The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-06-05
Proud Parents of Quintuplets Dazed by
Sudden Fame, $4,000 World Fair Offer
It's No Easy Task to View
World Famous Infants,
Reporter Finds.
BY HELEN ALLYN
Times Special Writer

n | OR1H BAY, O1lIdI1O., JUNE y.
~ After waiting here twenty
four hours, I have seen the world
famous Dionne quintuplets.
They are tiny, wrinkled, and red,
but every one is perfectly normal.
Covered to their chins with soft
wooden blankets, they look like any
new born babes, but their nurse told
me their bodies, are pitifully thin.
When Byron Filkins, the photog-
rapher who flew the six hundred
miles from Cleveland, and I arrived
at the ramshackle old frame house,
DR.. A. R. Dafoe kindly. but firmly,
refused to let any one see the in
fantS then.
He promised, though, that if we
would wait day, we could get just
short peek at the famous infants.
Saw Tiny Babies
After waiting on the porch while
the doctor made sure everything
was all right, he ushered us into the
plain boarded bedroom where the
pretty 25-year-old mother is lying.
She speaks only French, but she
waived us friendly greeting and
pointed to her new" family
I was allowed to look through
the glass at the three tiniest babies
which are in the incubator. To
show us the other two, Nurse
Yvonne Larous carefully lifted back
two wooden blankets covering the
clothes basket for just a second and
then quickly pulled the blankets
back again.
Were doing our very BEST" DR..
Dafoe told me, ito keep these girls
from catching pneumonia. That's
why we allow few people to look
at them"
AS the photographer stood ready,
the real heroine of the event, Mrs.
Elzire Dionne, talked happily with
the nurse in French, apparently not
worried in the slightest.
Rabbits Feet, Too
Her eyes Sparkled as she pointed
to the tiny pink blanket, several
outfits of baby clothes and even
three rabbits feet that have been
sent to her by interested Ontario
people.
1--WE need nothing" she had the
nurse interpret to me, every one
has been so kind. I'm sure we will
be far better off with ten children
than we we're with five"
Out in the big bare kitchen,
huge black iron tea kettle boils con-
stantly. When a little of the water
is used, the hired girl quickly pours
in more and puts more wood on the
fire.
On another part of the stove, a
double-boiler always is in use, ster-
ilizing the tiny eye-droppers with
which the nurse feeds the babes
their bi-hourly rations and other
instruments needed in their care.
Keep 1t Secret
When the nurses and doctor
finally asked us to leave, DR.. Dafoe
said, Don't tell any one in the
whole dominion that you saw the
babies, or We'll be swamped with
requests"
Then we went out to the barn
yard to have a talk with the father.
We found him still in daze over
the sudden increase in his family.
When he talks about his children,
he calls them the new family and
the "old" family.
After spending a day with pro-
motors from the Worlds fair, who
hope to exhibit the babies in Chi
cago this summer, the 31-year- old
father didn't know which way to
turn.
They offered me $50000," he
told me, ''but the doctor says it may
mean the death of at least one
child. What am I to do?"
whichever way guess, it would
be wrong"
Some of his neighbors have told
the father that if he doesn't sign
the contract he's crazy. Others tell
him no amount of money on earth
is worth the risk of transporting
the babies.
S1OO a Week
Mr.. Dionne left all arrangements
to the priest from Corbiel, who
later told me that contract has
been signed and that the Dionnes
will get 500 week until they go to
the fair and $3.50 a week for the
time they are there.
Up here in the country, such a
sum is comparable to almost mil
lions in city. Mr. Dionne told me
he slaves all year to clear 500 on
his farm.
Then that goes for taxes" he
says.
Even the doctor admits the prob
lem of whether or not to accept
this $4,000 offer has a different
aspect when viewed from this To-
cality.
Death of a baby in these parts
isn't taken so hard. They save all
they can, but child is seldom
mourned. There are too many of
Them" he declared.
Town Still Excited
Nevertheless, Dr. Dafoe insists
that while the babies are under his
care, they are not going anywhere
regardless of fabulous offers of
money.
IF the father doesn't want to
follow my good sense" he told me,
"I'll see to it that the Canadian