BABY IN HAMPER.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12476, 1 March 1909, Page 4

BABY IN HAMPER.

Of all the Christmas presents en- ) trusted to the railway officials at Yuletide, probably the most remarkable was reported in Home" papers of December 28th as from Reigate. As a matter of fact, the gift took the form of a live baby in a hamper. It appears that about 8.1.5 on Christmas Eve 5 almost immediately after the arrival of a train from London, a young woman, who was carrying a small hamper, presented herself at the booking office at Reigate. She said she wanted an outside porter to take the hamper to the address given on the label, and on being told what the charge would be she paid it and walked away. An outside man not being available, one of the station porters undertook to deliver the hamper. He, of course, had no idea that it contained a baby, and, indeed, believing that it was all ordinary Christmas gift, he ran across the metals with it to the down platform to see whether there were any other "parcels for - delivery in the town. The hamper was addressed to a man servant employed at a local scholastic establishment. There the porter' arrived with liis burden about an hour after it had been handed in at the station. ' ** \ , ' The man-servant received the hamper with obvious gratification, arid told the porter "to wait." Then straightway ■he took it into the kitchen, where some of his fellow-ser-vants were assembled. He placed it. on the- table, and, surrounded by an. interested crowd of onlookers, proceeded to unfasten the hamper. As he raised the lid it occurred • to 'him that some thoughtful friend had sent him a turkey. Then, to his amazement', he saw a child's hand emerge. The next moment he found that the hamper contained a baby only about a fortnight old. It was warm- ; ly clad, while the sides of the hamper were lined with brown paper, presumably to make, the receptacle .- as ; snug as possible. . ~ "'• ~'~ ; Theporter, who.was'waiiing at ,the ;; door, soon learnt that the hamper was J not so welcome as he had. expected" it ;:■ would be. Indeed, the "recipient ac- ; coinpanied him arid the. embarrassing j present back to the : stationmaster. j He explained that he had no notion j from whom it had come, _ and that, ■ naturally, he had no desire to keep ■ it. The stationmaster thereupon handed the baby to the police. Strange to say, all this time the baby had not made . the slightest sound, and it was only when it reached the police station that it be- . gan to cry. It is supposed that just ;; hefore.it was placed in the hamper the ; infant was fed, and that it went -to ■' sleep: ■''... ■"...'-•■' '■":■' The police sent the little one — a chubby-faced, baby boy— to the workhouse, where it reriaains. They are now trying to trace the young woman who handed in the hamper at the railway station. The description giv- , on is that she was dark, between 28 ?nd 32 years of age; and was dressed ■:, KUnir'.-"