forgotten. During his first journey to Central America he went to Nicaragua to investigate the possibilities of an interoceanic canal. Just a century ago he promoted the Ocean Steam Navigation Company, which opened a service to Bremen in 1847 and was the first to receive government subsidies to mail ships. He was an active supporter of the Hudson River Railroad. His last and greatest achievement along these lines was the leading role he played in launching the project for a transisthmian railway. Elected vice-president of the Panama Railroad Company in 1849, he soon became its president and threw himself wholeheartedly into the enterprise, spending two winters in personally supervising the surveys and directing the preliminary construction. Return

ing home in the spring of 1852, he fell prey to a disease, doubtless contracted in Panama, and died in New York City.

When the railway was opened in 1855, a monument to Stephens was erected at its highest point. I do not know whether it still stands or whether, like the sculptured stone shafts of the Maya, it has fallen and been engulfed by the jungle. He would perhaps have preferred it that way. The quiet humor that shines forth from the pages of his books might have led him to chuckle over the puzzlement its inscription might cause the archeologists of a fardistant future. But in his own country, and at this spot where the wanderer came finally to rest, it is proper that the tablet we dedicate today should perpetuate the memory of a truly great American.

IN ONE of the showcases of the Bolívar Museum in Caracas there is a shoe marked No. 738, and beside it a card which reads: "Slipper which belonged to the Liberator. After his death it came into the possession of his sister, María Antonia; from her it passed to her son, Don Pablo Clemente; from him to his daughters, Trinidad de Liendo and Elena C. de Montúfar, who gave it to General Guzmán Blanco, who presented it to the Museum."

But this information which, naturally, refers only to the slipper in the case, does not satisfy the daughters of Eve who

Translated from Gaceta del Museo Bolivariano, Caracas, julio de 1947.

visit the Museum; and almost all of them, after commenting on the small size of the foot, ask with interest:

"And what happened to the other one?"

The other one has a more lively history. It was the year 1895. The centenary of the birth of Sucre, the great Marshal of Ayacucho, was being celebrated in Caracas. Señora doña Josefa Vivero de González had come to Venezuela to attend the festivities-a distinguished lady of the Ecuadorean aristocracy, very rich, fond of luxury, accustomed to live in the highest style. She admired the Liberator above all things; she worshiped him with a passion that, at first merely strong, had

become slightly mad, and which made her commit many extravagances with the greatest aplomb.

For example, on the day of her arrival in Caracas, I went to the La Guaira railroad station as a Presidential representative, to meet her and accompany her to the lodging which had been prepared for her as a guest of honor of the city; and as we passed the Plaza Bolívar, she asked sharply:

"What park is this?"

"The Plaza Bolívar," I answered. "And that is the famous statue? Stop the carriage!"

I stopped the carriage. Then, turning to me, she exclaimed, "On my knees, on my knees I shall approach the monument to the Liberator!"

I was dumfounded. Six o'clock in the evening the Plaza crowded with peopleand I, in frock coat and silk hat, beside a woman in her seventies who was going to cross the square on her knees.

"Good heavens!" I thought. "Where can I hide?"

Fortunately, I was able to talk her out

of it.

But to return to the slipper.

One evening a group assembled at the home of Emilio Maury, to listen to some patriotic verses by Hugo Ramírez which Isabelita Maury had set to music. Before the recital began, we were speaking of Bolívar, and someone asked Doña Josefa if she had known the Liberator. She had; she recalled that as a child in Guayaquil she used to play horse on his knees, and

that on one occasion the game was so energetic that on jumping down from his lap she noticed, in great confusion, that her dress was badly crumpled and her shoes had come off.

This story reminded Isabelita of a slipper belonging to the Liberator that she had seen, and she said:

"You know, Doña Josefa, the Caspers have a shoe that belonged to Bolívar."

"What are you saying, child? Let me see it, let me see it!"

The Caspers lived across the street; and Isabelita returned in a few minutes carrying the slipper, which Señora Caspers had generously lent her. Going up to Doña Josefa, who was waiting nervously, she said:

"Here is the slipper; look at it."

Doña Josefa leaped from her seat, seized the shoe from Isabelita's hands, and kissed it again and again. She looked at it in ecstasy, and fell on her knees, crying: "Not at sword's point will this be taken from me!"

It was a hard job to get her to return to her seat, and we had no success at all in making her return the slipper. Her resolve was unshakable, and she carried the shoe home next to her heart.

Señora Caspers, angry with good reason, refused to accept the situation. She had inherited the shoe from her father, General Mejía, and did not want to give up such a

precious heirloom, least of all to "such an abusive old creature." She was highly indignant. In vain was the intervention of all her friends. On the other hand, we who had been present at the expropriation pleaded with Doña Josefa, and she would not give up her prize. There was an obstinate woman!

In this manner several days passed. Negotiations were at a standstill, but both ladies were growing calmer.

