The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-05-22
Kansas Incubator Baby Case I'm
Court Of Appeals.
Decision IL Expected In . Few
Days.
MOTHER NOW In SEDAN
Foster Parent, It Is Claimed,
Has Spent $4,000.
All to Secure Possession of the
Adopted Child.

Chicago. May 22.-Fate of the FAM
Gus incubator baby of the st. Louis
Worlds fair will be decided in few
days by the United States court of
appeals at Minneapolis.
The decision will determine finally
whether the baby shall belong to its
real mother or to the woman who
adopted it. Four courts already have
attempted to decide this question.
An Illinois circuit court decided the
child belonged to it's real mother. The
Ilnnols supreme court reversed this
decision and gave the baby to its fos-
ter parent A district court In Kansas
decided the little one belonged to it's
adopted mother. The Kansas supreme
court gave it back to its real mother.
The federal court decided it had no
jurisdiction. At present, under the
aegis of the Kansas upper court, the
gether at Sedan, Kan.
The incubator baby, now grown to
pretty girl of years, was born in
st. Louis hospital February Is. 1904.
Thompson Bleakley, lay Ill the hospi-
tai matron stole the baby and sold 1t
to the Baby Incubator company of the
Worlds fair. A dead baby born in the
hospital. it is alleged, to Edith Stan
ley. an actress, was substituted.
died..
The baby in the incubator thrived
and Mrs. James G.. Barclay, wealthy
woman of Buffalo, decided to adopt it.
Mrs. Bleakey signed deed. waving
all claims to the incubator baby She
was convinced it was not her child.
But Mrs. Bleakley became suspicious
finally. She went to the St Louis hos
pital where the matron admitted the
incubator baby was the child born to
Mrs. Bleakley.
When she learned the real mother
had come to claim her offspring Mrs.
Barclay fed, it is said, with the in
FAINT from st. Louis. She was halted
at Rock Island by a warrant charging
her with kidnapping. The Rock Island
court restored the baby to Mrs Bleak
ley, who took it to Lawrence, Kan.
After appealing the case in the II
linois court Mrs. Barclay went to Law
renee and began action to regain pos.
the district court there decided the
adoption was legal and gave the real
mother six hours in which to surren-
der the baby.
While a deputy sheriff waited in the
Bleakley home Mrs. Bleakley slipped
out a back way with the child in her
arms and caught an express train. BY
means of a bogus arrest by bogus
officer, it is alleged, she had herself
conducted safely past pursuit through
Kansas and Missouri into llnnols,
where the circuit court had recognized
the validity of her claim. For several
months she and her child lived hap
PLY at Rock Island until the supreme
court returned the child to Mrs. Bare
la..
Meanwhile an appeal had been taken
in Kansas and the supreme court OF
that state had upheld the claims of the
real mother. Mrs. Bleakley fled in dis,
guise back to Kansas, where she now
lives.
Mrs Barclay has spent $4,000 in her
fight for the baby. She calls the child
Dorothy Edith Barclay. Its real moth
err who is poor, has spent $1,000 in de-
Tending her claim. She knows the
child as Marian Roberta Bleakley.
Several famous Kansas lawyers have
handled Mrs. Bleakleys case free of
charge. About So, 500 has been contrib
uted to help her by public subscrip-