Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-05-28
AN INFANT INDUSTRY.
People Who Make a Business of s.Adopt
ing Little Castaways

The number of babies left on door
steps. and especially of wealthy people
in Pittsburg, is something incredible.
says the Pittsburg Commercial Gazette.
| In fact, 4 person looking at the figures
would come to the conclusion that
| there was a good deal of system and
method in the plans of those who kind
| ly furnish children for those who have
them not. The career of child thus
| left is often a checkered one. OF
| course, it would not be proper to sup
pose for moment that the babe was
| left on the right doorstep, or that any
body in the house knew anything about
it, 1t must be a Waif, founding, left
by some bold bad woman who has for
saken it to be rid of the trouble ofrear-
ing it. Generally the policeman is
called for and the bundle packed to the
station-house or some orphan asylum,
and from there to the poor farm. Yet
there are cases in actual life, and not
only in romance, where the baby's in
nocent smile has won it home among
the childless people where it was left
Upward of fifty waits or babes have
been picked up by the authorities dur
ing the last year and cared for at an
asylum or the poor farm. Most of them
died The exposure was too great or
the diet did not agree with them.
Many had taints of the diseases of their
progenitors, and if they lived long
enough to become three months old
their vitality failed them. Here and
there, as an oasis in the desert, once in
a while bright little chap stuck it out
and became either somebody's darling
or now waits for adoption.
There are in Pittsburg, although it is
not generally known, several women
who "adopt" children. One of these
creatures lives on Second avenue. A
rap at the door of her house yesterday
brought to view a portly female with
gray eyes. She was more than polite
She was courteous. The reporter was
ushered into small room with desk
in the corner, a few chairs, and
screen running across the room, behind
which there might have been most any
thing.
''You take care of babies?' ventured
the reporter.
Yes, | attend to cases." (She laid
particular stress on the word cases.
with good people,
well, have friend who wishes
me to call and learn the expense at
tending your charges for 'cases?' y
''Eifty dollars month board is my
lowest price; 800 month for my best
rooms. This includes medical attend
ance.n
'Who is your doctor?"
IAN old man who lives in the neigh
borhood.
But the baby?'
''Well, I'll get the baby a good home
for 300"
That's too much
''Can't do it for less. You see, I be-
come father and mother of the child.
I'm very fond of babies and very par
ticular where place them. | make a
point that they receive nice treatment,
and that they are placed with people
who own real estate.
Meantime visions of untold wealth
pouring into the foundling's lap foated
before the reporters vision
but where are the people who will
adopt the child?" was asked.
''Oh, and she moved her hands in
a general indefinite sort of way, ''why
in the country in Ohio"
Next in the baby line are the people
who advertise for "a child to raise
''child to board with reliable lady,
where it will get mothers care" etc.
One lady advertised for child. She
was getting old and wanted a compan-
ion. Another took 'skids," as she ex-
pressed it, to board at So a week. A
third said her husband was out of
work and she was willing to take care
of baby at home to help him
One advertiser was asked what she
would take baby for, out and out, no
questions asked.
depends upon how much they will
pay" she replied shrewdly.
insignificant, homeless, and friend
less as the foundlings may seem, sad
as the lot of him whom neither father
nor mother care to own, some Of them
have been made of the stuff that would
not, like Banquo's ghost, down at the
bidding" of misfortune and adversely,
but struggled on, and at last climbed
the steep where Fame's proud temple
shines afar. Such was D'Alambert, the
writer and academician, who was a
poor founding Left on the steps of Notre
Dame. Mrs. Achmet, the actress was
also a founding. Savage, the English
poet, whom DR.. Johnson records the life
of, was the son of the countess of
Madesfeld and Earl Rivers, and the
author of poem dedicated to his
mother, which, however it may have
mortified her, never melted her to COM
passion.
No mothers care
Shielded my infant innocence in prayer;
No fathers guardian hand my youth main
tanned,
Call'd forth my virtues, or from vice re-
strained.
Fielding, the novelist. found a worthy
theme in the adventures of ''Tom
Jones. the Foundling,'' and Moore
wrote play, 1.-The Founding"
Founding asylums have not always
found favor. Even so able writer as
Mccullough doubted their usefulness,
and declared the arguments nicely
balanced as to whether they did not