Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-03-26
LADY AND A BABY
And Uncle Sans Polite Consul
In a City In France.
HOW THEY MET AND PARTED.

FAINT, Who Was American, Presented.
Not very long after having taken
charge of one of the ~consulates in
France | was II morning seated at
my desk busily engaged in figuring
w my quarterly accounts, when sud
denly a woman carrying a bundle in
her arms appeared before me. | had
not resided in France sufficiently long
to imbibe the unadulterated French po-
likeness. but | had progressed suf-
f~iciently to ask:
Madame, what can l have the pleas
IRE of doing for you this morningg.
Monsieur" she exclaimed. walking
toward me. holding out the bundle as
If to deposit it on my desk, this is an
American baby. What shall l do with
it?"
Abashed at the prospect of SO sud
denly becoming a father with the or
ange blossoms and rice omitted and
knowing that the American govern
ment had established no precedent of
maintaining orphan asylums either at
home or abroad. l hesitated a moment
inc replied:
will the madame please be seated
over there by the door and tell me
why. being q Frenchwoman, she has
become possessed of an American
baby?'
1t never occurred to me to examine
the little bundle of humanity. | had in
previous times rather prided myself on
my ability to distinguish the nation
atty of people, had even boosted /
could tell them by their shoes, but /
had never tried my perceptive powers
on infant physiognomies.
"Voilar" she said. seating herself.
/ shall never forget that word VOLTA.
1t was one of the first French words l
ever learned. You know it means-oh,
so many things when used exclama-
torily. as it generally is. Usually, how
ever. to the beginner In the French
language it conveys the meaning of
Here it is" That was about as far as
| had progressed in my French educa-
ton at that time in regard to the many
varied meanings of VOLTA, and l de-
termined that If it meant the baby then
it would retain its geographical loca-
ton indefinitely-that is. in the wom-
ans lap over by the door. or preferably
outside. But her VOLTA referred not
so much to the infant as to the story
OF how it came to be in her possession.
She talked volubly while / tried to as
sumo the defensive power of silence.
n.~L - .-la Ill.,
simply means what the jockey gives
the horse in the last heat-encourage-
ment.
From the verbal French cyclone she
hurled at me | gathered a few frag-
ments that enabled ne to understand.
For three months she had been en-
ployed as nurse by an American WON
IN who had paid her good wages. Four
weeks previously. however. the mother
had returned to New York. saying she
was going over for only two or three
days on an urgent business matter and
would return at once. She had not seen
or heard of her since. Being a woman
who had to work for her own living,
the baby was. a burden on her hands.
She could hardly support herself. much
less provide for the infant. and as the
child was of American parentage she
thought the representative of the Amer
lean government ought to take care
of it.
l suggested that / would write to the
city authorities in New York asking as
to the genuineness of the address that
the woman said the mother had left
with her.
And what shall | do during all the
time you are waiting for an answer
starveg''
My answer finally was Il twenty
franc gold piece. with which she de-
parted. saying she would try to take
care of the baby until l could hear
from the New York authorities.
Now. the reasonable and the unrea-
sonable part of the story is that since
her departure. though the sun has
risen hundreds. of times, she has never
returned. 1t had not risen more than
seven times. however, before / learned
the reason.
1t was just one week later at an in
formal dinner of the sixteen consuls
who resided in the city that in the
course of a conversation with my Ital-
ian colleague l told him the story Of
the woman and the baby. What do
you suppose he answered?
"Well. we'll" he laughed. why, that
same woman came to my office. only
she had an Italian baby. And ] thought
l was fortunate to get rid of her for
so francs"
In the general conversation that fol
lowed | discovered that the woman
had visited every one Of the sixteen
consulates in the city. and by her abiI-
ity to change the bahy's nationality
from English to German and from
Haitian to Japanese and all the other
eolOrs of the rainbow she had extract