MOTHER IS WON
BY BABY'S SMILE
YOUNG WOMAN WAS ABOUT TO
DESERT UNWELCOME CHILD.
ONCE SHE RAN AWAY FROM IT
BUT EMERGENCY HOSPITAL DOC-
TORS BROUGHT HER BACK.
She Concluded to Face the World and
Strive for the Mite, When
It Looked Up at Her
and Laughed.
Late yesterday afternoon two women applied to Mrs. Lizzie Burns, police matron, for aid in disposing of a baby boy, which the mother said was just 11 days old. She said the child was hers and that she wished to give it away, as she could not take the tiny fellow to her Southern Missouri home. The woman with her said she was a sister-in-law.
Mrs. Burns told the women to go to the emergency hospital and ask for the nurse, Mrs. Ralph A. Shiras, who would direct them to the Helping Hand institute, where they were to remain until this morning, when arrangements for the final disposition of the youngster were to be made. The women obeyed her instructions as to the first part. They found Mrs. Shiras and told her their mission.
Now, Mrs. Shiras is a woman possessed of strong motherly instinct. Her first move was to grab the baby and begin to fondle it. She did not notice the sister-in-law as she walked into the hallway, and, beckoning to the young mother, said: "Mabel, come here a minute."
Nor did she see the two women walk hurriedly out of the hospital and begin to make tracks toward Fifth and Walnut streets. She was engrossed in trying to make the baby laugh by "dimpling" its chin. When she turned and said, "Come on now, I'll show you the way," she found herself with a baby on her hands.
THEY PURSUED HER.
An alarm was sounded and a "posse" was immediately formed form a squad of doctors and board of health inspectors. The chase was soon over, as the two women were captured at Fifth and Walnut streets just as they were about to board a car. They were returned and Mrs. Shiras headed the procession to the Helping Hand.
There the women refused to give their names. The young mother told of her shame and said that was the reason she wanted to desert her helpless infant. All the time she was talking she held the tiny bundle in her arms. The matron at the institute and Mrs. Shiras were trying to persuade her to keep her baby, work for it and rear it herself.
The young mother demurred. When it seemed she was about determined to give the offspring away, the little fellow looked up into her face and actually crooned, as a broad smile overspread his face. The mother looked down at her smiling child. A light not seen before came into her eyes, still suffused with tears, and she burst forth afresh.
"I'LL KEEP HIM."
"I'll keep him and bear my burden," she said.
"I know I'd never desert a baby smart enough to laugh like that when only 11 days old," said the white-haired matron. "That child knows its mother right now. Yes he does."
Then there was a season of billing and cooing as the baby was passed from one woman to another, while the admiring mother looked on through her glistening eyes. The sister-in-law was then taken in tow and shown her duty. The outcome of it was that a slender arm slipped about the young mother's waist as "Mabel, you can go home with me. You'll not have to bear your burden alone," was whispered in her ear.
Probably a Missouri Pacific train never carried two happier women than did the one bound for Joplin last night. They took turns about fondling a little baby, who occasionally looked at the smiling face of one of them and smiled back as if he knew his unfortunate young mother, but was by no means ashamed of her.
"She seen her duty and she done it," said a policeman after the curtain had rung down.
