The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-06-20
Minnie and Minnie's Mother.

Augusta, Ca, is in a quandary, and
wants the moralists, and philosophers,
and philanthropists to help her out.
Her case may be briefly stated. The
woman has drunken. worthless, vag-
abond husband, who deserted her two
years ago, and wandered away to parts
unknown, taking with him their only
child, Minnie, then not quite three
years old. Minnie was an uncoDnmonly
bright, curly-head, and could not fail
to attract attention wherever she APP
peared. The mother was poor and
powerless to follow her husband and
child. She was naturally very much
distressed and anxious about the fate of
the child in such hands. But she could
do nothing but wait and listen. She
first heard of little girl called Minnie,
answering to the description of her
child, in New Orleans. But this Min
ME appeared to have parents, and was
we'll provided for by them. They were
travelling people, reputed wealthy, and
were staying at a hotel. But Minnie's
mother was too poor to make the jOur-
ney in search of her little wanderer.
The lady and gentleman and Minnie
finally disappeared from New Orleans.
This was at the close of the winter.
With the migrating birds they had prob
ably gone North following up the
spring. A few days ago the bereaved
mother heard another voice that told
her of her darling Minnie. 1t came
from Aiken, S. G. The description was
of a little girl with glossy, curly hair.
dark sparkling eyes, and skin as
fair as a lily-a little beauty of five
years, answering to the name of Min
ME. She was living with stylish peo-
pie in a splendid county-seat near
Aiken. The mother could bear the
agony of suspense no longer. Some
of her friends who know the story and
sympathized with the impulses of a
mothers heart, aided her, and saw her
off for Aiken. She found the family
and Minnie, and that Minnie was her
child. Better still, or worse, as the
case may he, Minnie knew her mother,
and their meeting, after a painful sep
aration of two years. was a humaniz-
Ing spectacle. There could be no doubt
that the poor woman and that child of
luxury knew each other. What next?
The child's story is told by her pro-
tectors. They were a gentleman and
lady of fortune of New York, and child
less. They were travelling for pleasure
and made Memphis, Tenn, stopping
place. Here the lady happened one
day to remark to her washerwoman
that she had long desired to adopt some
handsome child, as a care and COM
panion. The woman had child in
her charge, who had been left with her
by man of whom she knew nothing,
except that she had done washing for
him. He had disappeared, and she
had never seen or heard of him since.
Minnie was produced and suited the
lady. The couple adopted the little
girl in Memphis, and at length pursued
their journey to New Orleans. Finally
they returned to their home in New
York. Last fall they went to Aiken
and purchased an elegant water resi-
dence there. And Minnie was the love
and center of that home when her nat
ural mother found her. Minnie was
bright, beautiful and handsomely at
tired; her mother was coarsely clad,
and on her worn features were pictured
privation and pain. With her adopted
parent Minnie would be educated and
become the heiress of a million; with
her mother, she might become what?
The gentleman and lady are so well
convinced that the mother has found
her child that they are perfectly will
irg to give up the little girl if the
mother insists upon it, or they are will
ing to keep and train her as their
daughter. This is the question; the
mother has to decide for herself, and
vet she cannot do it, under the imposed
conditions. With the adopted parents
the child must be brought up to know
no other mother than the adopted one,
and can have no intercourse with parent
or any blood relation. The natural
mother can never see her offspring
again. In other terms, she must for
ever abandon her child, and the child
must be weaned from her memory. Or,
she has the privilege of taking Minnie
back into poverty, and toll, and pinch
ing want. There is no other alterna-
tive or compromise and the stipulated
conditions are certainly just. They are
equally hard for both parties-for the
adopted parents to lose the being they
had built their hopes on, and for the
mother to break her ties of blood for
the problematical benefit of her one
darling. Negotiations for the settle
ment Of this puzzling family question
are still pending, and it presents a
mothers dilemma of q very remarks
BILE character. MINES adopted parents
offer special inducements to the mother
to decide in their favor by treating her
with great kindness, bestowing upon
her presents, and Offering to aid her in
various ways. For Minnie they will be
the friend of both-without her, the ac-
quaintancc ceases forever. How should
the mother solve this problem of love
and duty?- Missouri Republican.
Senator Withers, of Virginia, dis
played wonderful nerve duringa recent
operation, when the surgeons had to
cut into the inside of the pupil of the
eye and remove from it a particle of
diseased matter. He absolutely retcsed
to take morphine or any other anes-
thetic, and, lying on sofa with his
head propped up to allow the surgeons
to reach his eye readily, submitted him
self to the shock with entire compos-
ure. Mr.. Withers not only did not
utter q sound under the knife, but did
MT omen wincn Or Give any other nvi.