The Washington herald., 1915-12-26
By WINIFRED VAN DUZER.
TINE bargain-shelf baby now?
Little wistful-eyed, nameless

Demanding what wealth may give, though
what wealth denies itself because it
denies It's own?
Is the under-dog to have a chance?
And what is to be the effect upon
American Society by grating together
class and mass? Will the blending pro-
duce . new type of class. sturdier. more
Atf VIII the hybrid. feeling the pulsing
OF mass in his veins, incline toward de-
mocracy. 80 establishing a condition of
which this great land OF freedom and
equality now has only nominal concep-
ton?
Especially what is to be the effect of
this new disposition of class to take for
its own the offspring Of mass upon class
itself? Pleasure-loving, disinclined to-
ward sacrifice. is 1t perhaps possible that
class may allow its own line to die out
while the bargain-shelf son or daughter
may be secured with no personal discom-
fort and with almost no effort?
Is the perpetuation of the race to be
left to mass?
Assuming that the American type is
selected from class. what is to be tbs
typical American of the future?
Does the adoption by Mrs Helen Gould
Shepard and Finley Jay Shepard of lit
tie foster son from St. Christopher's or
phanage. at Dobbs Ferry, presage whole
sale adoption of waits by American
first families"f
Already since four-year-old John Doe
No. 104 became Finley Jay Shepard, Jr..
five other first families have adopted
. dozen or more orphans. Others have
stgnified their intention Of taking unto
themselves waits as sons and daughters.
Mr.. and Mrs. Warner NJ. Leeds, who
live at Plandome, N. Y. have become the
legal parents Of three-year-old ]. Louise
Leeds. A yellow-haired, blue-eyed boy Of
two is soon to become her little brother.
Mr.. and Mrs. Robert Erskine Ely have
. legally established family Of four; Miss
Ethel Lloyd Patterson mothers a little
boy and girl; Mr.. and Mrs. Charles Rich
ard Williams, Of Princeton, N. j., are
thinking Of enlarging their adopted
family of five: Mr.. and Mrs. Theodore
Mitchell are caring for a little boy: Mrs.
Percy Proctor, who was formerly
Baroness Won Klaefuss, is about to adopt
Jeanne" the fourteen-month-old Bel
gian baby brought to this country. Miss
Lucy Bancroft, daughter of the noted
historian, finds many homes for orphan
babies and has cared for many herself.
Furthermore, 1t is being rumored that
tne SHepdrus are ABOUT 10 auopt .
brother for Finley Jay.
Is Society-capital 6 variety-to go
down to the ages via the founding? And
IL it is, may the social generations to
come be thought of with complacency?
They may. evidently, not only with
complacency, but with positive joy.
Haven't psychologists. alienists. experts
on children. physicians extraordinary,
and others OF the high-priced clan
passed upon the descendants-to-b of
wealth ere ever they came to be? Haven't
they sent down from clear, polar heights
Of science approval to rest upon downy
heads and dimpled hands? Could even
indigenous sons and daughters of luxury
be so painstakingly normal Of bodies,
normal of minds, progressing of dispo-
sitions?
For II is by no simple process that the
founding becomes the child of wealth
and position. No simple process was
that by which Finley Jay Shepard, Jr.,
shuffled of his John Doe No. 104 per-
sonality to become scion Of American
aristocracy. heir to the Gould millions.
and figure of interest to all the world.
Who was the boy before he became
John Doe No. 104? Where had he lived:
who were his parents: what had they
bequeathed him in disposition, talents.
Christophef's home know of him?
Nothing. Not since the epoch of the
iron mask has such impenetrable niys-
terry surrounded the identity of a hu-
man being. One September evening. a
year ago, the boy was found on the
steps of st. Patrick's cathedral, New
York. with Austin McCleary" pinned to
his cheap little well-worn clothes. Fur
ther than this all those interested in the
little boy know nothing.
Ever Hampton G. Silcox, the Philadel-
phia detective. who conducted world
wide search for the boys parents. ex-
Charlie Ross, Dorothy Arnold or Jimmie
Glass, doesn't know who he was. James
MacGregor Mitcheson, the Philadelphia
attorney who acted for the Shepards and
who secretly employed Silcox to conduct
the search, doesn't know who he was
After John Doe No. 104 had been found
at the cathedral door he was closely
questioned. He mentioned couple Of
streets which caused the search for his
parents to begin at Philadelphia. Every
house within q fve-square-mile district
was searched. Failure caused the de-
tectives to obtain the name Of every.
town in America in which there was a
Broad or a 9Th st.-those he mentioned.
AS result q thousand cities were ran
sacked. Circulars bearing his descrip-
ton were posted in every schoolhouse IN
the easteSn part Of the United States;
the postal department through mail car
riers, rural delivery MEN and inspectors
conducted systematic search. All to NO
avail.
The boy furnished no help. Toys Of
all sorts were mot new to him though
they amused him immensely. Human
playmates were different. Boys and girls
his bNp age we're marvels, and they de-
lighted him more than his toys. 1t was
aaits evident that he had bean brought