The “Bubbles” Speech
The song,
“I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles,” has held special meaning to Shriners since
the 46th annual Imperial Council session in
June 1920, in Portland, Oregon; for it was, at that
meeting, that the assembled Shriners voted on the resolution to establish the
Shriners’ Hospital for Crippled Children
[now known as
the Shriners Hospitals for Children in recognition of
our expansion into paediatric burns care], to be initiated with a two-dollar tithing imposed upon each Shriner.[1]
The resolution to establish the Hospitals was introduced by
outgoing Imperial Potentate W. Freeland Kendrick (Lu Lu Shriners, Philadelphia
[now in Plymouth Meeting]), in
the shadows of a defeated proposal the previous year to establish an orphans’ home, introduced by Noble Philip D. Gordon
(Karnak Shriners, Montréal).[2]
,
and seemed to turn the tide against the plan,[4] but Noble Forrest Adair
(Yaarab Shrine, Atlanta) rose from his seat near the front of the audience and put an end to
the nobles’ reluctance with his now-famous “Bubbles” speech.
The following is a summary of Imperial Sir William B. Melish’s objections to the establishment of the Shriners’ Hospital for Crippled Children:
1st. The Shriners knew nothing about operating hospitals. The scheme was impractical.
2nd. The Shrine would be saying to all the crippled children of North America, “Come to us. We will cure you.” the cost would run into the
millions.
3rd. It would be difficult to get parents to allow their children to be treated by a Shrine institution.
4th. This Shrine hospital would take children from other existing institutions.
5th. The entire membership should vote on the question.
6th. Children of Catholic and Negro parentage would have the same rights and privileges as children of Shriners.
See J. Ed. Hart, “...Unto the Least of These”: A Story of the Shriners’ Hospitals for Crippled Children (Greenville, South
Carolina: The Board of Governors and the Staff of the Greenville, South Carolina Unit, Shiners’ Hospitals for Crippled Children, 1948), 19-20.
Five years earlier, Noble Adair, as Commander in Chief of the
Scottish Rite’s Atlanta Consistory, had
been the virtual founder of the Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children in Atlanta[5] [which has since merged with Egleston
Children’s Hospital to become
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite].[6]
Noble Adair spoke thus:
I rise, unlike my friend, Past Imperial Potentate Melish, without reluctance, but with enthusiasm.
I was lying in bed yesterday morning, about four o’clock
in
the Multnomah Hotel, and some poor fellow who had strayed away
from the rest of the band – and he was a magnificent performer on a baritone horn – stood down there under the window for twenty-five minutes
playing “I am only blowing bubbles.” [sic] (Laughter.) Do you catch it? (Laughter.) And after a while, when I dropped back into a peaceful
sleep, I dreamed of a little crippled children’s hospital, run by the Scottish Rite Fraternity, in Atlanta,
Georgia, which has been visited by a number of the members of this Imperial Council, and I though of the wandering minstrel of the early morning,
and I wondered if there were not a deep significance in the tune that he was playing for Shriners, “I am only blowing bubbles.” [sic]
We meet from year to year; we talk about our great Order; we read the report on the hundreds of thousands of dollars that are accumulated and
loaned to banks and paid us for our mileage and per diem, and on our visitations we stop in some oasis and we are taken in an automobile by a local
committee, and he first drives us by and shows us, “This is our temple, our mosque. It is built of marble brought
from Maine or Georgia. The lot cost fifty thousand dollars; we could have sold it for two hundred thousand dollars before we built upon it. the
building cost us a million, and it could not be put up now for two and a half million.”
“What is that wonderful hospital over there?” I ask.
“That is the hospital of the Sisters of Saint Mary.”
“What big school is that in the distance?”
“That is a school erected and maintained by the Catholic Church.”
And we get here and we hear the baritone. That fellow told us what we were doing.
The last United States census on this point shows us that there are four hundred thousand cripples in Georgia – (laughter) – there are four
thousand in Georgia; there are four hundred thousand in the United States of America. And unfortunately, they are in the almshouses; they are in
the homes; they are mendicants; they are paupers; and the best alms that you can give is that which will render alms unnecessary.
My Brother Melish goes back to these other resolutions which have been postponed from year to year, while we may blow more bubbles and sing again,
‘Hail, hail, the gang’s all here.’ This resolution has been changed. It does not establish, Brother Melish, a home. The word there is ‘hospital’;
‘The Shriners’ Hospital for Crippled Children.’ I
presume that any intelligent committee that may be appointed by the incoming Imperial Potentate will provide rules that, in the first place, no
child be admitted – it is our rule down there [at the Scottish Rite Hospital – ed.] – unless, in the opinion of the surgeons after careful
examination, its trouble can be corrected or benefited. We take no feeble-minded. We do take them [children, not feeble-minded – ed.] from adjoining
states. I have never had, and we started out without a dollar down there to build it, except about eight thousand dollars; I have been on the board
from the beginning, and I have never had any very bad time getting all the money it wants, as long as G-d Almighty continues to put an occasional
drop of the milk of human kindness in our blood.
I would give one thousand dollars in cash now if I had brought with me our Annual, which was printed just a few weeks ago; and I did send a few of
you copies of it. I would show you a picture of a fifteen-year-old girl that had walked like a quadruped on her hands and knees, and under the
magic skill of one of the greatest orthopaedic surgeons that has ever lived, – and who gives us his time without pay, – who when I was out at the
hospital three months ago greeted me by saying, “Come here, Mr. Adair. I stand for the first time in my life erect.” And that child’s condition is
worth two million dollars, – every bit of it.
