The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-20
All Day Search and No Clue
Has Been Unearthed.
Would Have Died During Night
if Not Discovered.
GRIP OF CLOTHES NEARBY
Contained Among Other Things
Silk NightgOwn.
Woman and Child Walking in
Road Saw the Baby.

Putting to shame all mothers of the
animal family any one of which will
fight unto death for her young. some
mother, a woman, deserted to what
ever fate awaited it her little two
weeks-old baby girl at a lonely place
along the upper Silver Lake road
Wednesday afternoon.
1t is due only to good fortune that
the little girl is kicking up her heels
and wrinkling her nose in an effort
to smile today in a comfortable crib at
the home of Hugh Larimer, sheriff.
Another turn of fortunes wheel and
she might just as easily have been a
victim of a stray dog or to the chills
of last night.
The tiny dark haired and blue-eyed
girl was found by Mrs. william
Roller, eight miles northwest of To-
peka on the upper" road about
O'Clock in the afternoon. She and
some school children rescued it, a
neighbor woman with baby of her
own nursed it, and Hugh Larimer
and r bert Miller brought it to the
sheriffs residence Wednesday night.
She Saw Grips Brass.
Mrs. Roller lives less than a quarter
of a mile from the spot where the
baby was found but neither she nor
members of her family saw anyone
leave it there. She was walking west
along the Silver Lake road, going to
the home of neighbor, when the
flash of the sun upon shining metal
attracted her attention to the high
ground at the side of the road. The
metal was the hasps and lock upon
new black grip.
When Mrs. Roller saw the grip she
stopped and instantly heard the wall
of a baby. Some school children came
along and when Mrs. Roller remarked
that she believed she heard a baby's
cry from the interior of the grip, a
small boy pointed to bundle beside
it and the bundle moved.
Well Dressed.
The little girl was fully. dressed in
neat and tastefully made baby clothes.
Then she was completely wrapped in
a black cape-coat. Inside the coat
she was cuddled up as comfortably as
in a crib.
other people were called and the
baby was taken to the home of Mrs
Dan Lands. The grip was opened
and the contents examined. In it
were all the things a baby needs, all
freshly laundered and as carefully
made as those it wore Then there
was a woman's yellow silk night dress
an expensive piece of feminine appar-
ell and between that and the baby
clothing was a page from a TODeka
u
is nothing marked in the paper and
It was probably used merely as a
wrapping. The inside of the grir
was studded with safety pins. Every
thing except the cape-cOat in which
the baby was wrapped was compare.
lively new, the grip being unsoileC
and unmarried
Identity n Mystery.
The baby's identity is a complet,
mystery. What manner of woman
left it where it was found if tn,
There is a hedge fence just south o
the point where the little bundle wa
found which would hide it from tn,
home of the Roller family. 1t coulC
not have been there long when Mrs
Roller passed by. 1t was not particu
larly hungry and was as clean as
pin.
point within two hours previous t
the time the baby was found-thre
cars that have not been accounted for
One was a big brown car. one nev
Buick and the third without any def
mite description. All of these cars will
be traced down. The officers are ol
the trail of them now.
What impelling force it was tina
caused the mother to desert such
know but they have theories One
that some unfortunate girl returning
home from a Kansas City or a Topeka
hospital with her baby, lost her nerve
found she could not face the home
folks and sacrificed her child to pride
The fact that there was part of a To
peka newspaper in the grip leads of
Continued on Page TWOI