The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1879-01-23
A Ready Market for Babies.

we presume, had considered that they
were doing "good by STEALTH" and
now no doubt g blush to find it fame"
This establishment is situated in Great
Coram Street, and is managed by Mrs.
Main, who gives to it not only time but
money. 1t is q refuge for infants, a
chapel of ease to the Founding Hospi-
tai, with which it appears to have kind
of connection. In fact, it discharges,
to certain extent, the functions which
the hospital itself fulfilled down to 1850.
From that period the children, instead
of being received without inquiry, were
taken in by selection, and after strict in
quiry as to the circumstances and pre-
vious career of the mother. Such is the
system maintained to this day; but Mrs.
Mains Refuge for Infants seems to
adopt the older plan. Children are re-
ceived there few days after birth, and
thus the shame of the mother may be
concealed in private lodgings, and her
responsibility for the child entirely re-
moved few days afterward. We have
no reason whatever to doubt the charity
or good intentions of this lady, but the
functions she has taken upon herself con-
Germ the public as a whole. The mode
in which the place is managed may be
judged by the answer given by Mrs.
Palmer, the matron, and by Mrs. Main
herself. Mrs. Palmer, speaking of the
baby afterward adopted by Lady Gooch,
said: "The child was brought to the
house for the purpose of being handed
over to somebody else, l can not say
any thing about lit was a private
case" "Children are taken in if ap-
proved Of" Somebody brought this
child. do not know who-it was not
its MOTHER Counsel asked: . Then
you say a child was brought in and
passed through the house on certain
day, and you can not say any thing
more about it?'' 81 can not" was the
reply. In answer to further questions,
she declared that she did not know the
mother, and could not state where the
child was now. "It was given away"
she added, ito a nurse whose name l
do not know" Mrs Mains own evil
dence agreed with that of the resident
matron. She declined to give the name
of the mother, saying, 81 am not bound,
in my position, to tell any thing" 1t
WOulO IHuS SccIu tAtits III aouioiOu " tuc
Founding Hospital, and managed with
much more secrecy, is this confidential
refuge for illegitimate children.
The most Objectionable characteristic
of Mrs. Mains establishment, however,
remains to be recognized. 1t is not
really, as it calls itself, "refuge" for
infants; but is, in its way, kind of ex-
change and mart for children, only that
the people who come as customers pay
nothing for the infants they take away.
Mrs. Mains transactions, indeed, APP
pear to have been really of the most
loosely liberal kind. Her manager,
Mrs. Palmer, admits that she did not
know any thing about Lady Gooch's
name, saying sit was not my business
to inquire.'' Nothing could awaken
Mrs. Palmer's suspicion; though Lady
Gooch first said the child was for. a
friend, and afterward for herself, still it
was charitably supposed that all was
right. This unsuspecting matron even
knew of cases where ladies, wanting to
adoES children, s'came and said moth
ing; their friends talked for Them"
but these curiously silent applicants for
babies excited in the guileless mind of
the good woman no idea of any thing
wrong. Mrs. Main is equally nm
suspicious, and when Lady Gooch
came, giving her name as Mrs. Gooch,
Mrs. Main made no inquiry as to the
position of her visitors husband or pri-
vate residence, but accepted the Gros-
venor Hotel as sufficient address. She
asked for no reference, took no receipt
for the child, and made no register Of
its disposal or destination. Now, this
carelessness-this absolute ignorance as
to the future of the children-is objecss
tionable in double sense. Mrs. Main
takes in infants, but does not keep them.
Her institution is not properly home or
refuge, but kind of turnstiIe through
which children are passed. On the one
side are unmarried mothers secretly
confined getting rid of their newborn
babes with great speed; while on the
other are unknown women who take
away the children beyond all knowl-
edge, inspection or control; and Mrs.
Main is the intermediary in the transac-
ton that begins and ends in the dark,
1t may be said that all is right, because
it suits the real mother who is willing
to desert, and the new mother who is
willing to adopt; but there is a third
party commemorative child. How can
Mrs. Main know what may happen at
terwardp There are cases, we know,
where men and women desire to have
parental control over children of both
sexes, finding them useful in some de-
grading or dishonest occupation. Chill
dren have been treated shemefully
by their own parents; they
have been brought up to
vile habits or fearfully over
worked; and how did Mrs. Main insure
against such results at the hands of per-
sons noteven bound to the child by ties
OF bloodp She practically takes from
the Poor Law Guardians responsibility