Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-02-03
HAPPINESS FOR BABY WAITS is
PHYSICIANS LIFE WORK
Individual Care, Replacing Institu-
tiOnal System, Brightens Lives OF
Little Ones Trained for AdOp-
ton by DIR. Chaplin
d. Dnrrn,nnA q GnrnnlI

New York Correspondent of the
Philadelphia Public Ledger
An abandoned, hungry little girl
baby fell off a bench ten years ago in
Central Park and was found by a po-
liceman, her little mouth stuffed with
grass. 1t was just at dawn and the
baby was crawling around, whimper-
ing pitifully. She raj desperately i'll
from the grass diet, and within a short
time found her way into the home of
Mrs. Alice Chaplin, wife of DR.. Henry
Dwight Chaplin, at 81 West Fifty-frst
street. The physician, a specialist in
the diseases of children, saved the life
of the infant. His wife kept the little
girl until a suitable home was found
for her.
From the finding of that baby and
it's passing into the hands of the Cha
pins started a movement that promises
to revolutionize the care of orphaned
and abandoned babies in the entire
world. 1t started DR.. and Mrs. Chaplin
there have since been sem forth to
good homes from their brownstone-
front residence SO youngsters, and 252
Others from their Alice Chaplin Adop-
tion Nursery, at 2100 Lexington We
nue..
Incidentally, the tr~ail-blazing baby
derelict of Central Park not long g
gave a piano recital in the small au-
ditorium in Carnegie Hall. She has
promise of a brilliant future.
Last year DR.. and Mrs. Chaplin made
a tour of the eastern half of the Ameri-
can continent, visiting their babies"
in good homes in Buffalo, Rochester,
Chicago, Detroit, st. Louis, Milwaukee,
ST. Paul, Boston and Providence. They
found, without exception, their little
charges happy, and on the way to be-
coming useful men and ONE They
returned to New York City, a vast
clearing house for little waits, more
determined than ever to carry or the
great project of individual care for
babies, as against the old institutional
idea of herding infants in dormitories
Engaged in "LabOr of Love"
DR.. Chaplin is not a rich man but he
is more than that. He is a good mar
with brains. In between his child wei
fare work, he earns his living as {
practicing physician. His first expe'
rience with children began years age
with a baby clinic at Bellevue Hos
pital, and later in the babies wards
of the POSTGRADUATE Hospital. He il
both baby wise and baby foolish in thu
sense that his very active mind is en-
tirely wrapped up in baby welfare. HI
has had about all the honors bestowed
within the folds of his profession, ant
whatever he says is fresh from tn,
book of experience.
Mrs. Chaplin, VINO is a sWeet-faced
gentle little of culture, opened
the door of the Lexington avenue nur-
sery-the overlooking ~babyland of the
Chaplin residence-when l called there
this morning. The nursey occupies
an upper floor of a substantial fire
proof building erected by the Child
ren's Aid Society with a section OF
the roo wired off for the summing OF
the babies when weather conditions
will permit. DR.. Chaplin was in the
room of the nursery set aside for the
examination of infants, for no infants
are sent out for adoption with any
physical faint.
Proper Environment Stressed
"The first six years of our lives, the
pre-school period, are the most i'm
portant we live" said DR.. Chaplin, a
mn oond1v I,,i1f , r1oaAf1 Iouoo
and gray haired with extremely kind
eyes, looking up from a f~ive-weeks-old
baby. "Now, this child was born
Christmas eve and her name is Edna.
She is responding to our care and in
terest and will come out all right.
Mrs. Chaplin has full title to her, and
when the right person comes along she
will surrender Edna to make her own
way in a good home.
What defects exist in grown-ups we
often charge to heredity, when as a
matter of truth they are the grist of
improper environment"
The nursey itself had the atmos-
cheerful pictures showing mother love,
happiness, beauty n bright outdoor
scenes. 1 noticed there were but two
cribs to a room, each containing an
infant, and none of the eight babies
on hand, which is the present capacity
of the nursey, was crying.
Our plan is to get away as far as
possible from long rows of BEDS" said
DIR. Chaplin. 81 once made a V
of baby institutions in the Eastern
States and the infantile mortality ran
from 35 per cent to rs per cent. Our
loss is from l per cent to 8 per cent.
Babies need love and individual atten-
ton. By keeping them out of dormi-
tories we avoid all danger of cross in
lection. I have known where an cpl
demic of measles swept through an
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