BABY ON DOORSTEP

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXX, Issue 275, 26 November 1935, Page 8

BABY ON DOORSTEP

SURVIVES IN COLD NIGHT CRIES BRING HELP MELBOURNE, July 15. Only two days old and 21b under normal weight, a baby girl found at 1.30 ini the morning on the doorstep of a house in Vale Street, East Melbourne, has survived what might have been fatal even to an older and stronger child. Shivering with cold beueath the thin wrappings of a bundle of old clothing, she was taken by a police patrol to the Barry Street Foundling Hospital a few yards away, and an hour later, after a healthy cry, a bottle and good sleep, packed in hot water bottles, ©he gave no sign of sany illeffects, "The baby’s survival is made even more remarkable by the fact that she had not .had any medical attention since birth,” salid Matron McGain, of the hospital. "A wanted baby would have died. This unwanted little one survives. That is the strange way things go in this world.’’

The matron was roused from sleep at 1.45 a.m. by the police visit. How long the baby .remained on the

doorstep after it left) its unknown mother’s arms is not known. It wailed for at least an hour there before the occupant of the house. Mrs M. Hawkins, unable to sleep, went to investigate.

"My husband and I though!) it was a baby next door at first,” she isaid when she visited the hospital later to see the foundling. "We couldn’t, sleep, and unable to bear the cries any longer, I went to the front door. "The cries got suddenly louder, and there on the mat lay this little bundle. I got such a shock that I shut the door quickly and called to my daughter, in the front room: 'lt’s here—right on our doorstep!’ "Then I opened the door, hurried inside with the baby and called the police. ’ ’ Mrs Hawkins has suggested to Matron. McGain that the baby be called Mary Vale —a surname suggested by the name of .tfhe street in which she was found. "I don’t know why the mother chose Our doorstop, with the hospital just around the corner,’’ said Mrs Hawkins. " Perhaps she couldn’t find the place in the dark, or perhaps she was comforted in her difficulty by the name of our home—‘Y-Worry’.’’ "It is a dear little thing,” she added, "and I would love to ho able to keep it.” The bundle in which it was wrapped was pinned with a long narrow brooch set With brilliants and a gilt safetypin..

The letters "Dr” embroidered on a corner of the cream blanket suggesting thatl it had once been used in a baby’s institution, may provide the iploMce with a clue to t'he identity of the mother.