SHOCKING BABY FARMING

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11686, 22 June 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

SHOCKING BABY FARMING

TWENTY-SEVEN DONE TO DEATH. The judicial inquiry a-. (lit sir., ai has brought to light the following particulars in regard to the dreadful baby-farming case recently reported from Christiania. The chief accused are Pauline Olsen, Anna Johannesen, and Martha Andresen, all three unmarried. Each of them has two to three illegitimate children, although the last two mentioned are only in their twenties. These three honest souls began operations last summer, but in the short period up to their arrest they are charged with having done to death no fewer than twenty-seven children. Amongst the mothers, whe represent all classes of society, are ladies belonging to good families. The three women shockingly neglected the children entrusted to thern. The little victims were never washed, and soon became one mass of filth. The little food they received was bad. and when they cried with hunger sour milk was poured down their throats. This acted like poison on the little stomachs, and helped to put an end to their sufferings. In many cases the children had been suffocated, a quantity of clothes being heaped on their heads. Some of the mothers of the murdered children seem to have known what fate awaited tbem. The criminal dealings of these women were discovered by some neighbours, who noticed that an awful smell came from the part of the house where Olsen and Andresen lived. Their remarks happened to be overheard by the thirteen-year-old daughter of Olsen, who repeated it to her mother, and the same evening the girl had to carry a little box. which had been lying at the top of the house, to the churchyard, and to bury it there. The girl then frankly told the two neighbours that the Indies of two children were in the box, and that her mother had had no money to bury tin in. Laic,- on more bodies were found in lofts, cellars, and outbuildings. The impending trial is expected to have most sensational developments.