The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-01-22
Marcus Fagg,
Warns Public
Of Impostors

The editor Of the Telegram has re-
ceived the following letter from Mar
Gus c. Fagg, State Superintendent Of
the Children's Home Society of Flor
ida, which is self-explanatory:
l want to ask the assistance of your
paper in presenting a warning to all
readers and to the people of your
community in connection with some
solicitors who are using the name Of
The Children's Home Society in secur-
ing funds, evidently for their personal
use, as our Society has no solicitors
Of any kind anywhere. I am sure
that you will be glad to assist us in
running these people down and COM
pell them to cease securing money
under false pretense.
One of these solicitors is a Mrs. l..
H. Barker, who claims that her resi-
dence is Pensacola, who recently was
soliciting at Titusville and stated that
she intended to go further down the
east coast. Mrs. Barker wears a
star on which is engraved or printed,
World Wide Prison Mission, but at
Titusville she had the picture Of a
little girl who she claimed was her
own child and that an organization
had taken the child from an institu-
ton in DeFuniak Springs and had
sent the child away for an operation
without her privilege or consent and
that the child had died and that she
was raising funds to prosecute the or
ganization. One of the ladies to
whom she showed the picture, imme-
diately recognized it as the picture
used by our Society in December
issue of the Times Union The little
girls name being Mary Bailey, legal
ward of our Society, who had been
committed to us by one of the County
Courts in this state and whose con
dition was so hopeless without an op
Grafton which was delicate one, and
: whom we secured admission to Johns
Hopkins Hospital at Baltimore under
the care of noted specialist. The
> neither oft he child is dead, so you car
J. see how false the statement which
she is using to secure funds is. Sht
has a little baby with her, who sht
D presumably carries to make her ap
/ peal stronger to the public. do no
know whether the baby is hers or not
but it has been suggested to us tina
it is not her child.
The second group Of solicitors hav,
a just been reported to us as being a
Daytona and is family whose nam
we could not learn, but there is
"a father mother and two or three Chi
dren, who all put in time soliciting
~ for our work, according to their state
mont. The police at Daytona, unfor1
IN unately let this group get away froI
them, but | hope that they can be Il
Gated for they certainly are obtar
ing money under false pretense.
=. understand that sometimes thes
people use the name of Children
m Home Society, sometimes they jus
say The Children's Home at jackson
m vile, sometimes The Jacksonville o.
phanage and so on. There is no Chi
dren's Home or Orphanage OF an
kind in Jacksonville which has an
solicitors anywhere.
ur Each year there are cases like tn
Dr. above reported to US and all of thel
SO seem to be able to get money in spit
of the fact that we have for year
advertised thru the press and othe
Nh wise, that we do not have any, sole
lb- tors anywhere.
Tor
AK there are number of Children
vs., Agencies of different kinds hailir
from Georgia, Alabama, North al
90 South Carolina that make a regul;
set business each winter OF coming
ry. Florida for funds. They do not pr
re- re- vide for any Florida children at a
ase tho | have heard of one or two
sS them who have made deals to G
The two or three Florida children, so tn
per
da, they could use them as basis for
appeal for Florida people. Our Soci
aid ty feels that every state should su
port its own Charitable Institution
and am sure that there is no Florit