Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-05-12
CHILD RETURNED TO
CUSTODY OF FATHER
Scion NJ. Armentrout GetsEP Posses-
sion Of Daughter.
PATHETIC SCENE IN COURT.
Mrs. Armentrout Wept Bitterly When
Judge Announced Decision Against
Her.

A pathetic scene was enacted in
the Circuit Court yesterday afternoon
after Judge Brashears had granted a
petition for habeas corpus as a result
of which pretty little Margaret Vir-
ginia Armentrout, 6 years old, was
ordered delivered into the custody of
er father, Mr.. Solon M. Armentrout
who lives at Eastport.
The mother of the child who was in
court as a witness in the proceedings,
together with several other ladies who
were with her. broke down and wept
bitterly, when the court announced
judgment. Everyone in the court
room was, in fact, visibly affected.
The case was an unusual one locally.
Mr.. and Mrs. Armentrout have been
living apart for about Is months.
When the separation occurred. Mrs.
Armentrout took the child with her,
and it developed during the hearing
that Mr.. Armentrout did not know
whittier she had been taken until
few months ago, although he had sew
eral times instituted a search. And
finally learned of her whereabouts
only through :eading in a newsps per,
of an accident to the little girl, who
was seriously hurt by being struck by
an automobile in Baltimore and was
taken to Maryland University Hos
pital.
Mr.. Armentrout visited his daughter
at the hospital and it was then that he
learned that she had been placed in St.
Barnabas' All Saints Episcopal Home
several months before, the mother in
the meantime working to pay for her
board at the institution. The ch Id
was under the care of Sister Susan,
Directress of the Home and the mother
said she had placed her there for an
Indefinite time, that she might receive
religious as well as secular educa-
tion.
The accident to little Margaret oc-
Cured while she was returning from
st. Stephens School with other children
Cf the Home. She has completely re-
covered. Too young to grasp just what
was trEnspiring as witness after wit
ness testified in the proceedings yester-
day, Margaret was the admiration Of
everyone in the court room. Brown,
sparkling eyes, rosy cheeks, and light
brown curly hair, she is as pretty as a
picture. She sat throughout the hear
ing in the lap of Sister Susan, sthe
latter showing the love and affection
of mother for the child.
James M. Munroe, was the attorney
for Mr.. Armentrout and the ground of
the petition was that the petitioner
has comfortable home and is entirely
able to properly care for the child, al
though the defense claimed that the
little girl was properly in the custody
of the mother, and was being comfort
ably cared for at the Home
Considerable testimony was taken,
upon the conclusion of which Judge
Brashears signed an order granting
the petition, with the understanding
that the mother may see her daughter
as often as she may desire, the court
in kthe meantime retaining jurisdic-
tion over the infant.
When this decision was announced,
Mrs. Armentrout gathered her daugh-
ter to her breast and wept pitifully,
later re tiring to the Judges private
room were it was some time before
she was quieted. Meanwhile, Mr.. Ar
mentrout took charge of the child,
placed her in carriage and drove her
to her former home at Eastport. Sister
Susan and others urged Mrs. Armen-
trout to accompany her husband and
daughter, but she stoutly refused
Charges that Mr.. Armentrout was
a man of brute nature, were brought
in some of the testimony.
Judge Brashears made strong com.
ment along this line in announcing his
verdict when he said he had never beer
able to reach the point Of regarding a
man as brute, there being no gooC
in him at all. despite certain Incl
dents that might occur in ones life al
to give rise to such charge.
The hearing developed the warm affec
tion the father holds for his daughter
and vice versa, and further that Mr.
Armentrout had on several occasions
sought reconciliation with his wife
without avail.
THE Pursuit of the Phantom, il
five big Darts-C Colonial matinee anf