The Saint Paul globe., 1903-07-26
occasion that she was "tired of car

occasion that she was "tired of car
ing for babies"
You. reader mother. who would die
for one Of your little ones. have never
been tired, and worn, and weary
enough at times to say as much?
There are a few sympathetic persons
in Bloomington who have seen the
Jordine family grow, and they have
recolIections of Maude'S motherli-
nesses, which began, long before nine
year-old Willie of today could walk.
Eight years out of only seventeen
years of life devoted to caring for
baby brothers and sisters! And no
complaint?
And then to keep these babes and
little ones in the one-room cottage that
backs into the shadows of Pone Hol-
low and looksrrout on the skyline of
Stautzs pasture, shutting out the
world beyond! Would one wonder
that ;Bloomington's' summer theater at
Houghton's lake should be an attrac-
tion to the whole family, especially
when the Jordines could ride to it on
the street cars, sSeecthe vaudeville en-
tertainment and ride back home again,
all for the purchase of 15-cent ticket
each?
For more than a year Maude had
worked Z in the caramel factory at
Bloomington, At other times in the
past she had worked there, principal
ly dipping" the bits of candy time
and again till they were of required
size and shape. Sometimes at this
work, measured by the piece, she has
earned as much as 81 in a week. At
other times, when there was not work
enough to go around the hundred and
more girls in the place, she has been
glad to make 81 in a week. 1t was in
the caramel factory that some one is
supposed to have told some one else
that some one in the caramel factory
told some one else that Maude Jordine
said to some one that she was tired
of taking care of the baby. and that
change would have to be made at
home.
But in going to the summer theater
Mr.. and Mrs. Jordine had not been un-
fair. The family was divided into
two groups for the trips. and in the
two trips week for each group
Maude and the mother and the father
were in Group No. 1. and Ida and Bert
and Willie were in Group No. e
The Baby Disappears.
Thursday night. July g. it was the
turn of Group No. to go. For some
reason, however, a neighbor woman
was substituted in the group for
Maude, and the father, who did not
care to go. drove down town, expect
ing to call in the buggy for the two
women when the theater was closed.
Maude may have been disappoint-
ed, but she does not say so. After the
| others had gone she took Baby Mabel
in her arms. and calling the other five
children about her. went out of the
back door and down the steps, cross
ing the hollow and going in to call on
the Brewer family, just beyond the
cottage of the Johnsons
Just before 8 o'clock the baby went
to sleep in Maude's arms. The children
were not ready to so home, and Maude,
in the dark, walked back home with
the child, laid it on the bed next to the
window that was in plain view from
the Brewers kitchen, as it was from
the back porch of the Johnson home,
and there, after lighting a lamp and
putting it near the babys bed, she
| went back to the Brewers house
Probably fifteen minutes later Maude,
with the five other children, went back
to the Jordine cottage to find that
Baby Jordine had disappeared
Neighbors came in all kindness and
| helpfulness; idlers came later and
looked and talked; Press Butler was
there, active and insistent upon pick
ing clews; Mrs. Jordine came later
from the theater and rebuked Maude
for her eareleSSneSS; and later still
Andrew Jordine drove up, telling how
the manager of the theater between
acts had called for Mr.. and Mrs. Jor-
dine, or both, to answer to an emer-
gency call to report at home. No an
swer had been made at the time of
these announcements by the manager,
and it had been said by those present
at the theater that neither the father
nor the mother had been in the theater
at any time in the evening.
Mother Visits Seer.
No one doubted the grief OF the
mother.a She WAS spurred to the spirit