llegitimate act.
We are brought back always to this: the saving of the child as the one
plain duty before us.

XI

In a previous section I dealt with the harmful way in which
circumstances and the law, acting together, place the child born out of
wedlock wholly and terribly in the mother's power. But there is a
further aspect of the situation now to be considered. I wish to show how
destructively that power may act, stimulated in some cases by an unwise
affection as well as in others where no mother-love seems present, and
act for years to hurt and even destroy the child. To establish this and
make the facts plainer, I will now tell in detail a few cases of
illegitimate motherhood from my own knowledge. You will see then exactly
what I mean and how dangerous to the child is the power held by these
unwatched mothers; the facts of the case will, I hope, speak to you more
emotionally, and therefore more forcibly, than any further statement of
my own opinion.

_Case 1._--_A baby girl was born to a young mother of unstable though
not altogether bad character. The father was a gentleman: he did not
seduce the girl. He paid the expenses of the confinement and afterwards,
and with the mother's consent, placed the little one with good country
people, paying for her support. For more than a year and a half the baby
lived with its foster mother and grew up a very healthy and joyous
little girl. The real mother visited the child and showed most emotional
love for her. One day, without reason and without warning, she took the
child away. The foster-mother appealed to the father; he did all in his
power to have the child returned, and finally, when the mother refused,
said he would make no further contribution for the support of the child.
He knew the mother was unfit to bring up the child, but he could do
nothing to prevent her action. The mother took the child to another
town. What she did with the little one is not fully known, but when,
after nine months, the foster-mother traced her, she was in a most
pitiable condition of dirt and neglect, and, what was much worse, she
was terribly frightened. Quite plainly she had been beaten and ill-used.
The mother was not poor, so that cannot be made an excuse._

_The foster-mother offered now to adopt the child and bring it up as her
own. Her offer was accepted by the mother, but with the provision, which
unfortunately was granted, that she should still come to see the child.
Her vi