The San Francisco call., 1910-10-16

One woman enclosed 10 cents all the
way from Missouri to California SO
that the agency would have no excuse
to use its own stationery. In almost
every case. long before the probation
ary year is up and the child is legally
theirs, the parents have discovered
family traits. Nearly every closed
case" has among It's documents one like
this:
My Dear Miss: Very nearly for
got to write about baby this
already. She is fne and has four
teeth, She is very good natured,
Just like my mother. and is getting
TO be the image of my husband.
We will be glad to adopt her when
the year Is up.
And yet there is a strong belief that
the children must be told at the proper
time. Something might happen. AS
one woman writes: II shall certainly.
tell Lily that she is not mine as soon
as she is old enough to understand.
She has brothers and sisters some
where. The world is wide, but not so
wide that some day she might meet
one Of her brothers, love and marry
him. What could be more terrible?"
Once put into a home. very, very
seldom is baby taken away Only
people quite sure that they want one
stand the necessary Investigations
Only those get one whom the agent is
quite sure will love and care for it.
But twice in seven years has a baby
been taken from a woman One was
a case in which the child was being
used for blackmail. In the other the
family very unexpectedly, through
deaths and accidents, became destitute.
Hardly more often are children taken
and returned. Even when the husband,
as sometimes, is not quite particularly
anxious at first, long before the year
has passed he is absolutely convinced
that 1t was his particular idea
All races and ages are the same. In
one afternoon, with Teresa Earles Nc
Mccarthy. head of the San Francisco
agency, visited an italian fisherman's
wife, a Chinese merchant, a German
washerwoman, an old French couple
and an American heiress
We began with the heiress. She was
20. and so pathetically serious. 1t was
Just after luncheon that we called. and
she received Us In her private sitting
room. She was a slight little thing,
almost lost in a great embroidered
msndarin coat. The hair dresser had
been with her and a cloud of goldy
brown hair was about her shoulders.
1t never occurred to her that her re-
quest to adopt baby was the least un-
usual. AS she said, she had Thought
1t all OUT and there could be abso-
lutely no objection She never intended
TO marry She had never been In love,
and she didn't suppose that now at 20
she could begin. She adored children
and for the last two years had taken
almost exclusive care OF two little
nieces. But that wasn't a good thing
for her sister. The children were grow
ing away from their mother. She had
thought 1t all out" and decided that
the wisest plan would be to adopt a
baby of her own. Her sister would
then be obliged to pay more attention
to the children. while she herself would
not be deprived of child's whole love.
She had thought 1t all out" so thor
oughly. poor, rich, love hungry child
herself.
Nor could she be made to see tho i'm
possibility of her plan. She had love
and money to give. Hundreds OF babies
had neither 1t was SO simple, il only
we would think 1t OUT
Next was the German woman, who
lived In a tiny cottage far out from
the center of the city, on the wind
blown hills. She was such tired look
ing woman, with fiat chest and great
red knuckles and eyes from which the
steam Of innumerable washings had
washed all the blue. She wanted
little girl about 5 or 6, who would go
to school. AS she generally finished
her work by 2 o'clock she could be
back home by the time the little one",
came from school When Miss Nc
Carthy told her that she had found
exactly the child for her, Mrs. Krue-
gers face LIT with a sudden eagerness.