Wichita eagle., 1890-03-07

! terested me and made as thorough an in
vestigation of it as l could. It is not nee
essary to tire you with details, but a
| young lady well connected in San Fran
cisco had taken refuge in this
asylum to hide her shame. After
her baby was born and she had
sufficiently regained her strength to re-
turn home, the question of the disposition
of the baby had to be solved. l. could not
be kept at the institution without some
| provision being made for it and no such ar
raDgement could be made without expos
ing the girl to her family. At this junct-
ure visited the asylum and learning these
facts agreed to adopt the child and it was
/ freely given to me. l may state here that
| had the intention for sometime of adopt
| ing child and had discussed the matter
with my husband who never expressed
himself averse to the idea. certainly never
intended 70 adopt SO young child SO far
1 from home but the occasion presented it
/ self and the mother enlisted my sympa-
/ thies and l took the opportunity. l knew
thought was undertaking a hard task but
that with sufficient means at my disposal
l could manage to get the child home. 1t
was beautiful girl baby and seemed to
/ be perfectly healthy ami l soon
! learned to love it very dearly.
This was five weeks ago and
it was then eight days old. 1t did
nicely the first part of the journey, but
travelling constantly | could not give it
the attention that l would like to have
given it, although it was not neglected
There were times of course when | was
compelled to feed 1t on condensed milk
diluted but never neglected to get fresh
cows milk for it whenever opportunity
offered. 1t was taken sick a week ago and
| kept gradually getting worse. l made
the acquaintance Of Il lady on the train
who. was professional midwife and
evidently had much experience in nurs-
ing. She was great help to me and we
tried simple remedies, such as lime water,
soothing syrup and the like to assist the
| baby's digestion. 1t seemed to improve
little under her treatment, but she would
not give me much hope. She left US at
Newton, going to Kansas City, and her
last remark was Madame, your
baby is very sick and you
must get it home as soon
as possible" About this time the
baby refused the bottle and l tried to give
it food with a spoon, and finally had to
abandon the idea. Shortly after leaYing
Newton | realized that the baby was 60
ing to die, and that nothing could be done
for it. 1t died quietly just before reach
ing Wichita. | covered its face with a
handkerchief and held it in my arms, not
knowing what to do. | believe | said to
my son that we would have to leave the
baby somewhere. My only idea was to
get home soon possible. knew 1
could not carry the dead child in that con-
dition, and yet | felt that ! must get home
without delay. l had a vague idea dt the
time that some one would find the child
Immediately and that it would be buried.
| realize now that | made q serious mis-
take, and can not say how much l regret
it. | knew no one on the train to speak to
and it never occurred to me that it was an
emergency in which | should have ap-
pealed to strangers. | understand now
that an inquest is necessary and that l
shall be called upon to tell all of the Cir |
cumstances- | am anxious to have the !
examination over with, for feel that | !
need the quiet and rest of home"