sacks,
dollar bills, all sorts of things came
from all quarters of the country. The
quads had earned, or rather acquired,
several thousand dollars before they
were three weeks old.
Their mother, Mrs. Josephine Orms-
by, and their several brothers and sis
tiers came after a time to see that it
was fortunate that there were four. AS
soon as they were able to be out, they
were valuable as a museum attraction,
and 500 week for each one was their
price. BY this means they have earn
ed, in these short nine months, more
than $4,000 in salaries and SO 900 from
photographs, besides what they have
been able to pick up in donations, and
that alone sums up into the thousands.
The OrmSbyS now live comfortably
near Washington park, and the elder
brothers and sisters have an cay time
e.. l.