The Washington times., 1920-07-11

rs mother love thing which can be bar
gained away just as If the child which
is its object were piece of livestock
or bit Of furniture? Or is it an inalien-
able lien that overrides even an agreement
drawn up in full legal terms, signed sealed
and delivered, and taking away from
mother forever all rights to her little son?
A Chicago Judge has already declared in
favor of the irrevocable claims of mother
love, but the question will have to be
finally decided in the courts of New York
because 1t was in that State that what the
mother terms an "unholy bargain" was
made. s
What complicates the situation is that
the baby in question is what is termed
love child-its father and mother never
went through the ceremony of marriage
The case is one Of the most curious that
has ever come before the courts of Amer.
lea, inasmuch as the attitude of the father
seems to be that long held in certain parts
Of the Orient-that a child belongs to the
father. and that the mother is a negligible
factor after the first years of infancy and
physical dependence upon her.
1t was six years ago that Constant Flier
mans, Jr., man Of wealth-an art col
lector, as well-set forth from his home in
Chicago on one Of his trips to gather mas
terpieces in Europe. On. board the boat
on which he sailed was a little Holland
girl, Henrica Bernardina Collet. Flier-
mans was then a man we'll over fifty. Miss
Collet was scarcely more than twenty. She
was a bookkeeper in a department store
in The Hague and was returning from a
vacation visit to friends in America
Propinquity, the magic of the ship at
J sea, the moonlight, her youth, his dignity
and well-won position in the art world did
their work. The journey was not finished
before both had acknowledged themselves
in love.
If. the girl had dreamed OF wedding,
this hope was soon broken.
81 have been married and divorced" she
! says he told her. 81 would not go through
the ceremony again. But love you and
want to take you back to America with
me. In all things we will be as man and
wife and all shall know you as my wife.
/ will make you happy"
They went to The Hague. where the girl
laid the matter before her parents 1t
seems that after violent but Intellectual
objection they consented to the arrange
ment. Rich man and poor girl came back to
America outwsrdly Mr.. and Mrs. Constant
Fliermans, Jr. They took an apartment in
upper New York. AS he had promised, she
was introduced to all as his wife And for
a time she was happy.
After two and a half years came little
Constant Fliermans H. He was idolized
by both his father and his mother. Sur.
rounded. with every luxury in an atmos-
phere Of ease and contentment he grew to
be two and a half years old. During all
this time the little former bookkeeper had
felt no sense OF insecurity. She had lived
as a woman Of comparative wealth would
she had no reason, she says, to believe
that the man she looked upon as her hus-
band had cooled toward her. And, like
every other mother, her heart was bound
up in her boy and his future. Often she
discussed this with the father, and quite
naturally, like every other mother, she
saw her future and the future OF her child
stretching along beside each other through
life.
Then came the extraordinary agreement
which was TO put cruel end TO ell these
mother thoughts and ambitions. Miss Col.