My Brother Melish says that it places upon us responsibility. No, no, it does not. This resolution merely recognises the fact that we appreciate
that the responsibility is upon us, and while we have spent money for songs, and spent money for bands, – and they mean so much to us let us keep
it up, – you cannot put your finger on a thing that I know of that has been done for humanity that can be credited to the Shrine as an organisation.
If this is established, these little rules and regulations that Brother Melish is so afraid of will be taken care of by a competent committee. If
they don’t do it right and devote themselves too much to the Catholic children, the Negro children, we can fire them and get another committee. I
apprehend we will not want to restrict it to the crippled children of Shriners. We don’t. The first prerequisite with us is that the child’s
trouble may be corrected or improved. The second prerequisite is that they shall be financially unable to pay. You could not get your child in that
hospital if you would pay a thousand dollars a week, because you would be depriving some little pauper child of a bed.
I want to see this thing started. For G-d’s sake, let us lay aside the soap and water and stop blowing bubbles and get down to brass tacks. If
there is anything in the resolution that has formerly been passed that precludes it, let’s reconsider it and do away with the other one. Let’s blow
all the dust aside. Let’s get rid of all the technical objections. And if there is a Shriner in North America, after he sees your first crippled
child has been treated, in its condition, objects to having paid the two dollars, I will give him a cheque back for it myself.
I earnestly hope that this resolution may pass. I hope that within two or three, four or five years from now, we will be impelled, from the
wonderful work that has been done, to establish more of these hospitals, in easy reach of all parts of North America. Every argument that Brother
Melish makes, every argument that Brother Melish has presented against this is, to my mind, an argument in favour of it.[7]
The room erupted with applause, and it was clear that Noble Adiar’s monologue had touched the hearts of those assembled. Fellow
Yaarab Noble, Robert Colding stood and echoed Noble Adair’s sentiments, as did the following men: Noble Opie
(Ararat Shrine, Kansas City), Noble Charles E. Ovenshire
(Zuhrah Shrine, Minneapolis), Noble Edward C. Day
(Algeria Shriners, Helena, Montana), Noble Henry Lambsburgh
(Almas Shriners, Washington, D.C.), Noble F. F. Whitcomb
(Tangier Shrine, Omaha), and Noble J. Harry Lewis
(Osman Shriners, Saint Paul).[8]
Imperial Sir Kendrick attempted to give the final statement in favour of his resolution: “The time has come, when we should do
something big. And what can you do as big as to furnish a hospital for a poor little crippled child? Suppose it is Black; suppose it is Catholic;
G-d put it here on earth and it is up to us to help it. And it means Canada as well as the United States, for our jurisdiction is North America.”[9]
Kendrick’s intent to have the final word was foiled when Melish stood again; but any fears that Kendrick, Adair, or the
other champions of the Hospital may have had were quickly dashed when Melish asserted, “I want to say just one word. I think I know how this thing
is going. I think the duty of us all, the duty of myself first, is that if action is to be taken today, as it is, upon this matter, that we want to
go before the world showing that the vote was unanimous, and that is the way I am going to vote.”[10] Indeed, the resolution
passed with unanimous consent.[11]
Noble Adair was appointed a member of the committee to establish what became the Shriners Hospitals for Children, by incoming
Imperial Potentate Ellis Lewis Garretson (Afifi Shriners, Tacoma). Noble Adair was
joined by Noble Sam P. Cochran (Hella Shrine, Dallas [now Garland]), Imperial Sir
Kendrick, the aforementioned Noble Phillip D. Gordon, Noble Oscar M. Landstrum (Algeria Shriners), Noble John D. McGilvray (Islam [n/k/a
Asiya] Shriners, San Francisco [now San Mateo]), and Noble
John A. Morison (Kismet Shriners, Brooklyn [now New Hide Park]).[12]
Who was the “wandering minstrel” who incessantly played I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles on his baritone horn outside of
the Multnoma Hotel in the early morning of 21 June 1920, unknowingly inspiring the founding of
Shriners Hospitals for Children? At least four Shrine
temples have asserted that he was one of their brethren.[13] Imperial Sir Kendrick penned in the Shrine News an article
“Echoes of the Past,” in which he suggested the man may have been Noble Eugene Reitz
(Isis Shrine, Salinas, Kansas).[14] |
I’m
Forever Blowing Bubbles
%202.jpg)
© 1919 by
Jaan Kenbrovin
& John William Kellette
I’m dreaming
dreams,
I’m scheming
schemes, I’m building castles high.
They’re born
anew, their days are few.
Just like a
sweet butterfly.
And as the
daylight is dawning,
They come again
in the morning!
I’m forever
blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles
in the air,
They fly so
high,
Nearly reach the
sky,
Then like my
dreams
They fade and
die.
Fortune’s always
hiding,
I’ve looked
everywhere,
I’m forever
blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles
in the air!
When shadows
creep,
When I’m asleep,
To lands of hope
I stray!
Then at
daybreak,
When I awake,
My bluebird
flutters away.
Happiness, you
seem so near me,
Happiness, come
forth and cheer me!
I’m forever
blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles
in the air,
They fly so
high,
Nearly reach the
sky;
Then like my
dreams,
They fade and
die.
Fortune’s always
hiding,
I’ve looked
everywhere,
I’m forever
blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles
in the air!
See below for the Cockney Rejects' 1980 punk rock
cover of the song in celebration of West Ham United FC's FA Cup championship. |