The Washington times., 1936-06-17
SETS HER GOAL
BEYOND MERE
S5OO,0OO
BY FRANK CHAMBERLAIN
Copyright, 1885. King Features
Syndicate, Incl

TORONTO, Canada, June II
kathleen Nagle, at 81, has 10
living children, nine of them
born since October 81, 1926, and
since she expects another in
August, she thinks she has every
reasonable prospect of winning
at least part of the $500,000 fund
that will be awarded to one or
more contenders in the Millar
Will Maternity Marathon.
But that is far from being the
fact that makes Kathleen Nagle
most interesting. Despite priva.
tionS due to her hard-working
husband finding so little employ.
ment that the family are on the
relief rolls, this young mother of
10 children declares it is her
ambition, before she gets through,
to have "the largest family in all
Canada" The Millar contest is
limited to Toronto. Kathleen
Nagle covets laurelS won in a
wider field.
Husband Unemployed
Mrs. Nagle's husband, John, is
35 and has had no steady work
for five years. Before that he was
mechanic and carpenter. The
Nagles have had II children in
their IA years of married life, and
all but one are living.
You should see the Nagles at
mealtime. They eat in silence,
for John Nagle is a quiet, BASH
full father, and Kathleen Nagle
doesn't speak unless she has some
thing worth saying. The children
have been taught to be seen and
not heard, and four or five OF
them are so shy that they cover
their eyes with their hands when
a stranger looks at them.
On the dinner table are meat
cakes, mashed potatoes, stewed
corn, custard and heaping pile
of bread All of it came from
the welfare" The municipality
provides vouchers for families
where there is no income-so
much for bread and milk. so much
for fuel. The city pays ST a
month for the family's rent, too,
and John Nagle manages to earn
the other 81 a month by doing odd
jobs in the neighborhood.
Eat Hungrily
The family eat hungrily. Not a
scrap of food is left on the table
when they are finished. Then the
three older girls, Teresa, Peggy
and Mary, help to clear the table.
They take turns in washing and
drying the dishes.
Even the smaller children, Fred
die, Eileen and Billy, have house
hold duties. One of them sweeps
the kitchen. Another shakes out
the tablecloth.
Jackie. aged 4, is told to rest his
bandaged foot in an upright posi-
ton, for he recently stepped on a
piece of glass, and he obedlently
complies.
Kathleen Nagle is good
mother. She knows how to raise
children. And strange is her am
bition. She said:
81 want to have the biggest
family in Canada. / would like
to own a food shop, and train
nv girls to look after the store
while / baked"
In her younger days she was d.
etition at a girls boarding house.
. She was also a switchboard opera
tor in a Catholic hospital. She
recalled how on New Years Day
newspapermen telephoned her to
find out who was the first baby
born in the New Year.
Doesn't Want Fortune
Kathleen Nagle has no selfish
hankering for the half million dol
lars in the estate of Charles Vance
Millar. She says:
81 hope that several mothers
will be tied for the money. There
is enough for all of us. One fam
lily wouldn't know what to do
with SO much money. / would
be quite willing to share it with
the other mothers, if 1 should be
lucky enough to win it. But I'm
not counting my chickens before
they are Matched. How do 1
know but what there isn't dark
horse We don't know anything
about? And SuppOsing a mother
with five children now should
have quintuplets before OctO-
ber?"
John Nagle sits silently, but
. when asked what he would like
to do if they should win the
money, he says: We're both
rural foeoo1e T world like to hIlV