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Washington Gossip Interesting Bits of News Picked Up Here and There at the National Capital TO PREVENT BEPOPVLATION PRESIDENT ORDERS CUT IN CANAL ZONE EXPENSES I - - 111 HI liil II - l iMliSi' nil-1 ' ' 1H (ffi PA11CA Paris. There is a tragic hole-ln-the-wall In every ward of Paris. It is a kind of low window, without glass, in the side facade of the local public charities establishment. Look ing at it, you perceive it ends in a closed wooden box, movable and dis connected with the wall Inside. It' looks like a dumb-waiter or dish-ele-vator. It is a dumb-waiter not for dishes, lut for, babies! Up the dark side street there comes a wretched mother. What shall she do with the infant in her arms? She has reasons not to answer questions. She shrinks from Investigation. Shall she put baby on a doorstep? No; everybody in Paris is aware of the strange, sacred holes-in-the-wall of Ihe Assistance Publique. She waits until there is not a soul in the dark side street. She walks Tip to the dumb-waiter. It is at the iieight of mother's waist. She shifts baby to it. She hesitates, at must be done. She pulls a bell rope. ZNo bell is heard; but the dumb-waiter slides to one side and the baby dis appears! Perhaps the poor mother stands and looks a moment at the hole. All she can see is just another waiting box space the size of another baby. It 1s waiting for another baby. But, in side the Assistance Publique, she knows her infant is already warm and -ted and cared for. There, inside, a bell is ringing. "Dring! dring! Saving a Life For France. "Hey, there, a baby's come! Oust! quicker than that!" calls the greffier Irom his little office. Nurses flit to the hole in the wall there is a life to save for France. They lift the liding box's lid; and baby looks up at its new protectors. It is the oldest, most primitive, and for a great class of cases the only Scene in the Nursery During sure methcj for combating French de population. Infant mortality, which is greatest between the ages of one day and six weeks, wastes needlessly over 150,000 babes in France each year! There are better ways; for France is waking up. I have seen extraor dinary efforts, patriotic, touching, lovable, in hardened , Paris business men we are In 1907! "Monsieur, I want work." "Have you a baby?" "No, monsieur." "Sorry. No place. Look in later." It. was at the greffe of a great Paris shirt factory. Young women were coming and going, early on a Saturday morning, at the hour for engaging lands. "Monsieur, I want work," said an other. "Have you a baby?" "Ye-es, monsieur." "All right. Come MondA? morning. Bring the baby." I myself would scarcely have be lieved It if I had not heard it with my own ears; but this is Paris in 1907 no isolated case, as I have learned .since, but a factory practice, growing, growing with the beautful ardor of a .patriotic, spontaneous movement! How long ago was It that the charge of ma infant positively injured a woman's 1 chances of employment? Certainly It was but yesterday - that unencum bered girls had preference. Now girl mothers, even, go before them! Rooms Always Waiting. - I saw the babies in the shirt fac tory's nursery, 140 babies from three years (a few among the eldest) down to three weeks. That was three weeks ago. There must be new ones. Because this extraordinary shirt factory has three sunny bed rooms always waiting at the disposi tion of prospective mamas. A capable young doctor is employed by the year to spend half his time in the nursery. Ten maids manage to do all the work, including every baby's daily bath this with the help of mothers, who have the right to slip in four times a day, ten minutes each, in alphabetic order; and the 30 minutes aggregated outside the visit of the lunch hour are not deducted from their pay. "What does the factory give the babies?" I asked the young doctor. "Sterilized, non-tuberculous milk when their mothers cannot nurse them; all their first baby clothing, baths, hygienic surroundings, medical attendance, pure air, sunlight, warmth, safety quoi! the only things a baby needs! Apart from these things the establishment favors mothers!" "Howr "Had you seen two girls I saw last week, you'd be surprised," he an swered. "Both were marriages at the Mairie, very affecting; but as I assist ed at the preliminaries of one in par ticular, I have conceived a great ad miration for the proprietor of this factory. To look at him you would im agine him a hard-headed, cynical bus iness man, you would certainly have been astonished at the tact and pa tience he employed to persuade a way ward youth to make the mother of his babe a wife. (I refer to the youth's a 10-Minute "Mother's Spell babe, of course). Two philanthropists, a young widow and a discreet retired business man, friends of the boss, spend their time visiting the homes of our work women and girls." "How are those with babies fa vored?" I insisted. Aided to Respectability. "Secretly. Winter jackets. The coal supply attended to. The landlord