Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1874-09-11

A TEMPEST TOSSED ABY.-SOme
months ago ayoung woman was admitted
to the Lunatic Asylum from one of the
Southwestern counties, mad unmarried land
about to become a mother. When the
baby came she was asked for name and
said in her rawlings that it must be called
''M"' but whether it was the initial of its
unknown father, OF an abreviation of
"Em,' - she could never explain. After q
little while a kind lady, seeing the pretty
little one, volunteered to take it, and raise
it, ard leave her worldly substance to it,
at her death. Her offer was accepted, and
she took the child away, but, a few days
since, she wanted to return it, saying that
the child was "crazy." The authorities
at the Asylum refused to receive it, and
referred her to the city overseer OF the
poor, Mr. Geo. Harlan. That official also
refused to receive it, saying that it WAS
the States child, and it ought to support
it. He laid the matter before the city
council, and they backed him up in his
decision. On Saturday last the lady cut
the Gordian knot by carrying it to the Por-
ter's lodge Of the Asylum, leaving 1T with
the venerable Mr.. Newcome there, and
quietly walking off. That worthy gentle
man was astonished at the proceeding. He
said 'sGod bless my soul! what am to do
with it % He started off to call some one
but the baby sounded the recall with ter
rifle force, and the old gentleman hurried
back and sat down and looked at it and
said ''God bless my soul whdt am I to do
with you ?" Then he called younger
man who was passing to take charge Of
1t till he came back, and the young man
said, not GOOD bless, but something very
different, about has soul, if he would, and
maliciously added that he had seen that
sort Of thing done before, and it would be
a long time before people could get their
babies off on HIM; with a supplementary
remark that Mr.. NeWcome Wolld be very
old indeed before he could do it. But the
malicious young man consented to tell
them, up at the building, that the baby
was there, and in a short time the yenera-
bic gentleman received aid, and the baby
was surrounded by tender-hearted women
all anxious to do something for the little
Walf Itwas a strange sight in the por-
ter's lodge in the dusk of the evening
the motherly hearted women gathered
around the cradle; the children hanging
back in awe of a ''crazy baby,' the white
haired old man looking Oh with a puzzled
anxious look, and the little one peering
through the cleaning away off into the star
Light with yearning eyes if it might but
see the bright gates through which it had
SO lately come, if only agar, that it might
get back again from this troublesome
world. Poor little bark, it had struck the
rocks and nobody seemed willing that it
should come thr ugh the surf. safe to
shore. The city had closed its port, and
the State warned it off, and there seemed
nothing fol- it but to stand out to sea
again. But counsel Of the wreckers was
held and the State physicians decided that
it should be put out to board at State ex-
pense, and so Monday evening it drove in
state out of the Asylum grounds i'll car
rage with d new mother, growing as gaily
as if it were the richest. happiest baby in
the world, and not fatherless, motherless
and friendleSs.