The Washington times., 1936-09-02
NOW
Ancient Houses
Passing AWGy
SAVE EN-
BY HELEN ESSARY

House in winch All M. Lanoon
Republican Nominee for the Pres
idency, Was Born" and where
Franklin Delano Roosevelt First
Saw the Light of Day"
Such pictures are definitely
saddening. They represent van
ishing era.
No, Presidents have not van
ished. When the dictatorS start
killing each other, they'll be more
common than now.
And, heaven knows, they are
pretty imminent and omnipreSent
at the moment.
But the houses which echoed
to the first squalling cries OF
great men will soon disappear
from the building industry and
contemporary history.
The Presidents and heroes Of
the uture will not have been born
in a House. Their earthly begin
nings will tell a more grim and
antiSeptic story.
The picture sections will show
''The Hospital Where John B.
links, Nominee for the Presidency,
First Saw the Light"
In the full-page layout will be
inserts on such subjects as The
Delivery Room" ''The Gas Masks
Worn During the Administration
of the Materna! Twilight Sleep"
and "Tbe Laboratory Where the
Candidates FIRST Orange Juice
Was Squeezed
Perhaps, Continued on Page 2"
will be a hoSpital-scape Of THE
Nursery at the Good Deed Infirm-
airy, Where John B. links Spent
Many y Growing Hour-1hs Crib
in Which He Slept Is Hours a
Day Is Marked by the Arrow
Pointing Upward"
The name tag which little
Johnny links wore to distinguish
him-he was then in the vague,
red, lumpy stage and had not be-
gun to show the characteristics Of
greatness so soon to develop--will
be preserved in the hospital mu-
scum.
AL hospital museums are guard
ing such relics now. The board of
managers and the publicity bu-
reau never know when they may
have a chance to become famous
as the birthplace of statesmen
and stateswomen. It's as we'll to
be prepared.
The sterilized blanket in which
the candidates nurse wrapped him
as she bore him down the hospital
hall to his mothers room for tea
will be seen and admired in illus
trated life stories of future demi-
gods. His coverlet will be dis
covered embroidered in red, white
and blue stars and stripes. No
doubt, a little omniscience at the
hands of the Lady Managers.
If the candidate be of poor but
honest parentage-the snapshots
of his birthplace will reveal a
building much the same as the
birthplace of his rich but dishonest
competitor.
But if he came into the world
by the golden spoon-special nurse
private room route instead Of
the 20-beds-to-a-ward path, his pic
ture story will be minus the
banana cart.
BY the banana cart mean that
simple practical conveyance on
which undergraduate nurses load
the ward babies at feeding time.
And roll them hastily out from the
ward nursery to their eager
Mammas lying in a row awaiting
the wholesale approach of their
angel offspring.
The banana cart will be a nice
campaign asset. It's sturdy unaf-
fectedneSs will prove to the pic
ture readers at glance that the
candidates ancestors were stead
fast Americans.
During the last Is or 80 years
every American whose parents
weren't anarchists has been
born in a hospital.
The next presidential campaign
may be the last when a hoping
to-be ruler of this great nation
can remember a frame house by
the railroad track or a parson-
age under the elmS as 1.-THE little
cot where I was born"
So it's my advice to you today
and tomorrow-cut out the views
Of where ALI and F. D. first
resided. Paste them in your
scrap book. They'll soon be re-
minders of the sepia but personal
past.
While brooding over the birth
places that may soon be no more,
am reminded by easy stages of
DR.. w. Sinclair Bowen. DR.. Bowen
knows more about birthdays and
birthplaceS than any man in Wash
ington, as he has been present
on the birthdays of about 1000
children. .
DR.. Bowen likes to follow the
careers of "his children" You'll
find him, between birthdays, at
their christenings and graduations.
At their weddings he likes to
lift a glass of what he calls manl1a