tranquilized " about the rent and in doctrinated of his duty not to dis criminate against children in his house. . Furthermore, he is informed that the girl-mother is at once man's victim and the state's creditor. In stead of bein cold-shouldered, she should be aided to marriage, when possible but always to hold up her head!" "How?" "Well, what is the matter with sup plying her with a filled-gold wedding ring to display on the proper finger? And why shouldn't her landlord in struct his janitor to. speak of her as a young wife whose energetic husband has preceded her to Algiers, there to found a home? Or, if she prefers, a widow? We are not hidebound par tisans of the impossible, like the Societe de la Charite Maternelle! That rich, and powerful society first of its kind to help young mothers mm and founded as early as 1784 acts on the principle of rendering girl-mothers pecuniarily attractive. Its vast influ ence is exercised in every ward of Paris; and its unique gesture is to offer money inducements to young men to marry their victims in a country like France, where the "in quiry Into paternity," much more the swearing of a baby, is not enforceable by law. On condition that they marry, the Charite Maternelle will lavish at tentions on the couple; but, as the young shirt-factory doctor points out, the girl being nearly always willing, why should she and the baby lose their chance to patronage by the back wardness of an uninterested third party? The Hope of the Country. "Mother and child are the interest ing couple; they are the hope of France," he says; "and there are vital reasons why the numerous and highly organized day nurseries of the Societe des Creches, while having their vital raison d'etre after the child is well weaned, slow weaned, you understand, ought not to separate the baby from its mother even in the day time!" The Societe des Creches has 50 such establishments in Paris. - Twelve of them are financially sustained by the municipality; but you would not know them from the others. All are run on the same plan. Has the poor mother a legal domicile in the ward? It is the only question asked when there is room; and baby is fed and cared for all day while mamma works, till night, when mamma comes to take it home with her. Apart from these, many wards contain their own special day nurseries; not to speak of fash ionable ladies' recently established "Dolls' houses" very smart and pretty for those who can gain admis sion; while all survivors in the strug gle for existence at the age of two years slip safe into the great maternal schools, the pride of Paris for ten years back. "Baby's Smile." What Paris had neglected because modern maternity science had not sufficiently insisted on it Nancy in augurated by enlarging and municipal izing the private Oeuvre de la Ma ternite of Prof. Alphonse Herrgott, called "Baby's Smile." Prof. Herrgott was convinced that the only way to combat the phenom enal infant mortality of France was to prevent any separation of the mother and her unweaned child. "If I give money at the start," he argued, "how will it be employed? Will I get results? No." Therefore he said to each mother quitting his Maternity hospital: "Nurse your babe from your breast; and in six weeks come back and see me. The babe will be weighed and examined. If it is in fine condition, 111 give you $20 cash." It was the first cash for babies in France! ind the results . were magical. In course of time Prof.' Herrgott had so many . mothers proudly bringing him their superb babies and demanding money at each weighing that the private fortune of the good man melted. Fortunately private donations and , substitutes from the department came to his aid. Now the municipality has it in hand; the work extends over all Nancy, where the infant mortality has fallen to three and one-half per cent. lower than in the rich wards of Paris, where five per cent, was con sidered phenomenal. Paris Takes Up Work. In Paris the work has been taken up by the Allaltement Maternel "The Mothers Nursing" to which in the last ten years of his life Casimir Perier gave much of his energies and considerable sums of money and which Senator Plot would possibly se lect as a nucleus for his great system in which the state Is to pay cash for the babies. Sou have- doeibtless heard of French depopulation; but only figures can bring, home to you the long-gathering result of concentrated French civiliza tion mingling stresses of economy MEM J I i f - ll and luxury! According to the depart ment infant mortality varies between 28 per cent, and 80 per cent. A celebrated doctor of the Assist ance Publique has declared to the Academy of Medicine that in Paris, infant mortality varies between five and 90 per cent. according to the mode of feeding and the care given the infant. Convinced of the startling truths of the Nancy experiment, the founders of the Allaltement Maternel are demand ing money to do for all the poor or working mothers of Paris what my shirt factory i3 doing for its hands and what the "Baby's Smile" is doing for the mothers of Nancy giving cash for babies. -Senator Piot's Good Work. In the French senate there Is a man who already forced the general gov ernment to begin handing good money to families of five children. This is Senator Edme Piot, a highly remarka ble personality. Son of a Burgundian family so poor that, he was kept from school to work in the fields, he broke stone on the highways and worked over all France as a navvy; but as early as 1854 he was taking small contracts on his own account; and he finally became the greatest of all French railway con tractors. Becoming very rich. Senator Piot has made himself famous throughout all Burgundy by a special kind of liberality the financial helping of poor parents. Actually, he is the great authority on depopulation; president of the senate committee relative to subsidies which the law already permits to be granted to communes for distribution to families of five and more, and au thor and untiring pusher of a bill for the subventioning of every mother of a newborn child. "You ask working mothers to suckle their babes for a full year to give you population!" he says. "What have they the right to ask of you? Cash, cash! Give cash for babies!" The First Six Weeks. France will do it if only on the evidence of the "Baby's Smile" of Nancy. "Why did I stipulate for a first de lay of six weeks?" explained Prof. Herrgott the other day to a rich and influential Paris audience. "And why is the work called the 'Baby's Smile? First, because infant mortality is most frequent between the ages of one day and six weeks. And, secondly, be cause it is during the sixth week that the first smile appears on baby's lips! "Do you not know that? Well, when a mother has fed baby at her breast until the epoch when she sees that smile appear, baby is saved". No bottle for him! He will not be aban doned either by mother or breast " "On condition that the mother has the means to keep her baby with her," interrupted one of the vice presidents. "What are $20 bills for?" snorted the professor. ' "Senator Piot is right. Every mother is a creditor of the state. Pay your creditors It is always a good investment. Yes, pay cash for babies." Sterling Heilig in New York Press. When a Friend. Isn't Wanted. "Women are getting more and more opposed to shopping with their friends," declared a little saleswoman in a Euclid avenue dry goods store Saturday. "I heard one woman say here at this counter a while ago that the better Bhe knew a woman the less she cared about having her along with her when she is shopping. She said that if they were intimate, her friend knew enough about her already with out knowing what she paid for every thing she wore." Cleveland Plain Dealer. Still Mourning. "So, Bob Smith's lost his wife. Is ho getting over his grief yet? "Not yet, I'm afraid. Yon know how slow some insurance companies are in settling up." WASHINGTON. By direction of the president there is to be an other reorganiaztion of the isthmian canal commission. This time the principal branch of the commission affected will be that in Washington, which has been executing the orders of Chief Engineer Goethals with reference to the dispatch of labor and supplies to the canal zone. Now, however, the president has given im perative instructor- hat "the most rigid economy ci .ent with the highest degree of efficiency" shall be the policy. As a result an order has been issued abolishing' the auditor's office and placing the work of auditing the accounts of the commission under the auditor for the war department. The purchasing business will be in trusted to an officer of the army. Joseph Bucklin Bishop of New York, who has been in charge of the office here . since the reorganization some months ago, may proceed to the isthmus and perform the duties of secretary there: ; - The advisability of this action is now under considera tion. The president has stated em phatically that Mr. Bishop- must be retained at his salary of $10,000 per annum. David R. Ross, purchasing agent, and Ernest S. Benson, general WAS Vice President Fairbanks born in a log cabin? This great ques tion, which threatens to become an issue in the next presidential cam paign is causing excitement among the sons of Indiana. In "The Life and Speeches of Charles Warren Fair banks," by W. H. Smith, is shown a picture 'of a log cabin in which the .vice president is reported to have been born. The author's son, William Wolff Smith, in reply to a recent article in an eastern weekly, has taken up the assertion that the autobiography is inaccurate and that the picture Is one of a series of fakes resorted to for the purpose of promoting the vice president's political ambitions. Wil liam Wolff Smith has issued the fol lowing statement: TRAGIC FATE BLIGHTS LIFE OF AMBASSADOR IT is the irony of fate that at the height of his career, with no blemish on his reputation, - and through no fault of his ' own. Baron Speck von Sternburg, should German ambassador, should stand upon the brink of diplomatic and