Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-05-25
By KATHLEEN NORRIS
MIS- is the case of an un
born baby in New York
whose father is about +

DOTu DdDy Ill view 1OIh,
i whose father is about to
begin a ten-year sentence at
Sing Sing. The baby's mother
and father are not married. The
young mother wants to be mar
ried before her man goes to
prison, because she believes that
a baby has a better chance in
life when born in wedlock, even
under these circumstances.
Teddy, the father, is anxious to
marry, too. But the judge said
mo-" and the matter is still in
doubt; the girl has engaged a
lawyer who thinks he can win
his case for her.
My verdict would be with the par
ents, in this case. According to the
newspaper story I saw, the man is
being punished for "snatching a
handbag" he would hardly be given
10-year sentence just for that in
any American court, SO there
must be something more to it. If he
only snatched handbag, reprehen-
sible as that is, and if she only
was too generous in love, as so many
girls are in these turbulent times,
then it seems to me he ought to get
reprimand, parole, and a job;
she ought to get gold ring, and
they both ought to get small apart
ment, and eventually baby, and
settle down to sensible, self-con-
trolled living like grown-up human
beings.
The Lesser Handicap.
To have felon for a father is
indeed handicap, but it is not in
any way as serious handicap as
is legitimacy. This shouldn't be so,
buS it is, unchangeably and ineradi-
cably. Part of the reason is given
by the prospective mother herself,
who tells the court she wants her
baby to have a name-yes, even
though it's the name of a convict
father. The very fact that she feels
so, and all her woman friends
feel so, means that while they may
pity her, and deplore the circum-
stances of having a husband in Sing
Sing, none of that pity will extend
itself to the baby, or stretch on into
the baby's life. His father will pres
emily be free, and he and the mother
will either get divorce, or will
go away and begin a new life to-
gether. Whichever they do, the baby
doesn't suffer. Neighbors shift and
change, newcomers don't know the
story, nobody is too keenly inter-
ested. Nobody is ever going to look
up the City Hall records and as
certain that this baby came a few
months too soon. Even his fathers
sin can be lived down.
So much for the felon's baby With
the illegitimate baby it is all differ
ent. Firstly and lastly, and always
his mother feels the blight upon
him, and he feels a reflection of it.
She may marry again, and have
other children, for whom she will
always entertain quite a different
feeling; she will feel respect for
their socially secure status, none
for that of the first child. In many
legal connections the illegitimate son
will suffer injustices yes, they
are injustices of course, but you
can't change settled laws because
they shame and hurt and cripple
your child.
For example; baby was born
out of wedlock in my native city
about 80 years ago. The mother was
a girl of good family, who refused
to marry the father, who was pretty
worthless. She faced the music, had
her child, married again; her hus-
band adopted the baby girl and
gave him his name. Three other