The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-01
SHOPPING TO SELECT A BABY.
Hundreds of ChiIdIess Couples Sc
cure Infants by Mail Order.

!
New York, Sept 29,-Everybody knows
of the hundreds of babies found in the
streets and parks, in the empty buildings
and niched in door Stops of any great
city. What everybody does not know,
however, because the facts are harder to
get at, is that very considerable proper
ton of these waits find adopted homes in
various parts of the country, comfort and
a tender care in marked contrast 20 their
unpromising origin.
The matron of the infant asylum or the
babies home knows al this. She knows
the handspring of human nature about as
well any official in Christendom and
can scent from a PERSONS manner, or their
letter of application or the manner of the
| agent entrusted with the task of finding
them baby whether or not to entertain
their proposition.
Il get as many orders for babies In the
course of a day as a dry goods merchant
gets for suits or halter for hats" said
the secretary of the adoption committee
in a public institution. THE orders from
distance come in the mornings mail
The city physicians send in a number
either orders from their own patients di-
rect, or orders received, through physi-
clans In other towns. A doctor rung us
up just now to know If the particular
type u DdDy he is III search Ol 10 YET III
stock. This order has hung on for weeks
and weeks. His patient, sensimental
woman, has set her heart on a fair-skin-
ned girl baby with golden curly hair AND
brown eyes, a rare combination We sent
one little girl TO her on approval, a beau~
tiful child, but her hair began to darken
and she was returned. She is going out
again tomorrow, however to be the child
of an estimabe clergyman who has lost
his wife, and whose sister keeps house for
him. They don't care as to the color of
babys hair and eyes, just so she is healthy
and good-tempered.
I'VE have every week many applicants
for adopted children who go through the
wards, make their own selection out of
the children at disposal but the greatest
number of applications have 20 be filed
until the infant answering to the stipu-
lated description comes in.
Mail Orders for Babies.
'In the mail orders for babies many en-
closures are sent 20 guide In choosing
locks of hair photographs, detailed de-
scription as to length of limbs or general
build of baby, it's constitution, complex
ion. etc. The lock of hair / am asked to
match as exactly as possible. that sent
having been cut from the head of some
friends or neighbours baby whom the APP
plicant admires. The photographs are to
give an idea of the type of features de-
sired The other day there came a faded
old-time daguerreotype, the likeness of the
an infant, and whose general type and
physique it was hoped might be repeated
In the foster child who was to be as their
very own.
Not only in the matter of complexion
and physical characteristics are my GUS
toners predetermined, but there is often a
strong bias as TO nationality. The infant
must be of Swedish antecedents, if possi-
bic, or of German birth. One woman wrote
for an aristocratic looking infant as young
as was practicable of Austrian blood. Her
husband, she said, was a well-bred Wen
nese, and they specially wished that the
child might resemble him. Sometimes
there are orders for Hebrew children or
for Italians, all the babies to be less than
two months old. and il takes close dis
and doctors to detect the nationality in
children of that age whose parents are not
known to them.
I'VE keep those babies whose lineage
We know something of i'm separate list
from the little foundllngs with no name
and no age save that given to them here
and set down on the admission card lack
ed at the head Of their CRIB. A weil-to-do
Illinois farmer applied for baby yester-
day 10 be company 10 his wife whose own
children We're all grown up and gone away
Give us anything, either a boy or girl
he said, and of any age under five but
not one whose father was a drunkard or
iuudllC OI VINO mas gone 10 prison. We
want a child with a chance to turn out a
comfort to us and not a trouble I've seen
IL in my time that, as the twig is bent the
tree will grow
Baby I'm Great Demand.
The child of an EngIsman, born three
weeks ago. aud whose father had desert
ed The mother s'nco coming 10 this Coun-
try. has five well appointed homes open
to il. A wealthy widow has seen il three
times and declares that no other baby will
suit her A prosperous hardware manup-
facturer has applied for 1t. A lawyer and
real estate broker with childfess homes
are bo,h after it, but a physical a noted
childs specialist, is the favored applicant
Twelve years ago hit married trained
nurse whose love of children amounted to
a passion. They have had no child and the
committee judges that at Their hands the
little one stands best chance of consistent
care and tenderness"
The majority OF people who plan TO adopt
a child secure it from an institution al a
distance from their homes. lady trav-
| eled all the way from Southern California.
| 10 New York TO select an infant This
| child lived only fve years and then she
again made the journey to get another.
sitting Blondes and Brunettes.
The physician from famous woman's
college was in the babies ward of a city
institution few days ago selecting a child
for adoption. One of the college students
had died. and the mother, brooding over
her trouble had been advised to ADOPT a
child as a fresh source of interest.
''The dead girl was brunette with gray
| eyes. brown hair and a delicate oval face -
explained the physician. and I think It
would be nice to get a baby of the same
| type" So the nurses went TO work stiff
ing the brunette babies from the blonde