September 4, 1935-Ontario Spends $1000 Monthly for Upkeep of Quintuplets
The Washington Daily News — Wednesday, September 4, 1935
Ontario Spends $1000 Monthly for Upkeep of Quintuplets
By Ernie Pyle
CALLANDER, Ont.—In all the reading people have done about the Dionne quintuplets, I imagine there are few who have a very clear conception of what the country or people up here are like—what the physical environment of the world’s most famous babies is. And if they were like me, they hadn’t the vaguest idea of where Callander was.
Well, Callander is about 300 miles almost due north (and just a little west) of Buffalo. A good road leads from the States up here, they say, altho I came in from another direction. Callander itself is a tiny place, of just a few hundred people, on beautiful Lake Nipissing.
Heading for the Dionnes, you turn at Callander and drive two and a half miles over a wide but bumpy dirt road. The country around is rolling and scrubby—lots of gray shelf rock sticking out of the ground, and long stretches of fir and spruce, birch trees, and smaller bush, as far as you can see. There is some cleared farming land.
The houses you pass are very poor. Most of the people in the country are French. They look poor too.
You come up over a rise, and you’re there. The Dionne homestead, a poor, small, unpainted box of a house, is on the right. Barns are close by, and you can see some of the other five “forgotten children” playing in the barn lot. A hand-painted sign, “No Admittance,” is on the front gate.
Across the road, and down the slope a few yards, is Dafoe Hospital, home of the quintuplets.
● ● ●
The road has been widened in front of the hospital, to make parking space for tourists’ cars on both sides. The hospital grounds are about a block square. Clear around the plot runs a heavy galvanized wire mesh fence, about eight feet high and with three strands of barbed wire on top.
Then within this, and about 20 feet from the hospital building, is another wire mesh fence, about five feet high.
The hospital sits in the far right-hand corner. It is very pretty. It is built of logs, you know, and is quite large and rambling, with porches all around. Its roof is of red composition shingles. The sides are mostly windows, but the little walls there are, are a light green. And the logs all around the bottom are painted a dark brown.
Behind the hospital is a two-car garage and many clothes lines. There were at least a hundred diapers on the lines. How would you like to be Their Majesties’ Royal Washerwoman for the Dionne quintuplets?
To the left of the hospital, but still in the grounds, the land slopes up sharply. Big gray slabs of rock stick out. About half way up the slope is a tall pole, and the Union Jack flies from it.
● ● ●
The Dafoe Hospital staff consists of two nurses, a cook, a maid, a housekeeper and two policemen. They are not allowed to bring in their friends. No outsiders are allowed within the walls, not even prominent visiting doctors, except upon rare occasions. The reason—germs and excitation of the babies. The married policemen can’t even bring their wives in.
There has never been any known attempt to kidnap the famous babies. It would be very difficult. I’d hate to try to go in there, even with the barbed wire on top. And I’d hate to have to handle five babies, for that matter.
Then there is a policeman on duty constantly, both day and night. There are push buttons all over the place, so that an alarm could be spread almost instantly. There are huge floodlights, both front and back, that can be turned on from many places.
It costs about $1000 a month to maintain the quins. And altho they are wards of the Ontario Government, it doesn’t cost the government anything. All expenses are paid out of the earnings from picture rights and endorsements.
Papa and Mama Dionne get $100 a month from the government. Papa has a hired man and Mama has a maid and they have to do very little work now. Mama Dionne goes across the road to see her babies three or four times a week.
At first nobody connected with the quins got along with anybody else, and there was a great deal of bickering and unpleasantness, but it has settled down now to a pretty satisfactory routine.
The public at large, the guardians and the Catholic Church, they tell me, are all satisfied that the present government guardianship arrangement is the best thing possible for the babies, and the only thing that has brought them thru alive. But the Dionnes think they should have their children to do with as they please.
● ● ●
The babies themselves are in exceedingly good health. They are already talking baby talk—in French. Nothing but French is allowed to be spoken in the hospital. When they are old enough for school, they will be taught English, too. A private school will probably be set up in the hospital for them.
They can walk a few steps by themselves, but not much yet. They take their naps outdoors on the porch, and will do so all winter, except on the most bitterly cold days. They will also put on their shows right thru the winter, if anybody comes. But it sometimes gets 40 below up here, and the snow is bad, so they don’t expect many.
Most of the people in the vicinity have had work since the coming of the quins; about 15 are working in the souvenir stores; others on the roads. The road from Callander has been widened and partly smoothed. Beyond the hospital is little more than a trail. Tourists bound for the end of this trail have left $5,000,000 in Ontario this summer. Talk about building a better mouse trap!
💛 **Enjoyed this post?** Your support helps us continue to transcribe and promote Ernie’s work. Please click the link below to donate.