Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1924-12-24
WILL Be BOY,
CAPITAL SAYS
Predict That Mrs. Long
worth's First BON Will
Be a Teddy Jr.

Washington, Dec. o0-Of course i
will be q boy,
What's more, ii viii be a wonderfi
boy!
On these two points. those who kno
Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Lo Gwo til ar
agreed.
1t is not because Alice Longwort,
herself is a masculine type that Wash
ington cannot imagine hcr with any but
a son. She is far from il. Rather It j:
because there has always been a vague
feeling that it is too bad Alice, with
her genius Of personality and her clev-
erness, was not Il man.
The reason for anticipating a remark
able boy is more obvious.
No one has ever expected a great deal
Of the Roosevelt tradition from the
sons of Theodore Roosevelt, but with
Alice it is different. She always ha,
been q "rcal person." as her father was
Like her father she always has posses
sed the faculty of inflam.ng the public
imagination to q remarkable degree.
1t is as unthinllable that 4 chi!d of
hers should be commonplace as that
field daisies should from the seed of a
s~unflower.
Hc VIII bc Il ITcat Leader
The day announcement was made of
the expected event in the Longhwo~th
home, Washington seeresses consulted
the omens for the future.
at will be a boy" each separate pro-
'pheey declared.
"He will rave phenomenal gift OF
leaiership-great self confidence-will
power-love Of adventure courts of
Europe will honor him-he will be
rich"
Washington believes TIE seercsscs
because it had already made up its
mind along the same lines.
All the soothsayers agreed that the
child would be named Theodore Lee
Longworth. "A natural assumption, since
Theodore is the name of his most dis
tinguished forbear, and since Alice
Longworth has always retained Lee in
her own name. 1t was the maiden name
of her mother, Alice Lee, Of Boston,
who died at Alice's birth.
But the prophecies were incautious
in choosing a rational name for such
Il child. Alice L~ongworth always has
lone the unexpected. and eve the
coming of the child proves adherence
to the rule. If it should o"cu~ to Alice
to name her son Xerxes NebuchaAnez-
gar. doubtless she will do so, and think
no more about it.
And He Will Have a Sister
An interesting feature of the prcdic-
tions was the declaration from two
crystal -gazers that the Longworth son
will have & baby sister at some furture
date.
when that Longworth boy grows old
enough to read about his mothers
younger days, its doubtless. goiag to be
a problem to discipline him.
What can you do with a child who has
this for a comeback; Yes, but mother
picked up asparagus tips in her fingers
with white kid gloves on one night at a
White House banquet, just to shock
somebody.
And it is not because OF Alice Roose-
welt Lonsworth alone that the laws Of
heredity promise the new baby will
have a vivid and original personality.
A host Of ~colorful stories told about
"Old Nick, grandfather of Nicholas
Longworth, are part of the early history
of Cincinnati.
"Old Nick was many times a million
aire. One day a party of tourists came
to the gate of his elaborate Cincinnati
estate and seeing a poorly dressed man,
apparently a caretaker. asked to be tax
en- through the grounds.
The old man was gracious and well
Informed. At the end of the tour he
pocketed the quarter they gave him. 1t
was Nick himself.
The %Longworth child will have a rich
heritage of old Dutch Knickerbocker
stock from both parents.
His Cradle a Century Old
Claes Martenzen Van Rosenvelt came
to America from Holland in 1919, one |
year before the early ancestor, and his
name was GA in the published list Of
the family's genealogy.
The Longwortns also were in this
country in the pre-Revolutionary days,
and Nicholas Longworth's great-grani-
mother was Apphia Vanderpoel, member
of an old Knickerbocker family.
1t is altogether fitting then, that
the scion of such distinguished borbears
should lay in a cradle at least a hun
drcd years old, perhaps older, when
he makes his appearance here.
The cradle has been standing empty
10 years waiting for the child who is
expected in February. That long ago,
Mrs. William Hit. formerly Katherine
Elkins of Washington, gave it to Alice
Longworth.
The known history Of the cradle be-
gins in Colonial days, but it is believ-
ed to have come here from England at
an even earlier period. 1t is of old ma
hogany with a half hood, very plain in
design.