Evening star., 1937-01-24
Ey tie Associated Press.


bership in that most exclusive club,
the Babies Born in the White House.
And now that modern medical prac-
tice DEGREES the impersonal hospital
instead of the personal home as birth
place, future candidates are likely to
be fewer still.
So their honor roster may now be
compiled with considerable complete
ness.
The glad shout, Its boyI" greeted
the charter member. who thus could
be named for the fourth President
as we'll as being grandson of the third.
He was James Madison Randolph.
eighth among the IL children Of
Martha jefferson Randolph, hostess
for her widowed father, Thomas JET
ferson.
Some Presidents would be taking
q great chance in trying TO name 6
grandson born in the White House
for the next man who would live there.
But not Thomas Jefferson. He was d
President powerful enough to pick two
successors. James Madison and James
Monroe.
Three Born in White House.
President Jacksons official hostess
Emily Donelson, niece of his deceased
wife, Rachel, set an all-time record in
the production Of White House babies,
having three born there.
Historians seem to have entirely lost
track of this brilliant bit of human
interest in their absorption in the
social struggle between Emily and that
unofficial First Lady" Peggy Eaton.
However, the names of Emily's
White House babies. and the dates Of
their births. are carefully preserved
by a descendant who lives in Wash
ington, as follows: Mary Emily Donel-
son, August 81. 1929; John Samuel
Donelson. May 1s, 1882, and Rachel
jackson Donelson. April 10. 1884.
A century and more has rolled over
the White House since. Children and
grandchildren galore have romped
through its halls. have had Christmas
parties. birthday parties. Easter egg
hunts.
But only twice has the Tapping
stork stopped, once with a grand
daughter for President Grant, once
with a daughter for President Cleve-
land-only Presidents child ever born
in the Executive Mansion.
Grants first grandchild, the present
Nine. Julia Cantacuzene, wrote in her
memoirs about arriving. Thirteen
pounds of chubby health" in a room
with windows looking out under the
great portico, in June, 1876.
Christened in East Room.
MANY were the tales told me of
my baptism. when named Julia for my
Grant grandmother, and with Mrs.
Honore and the President as god
parents, I was christened in the great
east room," she said.
Shortly after this, my beautiful
maternal grandmother MRS. Honore)
made me with her own hands soft,
long dress of null and old Valenciennes
laces. set together in quaint patterns
imagined by herself, embroidered and
hemstitched in the doing. For gala
occasions I had a pair of bracelets
with soft woven ribbons of gold with
tiny blue hearts hanging from them,
and q wee ring with diamond like
pin point.
II was decked out in these for the
event of the season-the Presidents
New Year reception Of 1877. I sat
in my nurses arms and behaved with
calm dignity, while diplomats and
legislative officers with their wives
passed by-some of the foreigners
even kissed my fat hand in a courtly
fashion"
Julia Grant grew up to marry a
prince of old Russia, and to revel in
that country's brilliant court life pre-
ceding the World War. She now lives
here and has won back her American
citizenship.
Cleveland Daughter Favorite.
OF the Cleveland children, the late
Chief Usher Ike Hoover wrote: I'VE
often wished more Of them had been
born in the White House: Of the
three there during the last term. but
one, Esther, was a White House prod