dopted. Considering
everything, this often is the best course. From the child's standpoint,
it is given a better start in life. It is much better to live as the
adopted, but honored, child in a home than it is to have to bear the
stigma of illegitimacy. As soon as the child enters school the latter
will become known among its playmates and will be the subject of many
cruel taunts. It is not fair to the innocent child to give it such a
heritage. But think how the mothers must feel to have to give up their
babies! That is the saddest part of the case. It is not fair that the
girl should be punished the remainder of her life for one mis-step when
the man goes absolutely free and without the sign of a stigma attached
to him.

These cases of unfortunate girls are all too common. The rescue homes in
the large cities are full, and often a large percentage of their
occupants are from the country. Within the last week, I have received
letters from four girls, similar to the one I shall read you. This
letter is from a girl in Indiana who gives a rural delivery address. "In
one of your articles in ---- you speak of homes where unfortunate girls
are sheltered and taken care of and I should like to know if there is
such a home in Indianapolis. If there is, will you kindly give me the
street and number. I am in trouble and have nowhere to go, but knowing
you to be a friend to unfortunate girls who met their misfortune through
ignorance and with no desire to do wrong, I write you for advice." This,
as well as numerous other letters, show that these things are just as
prevalent in the country districts as in the cities.

So many girls do not realize how easy it is to "get into trouble." A
short time ago I had a confinement case that was a little unusual; for
the young woman, who was unmarried, had an unruptured hymen, which
contained only one small opening barely large enough to insert a sound
the size of a slate pencil. At the first consultation several months
previous, when she had come to me on account of absence of menstruation
for three months, the girl had insisted that there was no possibility of
her being pregnant. Later she admitted that four months previously, just
after she menstruated, she was out with a young man who was very
insistent, that she did not consent, but in spite of her resistance
there was a discharge thrown against the labia (external organs). At the
time of this first examination she was about four months p