The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-09-22
MEET THE FIRST WAR BABY!
A Glimpse Into War-Mother' Heart
1dah McGlcnc Gibson Portrays
the Inspiring Drama Of the Am
merican Home in War Time.
BY IDAH McGLONE GIBSON.

6y IOAf1 ncGIONE Gi6oON.
(Staff Correspondent of The Tribune.)
Rockville Center, L. l., Sept. o.
This was the stage setting of the dra-
ma of the FIRST REAL AMERICAN
WAR BABY-a universal drama of the
American home which will inspire 'ev-
cry father and mother With the Spirit
of America in the great war: 4.
A messenger boy passed quickly up
the walk between the squares of lawn
of a quiet home in Rockville Center,
typical Long Island town of 1000,
New Yorkified and yet countrified.
At the door, as the boy waited for
his book to be signed, they read this
cablegram: Arrived safely in France
Captain Albert Whitney Waldron."
Suddenly upstairs, behind a closed
door which opened only as the doctor
and nurse passed in and out, arose a
new sound above the subdued moan
ing-that first vail from tiny throat
for which anxious fathers have lis
tened, since life began, more eagerly
than for the sweetest music.
The messenger boy was starting
down the walk. He was called back.
When he returned to the telegraph
office he carried with him this cable
gram: ~ ~., IN
Capt. Albert Whitney Waldron Jr,
has arrived safely in the United
States. Mother and child both WELL"
That is the story of the arrival in
the same hour at the home of Mr.. and
Mrs Francis G. Hooley, Mrs. Wald-,
ron's parents, of the first American
war baby and also of the news that
the baby's father, at the time when
most men are pacing back and forth
within call meeting their supreme
nervous test, had just set foot on a
distant land staged for death instead
of birth. =
The cablegram announcing her hus-
bands safety in France was the first
news to be taken to the girl mother
as she lay short while later in her
bed, with the Every image" of the alb
sent captain asleep on her arm.
I'll bet Capt. Albert Whitney VALID
ron of the American expeditionary
forces somewhere in France would
give his boots to be in my place-for
I've just seen this first American war
baby in his bassinet. 4t + -,
Captain junior q can imagine that
is what he. will be called) wrinkled up
his little button of a nose, opened his
dark eyes wide for a moment, then
closed them slowly. He didn't care
about history-or that he was history
in the making, symbol of the Amer
lean mothers fortitude in war time,
Perhaps some day he may be proud
of being the first war son born to an
American captain in France, but now
all the little codger thinks about is
eating and sleeping. -''g Z.
Mrs. Waldron, self-pOssessed, gives
no sign of having gone alone through
the valley of the shadow" while the
husband, who would have given all he,
had in the world to hold her hand at
that moment, entered himself another
valley of death thousands of miles
away. She looked like young col
.lege girl, in her yellow sport skirt,
her white MILDLY and tennis shoes.
I'VE have been married. only two
years in November" Mrs. Waldron
told me. ut was a West Point ro-
nance AS soon as my husband was
graduated from the Point and received
his command we were married. -
Capt. Waldron was in Mexico at
first"
From time to time as she talked to
me Mrs. Waldron turned and looked
at the little baby face, half hidden in
lace. At those times felt | was not
in the picture. And wondered wheth-
er she really saw there baby face,