Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-02-22

The case at bar seems to the court to DO
very similar to that of Merrett VS..
Swimley in this particular, and the court
feels constrained to hold that there has,
! i'm this case, been suoh a relinqnlsh sent
of the care and custody of :hs child to the
defendant as must defeat the petitioner
upon an attempt to assert his merely
legal right to the care and custody of tho
chlld.
This would then leave the sole question
to be considered, that OF the Happiness and
icslfare of the child. In arriving at a con-
clusiOn upon this point il behooves the
court to exercise a sound discretion based
upon all the circumstances surrounding
the several parties, In interest, and their
bearing, direct and indirect upon the
child.
This child has grown up knowing no
parents other than The aged grandparents,
ard their mutual affections have grown
until, in the words of the grandmother,
eff had to part with one and could
have to 20 before this grand chil l." A
child of delicate constitution and pre-
disposed by nature to the insdiOus at
tacks of tho hereditary disease from which
her mother died, she has been the object
Of the tenderest care aud sOlicitude on
the part of these two old grandparents,
who have stood to her in loco PARENTS,
until the homs aud hearts of these old
folks have become the world in which
the sun of her little life revoves. All
her surroundings seem to be such as to
tend to promote, at least her content
ment aud happiness, IL not her greatest
comfort.
Contrast her contented and happy life
in her present home with what would
probably result from her removal to the
home of her father and step-mothor in
the CITY OF Columbus.
1t does not seem that the affection Of
the father for the child aud his sollcitude
for her welfare, could at all exceed that
entertained for her Nv her present custo-
dams. As to the ability OF the respective
claimants TO csntrihnte TO her support,
there seems no marked difference other
than such as Is to be inferred from the
youth of tho father. 1t apparent that
the child, in the homa of the father Won d
have more easy access to schools, and
that she wOnld. il of a studious disposi-
ten, IN al probability, be advanced 10
education more rapidly, then under the
present arrangement. But to secure this
advantage, must she at the tender age Of
nine OF ten years, be separated from all
whom abe has learned TO be dependent
upou for love, sy mpathy aud companion
ships and placed in the custody OF .
father who, however selections be may be
for her welfare, 10 stranger to her,
and virtually in the companiouShip 81 .
step-brother, whose treatment of her, II
the evidence 10 to be at all relied upon,
must tend to make more bitter, the new
life, already saddened by an enforced
separation frsm all those whom she has
learned to cOnfde in, and GENE to for
sympathy in all her real or imaginary
heat sOresi
1t may be that the step-mSther has pre-
pared IN her heart a home whore she is
anxions to have this lonely. motherlsss
child of her husband to nestle; yet if tho
heart Of the child has been taught by
others to entertain a dislike for her
new mother which renders impossible the
confidence and sympathy that otherwise
m ght spring up between them, should
this young child be made to suffer on &C
count of such pred udices imbibed with
out her fault, and 1t may be without oc-
casOnf
Consulting her tender years, and
delicate constitution, aud the further fact,
that the child. Though not having arrived
at an age Of discretion vixen in the opinion
of the court sho should he allowed to con-
troll her own destiny displays sufficient
" intelligent comprehension OF the stu
alton, and cen give sufficiently intelligent
reassas for her desire not to be removed
from her grandparents home, to satisfy
the court, that to do so wsuld be the oc-
casion Of acute, # not prolonged mentGl
suffering aud dssatiSfactioD; and consld
eriug all the surrounding circumstances
bearing not only upon the future Ucgdre,
but upon the happiness Of the child, he
court wOud be loath, in The exercise OF
its discretion, to disturb the situation
that il the result of the action OF the
parties themselves: but considers 1t best,
under all the circumstances, as 1t sees and
understands them, to leave the whole
situation in stain quo, until such tIms, AZ
last. a. the infant herself may have the
discretion necessary to intelligently
weigh, pro and con al. the different
phases of the situation hs they bear upon
her present and future welfare, and de-
termine for herself, whether to make the
change now sought. The conrt denies
the petition and dismisses the writ