New Outlook

Birth Watch

For nine days last fortnight a "birth watch" of newshawks and cameramen camped outside the gates of the Morrow estate at Englewood, N. J., waiting to flash the news of the advent of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's second child. One day Mrs. Dwight Morrow and Mrs. Lindbergh were seen to leave the estate in Mrs. Morrow's Cadillac. A Hearst newshawk chased them to a Hudson River ferry. Just as the Morrow car rolled onto the boat, alert attendants slammed a gate in front of the newshawk's car. The birth-watchers telephoned their city desks that evidently the Lindbergh baby was to be born in Manhattan. Skeptical city editors scoffed, warned against "alibis." The vigil continued. One morning last week Colonel Lindbergh cheerily telephoned his "approved" press (all but Hearstpapers and tabloids) that a son had been born. Later he issued a formal appeal for privacy "to permit our children to lead the lives of normal Americans." The Press gratefully accepted the notice, put rewrite men to work in various characteristic fashions: United Press: "Englewood, N. J.--A new mite of humanity . . . slept tonight in the nursery of the kidnapped and murdered Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. ... In an adjoining room, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, rested from the ordeal of motherhood, listened delightedly to the shrill wails of the new arrival. . . ." Universal: ". . . He came at 7:30 o'clock in the white nursery of the Morrow home at Englewood. . . ." Chicago Tribune: ". . . The estate was quiet except for the rumble of the milk wagon and arrival of Dr. Edward Hawkes and three other specialists. . . ." Similarly the New York American, World-Telegram and Sun. Times, Herald Tribune, Evening Post contented themselves with reporting that the baby was born at the Morrow estate. More cautiously, the Associated Press merely put the birth announcement under an Englewood dateline. There was no further official information for two days. Then the New York City Health Department received the Lindbergh birth certificate. It revealed that the baby had been born in the Manhattan apartment of Mrs. Morrow, in East 66th Street.

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