That was the state of affairs when the tale reached General Crespo, who was greatly amused and decided to join in the dispute. Being a good diplomat-Presidents always are he arranged an agreement between the parties: Doña Josefa was to return the slipper to Señora Caspers, who would then make her a present of it.

The following day, everyone involved in the Slipper Affair met at Doña Josefa's. At five sharp, Señora Caspers arrived, and after ceremonious greetings all round, the pact was carried out. Doña Josefa reluctantly handed over the slipper, and Señora Caspers, with a polite and insincere speech, handed it back to her.

Afterward—well, what a river of cham

pagne!

A month later, the Liberator's slipper left for Guayaquil in Doña Josefa's luggage. Today it is owned by the heirs of Señor J. B. Pérez, who inherited it from Doña Josefa.

On April 25, 1947, the Executive Council of the American International Institute for the Protection of Childhood held its twenty-first meeting at the Montevideo headquarters. On that occasion it was the privilege of the writer to be among the representatives of the American Republics members of this organization, through which the republics of the western hemisphere have been able to share their experience in providing for the health, welfare, and education of a generation of young people.

Among the various resolutions adopted by the Council, one called attention to the fact that the Institute was formally installed June 9, 1927, and that this year it will have completed twenty years of service to the children of the Americas.

During these two decades the Institute has had the benefit of guidance from some of the most distinguished leaders of the continent in the field of child welfare. The President of the Council, Dr. Gregorio Aráoz Alfaro, whose services to the cause of childhood are as well known in all the American countries and in Europe as in his native Argentina, has held this office since the Institute was created. The Secretary, Dr. Víctor Escardó y Anaya, of Uruguay, who is also head of the Institute's Health Division, has likewise served continuously since 1927. Both were unanimously reelected at the recent

Council meeting. The Director General, Dr. Roberto Berro, who was selected in 1935 to succeed the Institute's founder and first Director, the late Dr. Luis Morquio, was reappointed for the two-year period 1947-49.

For the first time the Council elected a Vice President. This is Miss Katharine F. Lenroot, who has represented the United States as technical delegate on the Council since the United States, by joint resolution of Congress, became a member of the organization in 1928. Miss Lenroot is truly one of the veterans of the Institute. Since prior commitments made it impossible for her to attend the April 25 meeting of the Council, an official communication advised her that the action taken was "in recognition of her intelligent devotion to child welfare, of the unfailing steadfastness with which she has participated in the work of the Institute, and of the moral support given us on all occasions by the country she represents.”

During the last few years the Institute has established much closer relationships with the Pan American Union and the Pan American Sanitary Bureau. Because of the constant encouragement given the Institute by Dr. L. S. Rowe, the Union's late Director General, Dr. Aráoz Alfaro suggested that the first action of the Council be a tribute to Dr. Rowe's memory and that an appropriate message be sent on

behalf of the Institute to his successor. The Pan American Sanitary Bureau was represented at the Council meeting by an observer, Dr. John D. Long, who was sent to Montevideo by the Bureau's new Director, Dr. Fred Soper, especially to establish closer contact with the Institute.

Before reporting the results of the recent Council meeting, it would seem appropriate, in recognition of the twenty years of achievement which lie behind the American International Institute for the Protection of Childhood, to review briefly its origin and history, since it is the only intergovernmental agency of its specialized nature on this continent.

Fortunately Dr. Luis Morquio himself, the founder of the Institute, has left a written record of the source of his inspiration. Dr. Roberto Berro, the present Director General, has also written extensively on the Institute and its work. And a permanent record of its labors and

Courtesy of Elisabeth Shirley Enochs

DR. GREGORIO ARÁOZ ALFARO President, American International Institute for the Protection of Childhood.

achievements is found in the volumes of its quarterly Boletín, which has appeared uninterruptedly since the first year.

Writing in the Bulletin of the Save the Children Fund (Vol. II, No. 21, December 1925), Dr. Morquio, one-time President of the Fund, pointed out that the dawn of the century was marked by such increased concern for the protection of childhood in many countries that numerous authorities were agreed on the "need of uniting efforts through some form of permanent cooperation centers of information, study and international exchange of ideas." A draft plan for an international child welfare bureau was first adopted at Brussels by the International Congress of Child Welfare in 1912, but this plan, like many others, was a victim of World War I.

Meantime, concern for children had been growing on the American continent. In 1920 the International Scientific Congress at Buenos Aires approved a proposal of Dr. Antonio Vidal that an "American Child Congress" be held under the auspices of the Scientific Society of Argentina in order to promote the cooperation, on behalf of future generations, of "all initiatives and activities which can improve their condition and destiny; all achievements made by the natural biological, psychological and social disciplines, all sciences and all technical advances." The First Pan American Child Congress was actually held at Buenos Aires in 1916, but it was organized, without official sponsorship, by the League for the Rights of Women and Children. Delegates from a majority of the American Republics were in attendance, even from the far-away United States, where, just a few years earlier, the Congress had created the United States Children's Bureau. Its first chief, Miss Julia C. Lathrop, was a firm believer in international cooperation in the field of child welfare.