The Washington times., 1921-03-18

ana otherwise ntted for better de-
stroying farm produce.
Boys are treated between | 80 and
5 o'clock Tuesday afternoons; girls
from a. m. to 1880 p. m. on Sat
urdays.
DR.. J. G. Reilly is in charge of the
clinic. which is the outgrowth OF
four years of hard work on the part
OF the members of the society
About four years ago Mrs. w. J.
Baxter was in charge OF sewing
class formed by the Christ Child So
ciety. Mrs. Baxter, as all District
children know. Is Santa Claus
daughter. Mrs. Baxter has been in
charge of Christmas celebrations,
Easter egg rolling carnivals. out
ings. and parties until she is known
by name to nearly every child in
Washington.
TOOTH BRUSHES BUSY.
II may not have been a good sew
ing teacher" said Mrs. Baxter, but
i did teach those children the value
of good teeth. Within a remarkably
short time they all had tooth brushes
in action two or three times a day
That gave me a real idea
Upon looking around | found that
the percentage of children with bad
sSNNh was shoshllhSly nlBn. i
brought the matter up before the
society. AS we had no funds we
had TO find some way to secure the
services of dentist without pay.
I'VE therefore decided to apply to
all the dentists in town, asking each
ing each one to take care of at least
one child each month. Quite a num-
ber agreed to lend us their services
Unfortunately. however, that system
proved entirely inadequate. 1t was
hard to get the children to the dem
lists offices. appointments were diff
ficult to obtain and the number OF
children was great. In many cases
the child should have received several
treatments in order to obtain any real
benefit. or course, when the doctor
could give but one treatment a month
this was impossible.
II tried to solve the problem Of
getting the children to the offices by
taking them in my automobile. I
would collect load of them and run
around town, dropping one here,
another there.
Then, after j had parceled out the
last child, / would again make the
rounds, gathering them up, with their
teeth all nicely shined and an nu-
happy expression about their eyes, A
little ride around the park would re-
store their spirits and when was
ready to leave them at their homes
1t was generally hilarious little
crowd that bade me Goodnight
This plan gradually broke down
under practice. 1t was hard to obtain
adequate treatment for them all. Ac-
cordingly we decided to open a tenn
porary clinic and bring doctor
there. A little place was prepared in
Georgetown Nand the services of a
young graduate OF local dental
school obtained free. He took as his
fee the experience gained Acquiring
experience. he moved on. Another
took his place. And so 1t went on.
But gradually the children's teeth
were brought into the best possible
condition. When we had succeeded in
cleaning up Georgetown fairly well
the clinic was moved over to Little
Italy-Shotts' alley, under the shadow
OF the Capitol dome. Here, too. teeth
began to shine out where all was
darkness once.
This system was satisfactory for n
time, though q migratory clinic OF
that sort could never be as complete
as permanently established office.
There IL "A great n'lG FOR This sort
Of work In Washington gnd the mat
ter IL one of VIA importance to the