The Adoption of Children 205 



good family if marriage is out of the question. 

 My reasons for this are reached after wide ex- 

 perience and observation. In the first place,, 

 the child, who is the only innocent party in the 

 whole transaction, should have the primary 

 consideration. To be brought up in a pre- 

 carious manner by the hard struggles of an un- 

 married mother, without normal home life, 

 and with the stigma of illegitimacy hanging over 

 its head, is not a happy outlook. The mother 

 herself cannot escape the cruel implication of 

 the scarlet letter. This will all be avoided by 

 having the woman face her trouble away from 

 home and, after nursing her baby long enough 

 to give it a good start, have it adopted into 

 some family able to give protection and train- 

 ing as well as love and thus open the door of 

 future opportunity. Outside of a few inti- 

 mates, the world can thus be kept in ignorance 

 of the girl's misfortune. I have rarely seen 

 any of these young women who could be con- 

 sidered bad. They are rather ignorant and un- 

 sophisticated, and give for love what many 

 better placed women give for position or for- 



