San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-04-16
Baby Howard Robinson's
Life Reads Like Dream of
Opium Smoker.
BY MARGARET NORRIS

Copyright, b. The San Antonio Light.
Chicago, April 16.-Baby Howard
Robinson, innocent offspring of two
generations of drug addicts, the story
of whose short life reads like the
lurid dream of an opium smoker
yesterday heir TO an estate in Eng
land, today a founding in a state
instltution-coos and smiles in the
arms of his charity nurse, in bliss
ful indifference to the unpromising
future ahead.
Howard, ten months old. and as
beautiful boy as ever smiled into
& mothers eyes, today was made the
official ward of the juvenile court. In
spite of the score of childless homes
clamoring TO take him in, the Child
cannot be given out for adoption while
his father, John Robinson. his only
living forbear remains a patient at the
Kankakee Sanitarium for the cure of
the narcotic habit.
With the mother, likewise a drug ad-
dict. dead by her own hand a fort
night ago, with the father a ward of
the state and unfit for the response
bility of his son. the child can have
no guardian except the one appointed
by the court. This remains status quo
until the father either dies or recov-
ers sufficiently 10 care. for the boy
himself.
OF a Prominent Family.
Like a fresh flower grown in a
field of waste. Howard. popularity
known as the dope baby" has sprung
from family cursed through two gem
erations by the relentless evil of drugs.
Yet experts who have examined him
declare that this child does not in
herit even tendency to this habit.
and given proper environment, he may
be even super baby.
Through his veins courses the blue
blood of family which once claimed
wealth. distinction and achievement.
DIR. William Woolson. maternal grand
father Of Howard. was at one time a
prominent physician of Buffalo. Twen-
ty years ago he removed with his fam
lily to Chicago and settled in the then
fashionable Prairie avenue district.
Gradually, however, the doctor WELD
ed TO the strain of overwork. and the
magic prick of the needle 10 carry
him through his strenuous tasks.
1t was grief over her husbands
death. il is said. which led Mrs. Wool
son. the baby's grandmother. to fall
a victim 10 the habit. Their oldest
son. Howard Woolson, in turn was
claimed b. the drug.
Ended in Tragedy.
II was believed that the bsby's
mother. Mrs. Edna Woolson Robinson.
had been taking opiates for about
three years when a fortnight ago she
killed. first her mother. Mrs Woolson.
and then herself. in the squalor Of a
South Side rooming house. A note
found after the tragedy explained that
both preferred death rather than SEN
aration and the suffering Of the
"curc." 1t also requested that lcr
ten months old baby. Howard. al
ready in the care of the United Chart
ties. be given friends rather than com-
mitted to an institution.
For inveStiga ton into the tragedy.
the baby's father. John Robinson. has
toned TO Chicago from the Kankakee
sanitarium. where he was half way
through the "cure." Never again. be
uecla"eu. WouId ne touch drug and
woe TO the peddlers who tried TO sell
him either morphine. heroin or CO.
caine.
Though grayed and stopped by years
Of suffering. John Robinson was nlain-
ly : gentleman and scholar. As he
talked to the charity worker who had
rescued his baby. his manners were
perfect. his English flawless.
He Is graduate of Cambridge Uni
versity in England and a civil en-
gineer. II was he who built the Mann
helm Railroad yards in Chicago. His
father before him, he explained. was
an architect of distinction-a member
Of the Royal Institute of British Archi-
tects.
81 came to this country twenty years
ago" he said. "and since then ! have