Mother's Sad Tale Wins Back Her Baby

Dec. 1919

Shade of King Solomon is Modern Judge's Guide

Woman Who Claimed Little "Love-o'-Mike" as Her Kidnaped Son Fails to Convince Court.

NEW YORK, N. Y. — The shade of King Solomon sat on the Children's Court bench while Judge Levy tried to decide who was the mother of little "Love-o'-Mike," claimed by two women — by Mrs. August Wentz as her kidnaped son and by Mrs. Lena Lisa as the baby she had planned to abandon to the mercies of Mrs. Elizabeth Seaman (Nellie Bly) for his own happiness and because she could not support her little family of three, herself, the baby and 3-year-old William on the $12 a week, which was all she could earn.

The infant was found in the Grand Central Terminal with a note pinned to its clothing, saying: "For the love of Mike, take care of this kid — I can't."

Mrs. Lisa, brokenly, and through her tears, told how she had schemed to have the infant left where Mrs. Seaman might notice and adopt it.

Weeps as She Finishes Story.

She narrated her trembling anticipation of news of it after the deed had been done, of her heartache when she read that it had arrived at Bellevue Hospital by way of a police station, and of her panic when Mrs. Wentz claimed it as her own.

Not a sound in the courtroom interrupted her story. Big policemen, unromantic agents of the detective bureau, officials of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, scores of others — and Mrs. Wentz — listened in a silence that was dramatic.

When she had concluded, her small frame shaken with sobs, the judge, with obvious emotion, ordered the baby returned to her.

Hugs Baby to Her Breast.

The little woman cried aloud with joy and hugged her baby to her breast. She had deliberated days and nights before deciding to let him go, she told the judge. A friend of her dead husband had taken him, promising to leave him "in Nellie Bly's arms."

Her husband's death last May had left her with a burden she often despaired of bearing, she said. She thought "Nellie Bly" would adopt him, or find a good home for him where he would have enough to eat, warm clothes, and be sent to school and allowed to grow up like other children.

She said she was frantic when she found her plans had gone wrong and could no longer repress her mother's instinct.

Mrs. Wentz finally admitted she was convinced it was not her baby, and added: "My two days of happiness in the thought that I had at last found my own little Arthur are like a fairy tale to me."