TASK FOE SOLOMON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19061, 4 July 1925, Page 2 (Supplement)

TASK FOE SOLOMON.

OWNERSHIP OF A'BABY. CLAIMED BY TWO WOMEN. RIDDLE FOR A JUDGE. MANY EXPERTS CONSULTED. One of the most distressing problems that a Court has ever been implored to solve has been absorbing thfe' attention of Judge MacNeille, of Philadelphia, and some of the foremost American scientific experts in the field of surgery, dentistry, psychology and anthropology. It raises many points of vital importance to every woman whose baby is born in a hospital or other public institution where there may he insufficient attention to modern / scientific methods of establishing the little one's identity.

One afternoon last December the manager of a cheap lodging house in Camden, New Jersey, heard a |inby wailing. Investigating, he found a blue-eyed toddler, two years old, abandoned in one of the rooms. The newspapers'vowed they would discovered who he was. They described him minutely, and published photographs of him. Mrs. Russell Steimling, wife of a prosperous farmer, nearly fainted when opening a paper next day she saw a picture of the baby. "My little Russell," she exclaimed. It was the image of her baby, vvhich had disappeared in June. Mr. Steimling and the neighbours, too, promptly recognised the picture. Off the overjoyed couple hurried to Philadelphia, where they immediately recognised the little fellow himself. The baby ran to Mrs. Steimling, crying, "Mamma! Mamma!" The police congratulated the happy parents and vowed they would discover who had taken Russell away and deserted him in the lodging house. They were as good as their word. i Charge of Abduction Denied.

In Allcntown, not many miles away, the police arrested a Mr. and Mrs. Silknitter and charged them with abduction. 11l en this couple dropped a bombshell into iho happily reunited home of the Steimlings. "How could wo abduct our own child ?" tbey asked the magistrate. "He is our own baby." "I bore him out of Wedlock," added Mrs. Silknitter, "and named him Jackie DufT." She was released on bail and the caso went to the Philadelphia courts.

The Steimlings had reason to feel confident of the outcome. To the city with them came about four dozen witnesses, all of whom had known tlie child from birth. But the Silknitters showed fight. When the other faction had presented its array of sworn testimony, tbey produced a sensation in court by putting into the witness box nurses and doctors from the Philadelphia General Hospital, who sworo that Mrs. Silknitter had given birth there to this bady, and that he had occupied a cot in the wards a year later, when seriously ill.

Now it was the turn of the Silknitters to feel triumphant. But their hopes were dashed when, after an adjournment, the Steimlings put into the box the doctor who had attended Mrs. Steimling at Russell's birth. He declared positively that this was the same baby. Well, so much for expert medical testimony. Medical Experts Called In. Retiring to his room, the Judge sent for Jackie, alias Pussell, and the two mothers. "Jackie, come to mother!" implored Mrs. Silknitter, with open arms. With a sunny smile he toddled to her. She was told to release him after a kiss and a hug. "Russell, come to mother," implored Mrs. Steimling, with open arms. Only too willing to oblige, the baby toddled to her, and no less filially. The judge adjourned the case, turned the baby over to the home maintained by the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and referrer the case to the medical experts. Had a footprint been taken at birth, as is done in most of the best American hospitals, the problem could have been solved in a moment. The next best path of investigation was a comparison of the baby's finger-prints with those of the rival claimants to his parentage. Those of Mrs. Steimling had most resemblance, but not sufficiently striking to be admitted as conclusive evidence. Blood twists revealed that both mothers and tho baffling baby had the same one of the four types of blood. The baby's eyes are blue. Mrs. Silknitter's eyes are blue. Mrs. Steiinling's eyes aro brown. But that was not a score to' Mrs. Silknitter, for Mr. Steimling is blue-eyed. Eminent psychologists then had their innings. Mrs. Silknitter was f (renounced sub-normal, and Mrs. Steiming normal. Tho boy, by general consent, was found normal. Neither Woman Succeeds. - Then the dental experts were summoned. They found two small grooves in the roof of "the mouth, just behind the front teeth; most people have only one groove. Mrs. Silknitter had two. Mrs, Steimling's retort was to produce a girl cousin of her baby who had two grooves. So had a sister of Jackie Duff. So similar were these totally unrelated little girls that spectators! took them for twins. In the meanwhile hundreds of letters were coming in to the judge every day, suggesting further tests. Neither mother showed any enthusiasm for one which advised the Court to throw Jackie into the river and see which of the two wemeu would jump in to save him. Judge MacNeille announced that the baby is probably Jackie Duff, Mrs. Silknitter's illegitimate son, whom, sho declared, she had abandoned at the urging of her husband, who persuaded her that the youngster would be well looked after. But the Judge has made it a ward of the Society for tho Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which will rear and educate it. Deep sympathy is felt for tho "unhappy Mrs. Steimling, who still firmly believes that tho child is her missing Russell. Hopes are expressed that when tho beat and animus aroused by the. case havn subsided, Mrs. Silknitter may be induced to allow her rival to adopt the child'. " Mind and logic," declared the Jodge ; " will not permit us to do what tho heart and sympathy prompt us to do. This case has meant long days and wakeful nights of thinking. It is a strange case, full of strange anomalies. How wo should love to declare this child to be tho legitimate child of tho Steimlings! But tho facts will not let us; nor would it be fair to them."