Before one dawn last week Mrs. Amelia Toner, 27, lay alone with her unborn baby in a rented Brooklyn bedroom. Her Irish husband had deserted her. Her other four children were in a Catholic orphan asylum on Staten Island. No companion stood by for her impending travail.
Labor pains roved through her. She cried for help. No one came. She tried to hold the baby back at least until daylight. But there could be no waiting. Mrs. Toner got out of bed and like solitary females of primitive times, bore her baby, an 8-lb. girl,...
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