social oblivion. But such Is the tragic fact. A cancerous growth, ter ribly disfiguring the ambassador's face, has apparently ruined beyond repair a career full of promise and the social prospects of his beautiful American wife, and it is understood here that Germany will send another ambassador some time within the next six months. The baron caught this infection of the face, the nature of which physi cians do not seem to understand clearly, during his service or the kaiser in India, and within the last year it has developed in the hideous fashion peculiar to- such attacks, spreading well over one Bide of his face. He has, however, made a brave fight from the start, appealing to the foremost medical authorities of this country and Europe for aid, and his MEN BUSY CLEANING 'AND PAINTING WHITE HOUSE rHE White House will be spick and span, on the outside as well as in side, when the presidential family re turns from Oyster Bay next fall Twenty painters are now at work on the old building. The White House is constructed of Virginia sandstone, which is exceed ingly porous. Mrs. Adams, the first 'mistress of the president's house, as It was then called, complained bitter ly to her friends of the coldness acid dampness of the building during her first winter there. There were' no stoves or other heating apparatus ex cept the large grates in the executive residence, then, and the roads were' so muddy that wood In sufficient- quan auditor, who also received $10,000 each, have resigned. The former will probably be succeeded by Maj. Hodges of the engineering corps of the army, whose army pay will be increased to $5,000. . . : It is said the president expects criticisms of the canal administration during the next session, both from Democrats and from representatives of that element in his own party which is not in sympathy with his policies generally. As rigid economy is the surest way to avoid just criti cism, he has instructed Secretary Taft to cut expenses to the bone, while at the same time seeing to it that the dirt is kept flying. Secretary Taft has forwarded to the president reports showing that, ex clusive of $50,000,000 originally paid to the French company for all its rights In the property, there had actually been spent up to last March onIyabout $34,000,000 out of a total appropriation of $145,000,000. The total sum appropriated for actual con struction is a little over $74,000,000. Thus the commission has available for purposes of construction about $40,000,000 with which to operate un til congress authorizes the expendi tures for the next fiscal year, begin ning July 1, 1908. CONTROVERSY OVER THE FAIRBANKS BIRTHPLACE "Much was made of a picture in the book representing the house in which Mr. Fairbanks was born. As the house was burned a few years after his birth and no picture had been taken of it, Mr. Fairbanks at the request of Mr. Smith (my father) made a rough pencil sketch from memory which was- dressed up for publication." TBis Mr. Smith says, is -all the connection Mr. Fairbanks had- with the picture. In the autobiography Mr. Smith says Air. Fairbanks- was four years of age when the cabin, was burned, and Indianians are pointing to the asser tion that Mr. Fairbanks can sketch with accuracy a building that was de stroyed when he was four years old as a demonstration of his wonderful memory. plucky effort to prevent the disease from spoiling hi3 diplomatic career has won the keen sympathy of Wash ington people. The baron hurried across the water as soon as congress adjourned last spring and subjected himself to a heroic course of treatment at health resorts. From these places he went to the German Spas for the help they could give him. Reports that have reached this country, however, are to the effect that he has no more than held his own. The disfigurement con tinues. His friends here, then, felt no little apprehension when they saw a notice that Baron and Barones3 Speck von Sternburg had been com manded to take breakfast with the kaiser. Sure enough within a day or two after the ambassador was the guest of his ruler a German paper which frequently has the right tip on court affairs published a report that Sternburg would be recalled. This was denied very mildly, indeed, by officials of the German foreign of fice. They stated that there was no Intention to recall Sternburg "at present," or words to that effect. W tity could not be hauled to supply the grates. This condition was overcome by painting the sandstone with a coat of white lead. Each year this has been repeated, until there is a layer more than a quarter of an inch in thick ness on the walls. Last year, instead of putting on an other coat of white lead, a chemical preparation was used to cleanse the walls. This caused the paint to crack and in many places peel off, making the building unsightly. - The painters are now engaged in scraping off the century's accumula tion of white lead. When this is done the building will receive several coata of fresh paint. The work will require several months