Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1907-12-11
LOVE E PROVES !. !:
SUPERIOR TO d.
LAWS DE CREES

his decision in the case of Smith vs.
divorced father or the divorced moth.
er of the little children must turn kid.
naper? Nobody consults the children
| of course.
The wise verdict has been rendered
Mrs. Smith is free to resume her maid.
en- name of Miss Jones and gets the
custody of the two little Smiths, boy
and girl. There is alimony, a decree
permitting Miss Jones to marry again
and formal permission for the father
to see his children once in so often
And the very first time he does see
them he steals them away-he is a
kidnaper in the eye of the law.
Or it may be the other way. The
decree is Mr. Smiths. The court says
some unkind things about Mrs. Smith,
and the children 60 to the father for
education and support.
Mother-love Triumphant.
But mere legal verbiage can't de-
stroy or root out mother-love. Despite
her failings, Mrs. Smith loves the lit
tie ones she brought into the world
She is hungry for them; she wants
to take them to her heart again and
hear them whisper Mother"
But the court has made its decree
She must not see them. Under the
law she is not regarded as a fit per.
son to bring them up. But she finds
them somehow, and of she runs with
them-she has learned from the court
to be a kidnaper.
She knows her lesson we'll.
Judges may sit and sit, and expound
the law to it's last letter, but fathers
and mothers have a different code
They are learning to kidnap now
Railway train, automobile, horses
yachts have been used to kidnaI
children. 1t is anything to get the lit
tie ones out Of the state where the di
vorce is granted, for then it means
| delay-more law and more court de
clsions. Meanwhile the kidnaper has
the children.
And there has never been convic
| ton for this kind of kidnapping. Wrong
| as they be, no father or mother who
has stolen back child-and hundreds
have done so-has ever gone to prison
More children are kidnapped in the
United States every year by father Of
mother than by all those criminals wh<
steal children for ransoms or revenge
And the lesson is learned in the di
vorce court.
After Runaway Marriage.
Mrs. Clarke is the divorced wife O
Capt. Forrest G. Clarke, civil en-
gineer employed by the metropolitan
Steamship company. Capt. Clarke,
father is Boston millionaire, and hi.
wife was Miss Maude Buchanan, O
Dorchester, suburb of Boston. The.
ran away and were married sever
years ago.
A little boy, George, was born, an,
the mothers heart rejoiced. The1
there came rumors of this thing an,
that, and it ended in divorce Capt
Clarke had known and liked DR.. earle
ton C.. Kremer while both were stu
dents at Harvard, and husband an
wife would be just the people to TAX
care of little George. So DR.. and Mrs
Kremer adopted little George, then
boy of four, and Surrogate Fitzgeral'
signed the formal order.
Dr. Kremer allowed the mother t
see her little boy once week, and TO
a time Mrs. Clarke obeyed strictly tn
orders of the court.
Meanwhile DR.. and Mrs. Kremer ha
become greatly attached to the boy
One day when Mrs. Clarke was wit
him they caught her stealing out Q
the house with the child.
II can't live without him." she wept
80 please don't blame me-"
DR.. Kremer explained as gently a
he could that she must be more Gil
cumspect, even If she did love him, TO
the court had formally given the littl
fellow into his possession. In fact, h
had been rechristened and was then
and is now-Carleton Clarke Kremer.
Reganed Her Boy.