Show kathleen norris says dont try to fight the law bell features feature N 0 4 L A have asked ralph to leave her where she is happy in her home and school by KATHLEEN NORRIS T AM going to fight the law and get the best of it JL too writes marylee mary lee miller killer from buffalo 1 I have men een a peace loving woman til my life fife but I 1 have my bights and I 1 propose to main ain them five years ago my closest boman friend died her letier leter goes on on her death oed led she confided to me her lew born daughter maureen ler husband ralph thanked ne fervently for taking the hild and he and his son noved to another city the aby has grown to be one of he most responsive intelligent t ent and beautiful of children nd ind my heart is wrapped I 1 bout her my own youth I 1 lm im now 31 was sacrificed to parents I 1 will not narry so I 1 am alone except br or maureen now ralph has married again ind aid married a young girl obviously in fitted to handle a child of live five he Is pretty frivolous and rant maureen but ralph who has prospered bought a home a and nd laced his so son a in a fine school Is de to have the child with hem they have one servant a Fill fillipino pino who his has been with ralph for or ears except for what he does the lew wife will have to do everything a the way of housework and care it if my adored baby evenings will tave lave to be sacrificed to staying a at t lome with maureen grid and the ne new w rife of course wont like it it and may iske ake it out in dislike tor for the chili child I 1 father demands daughter maureen Is not spoiled but she I 1 a sensitive loving little thing ind transplanting her will go hard with rith her she may become un manageable and troublesome the bought drives me frantic I 1 have taked ralph outright to leave her abere she is happy in her home md ind school with pets games friends 0 help her develop into a lovely yo vo manhood but he pleads that he his daughter now I 1 have car led ded her through baby sickles sicknesses ses ter ler father has contributed neither r diffort money time nor interest t a all 11 hese bese years my own lawyer an old man mys lays that I 1 have no legal claim lut gut there Is another attorney here rho feels that there are stronger than mere legal ones and hat I 1 have a chance of winning bhat do you think li li the probability a a case of this kind I 1 have wired mary lee by no to be foolish enough to at empt any such UtI litigation gation the childs father has not only the strongest itron gest but the sole claim mary iee ee has nothing except the mem iry of five happy years of adopted motherhood if she is wise she will birkender Bir render maureen with as much idolce edvice and encouragement as she tan can instill into a child of five and friendly with ralph and his bis lew ew wife so that she will be able to inep tn in and help when the step nother finds the problem too much tor br her as she well may laws are made tor for the greatest pod food of the greatest number in the analo ity of cases they can take io 10 acot of personalities and of ap special ecial situations unless ralph can ge de proved an unfit guardian tor for caureen nothing c can an take her away 1 I urn am abono for Maur fit from him maureen has bas cost ralph nothing she cost one woman her life and another five years ot of love care expense time effort but th law hands her over to ralph as matter ot of course case of unfaithful wife there Ther ewas i was another case in which the law was even stranger A young wife desperate at the coldness and dullness of an older husband went away with a younger lover set up an ideally blissful little bohemian menage had a year or two of radiant happiness and then went to her husband to plead for tor a divorce because a child was expected thi the husband not only refused the divorce dl but claimed the child as his as it would be born while she was wa still r till legally his wife and his claim was sustained again in a certain western state it was formerly the law that if a husband discovered proof of a rifet immoral action even though it had been committed years before hei marriage to him he could claim an annulment annu ament of his marriage and full custody of his children fortunately such a law would only rarely be invoked va ked and it was recently repealed the absurdity of claiming that first there was no marriage and second the father had upon the children the claim that only legitimacy gives was too patent and the law was swept away but before it was swept away it was brought to public attention by a hus huab liand and father of tour four who was maintaining a very affectionate relationship lation ship with a certain widow in his neighborhood he had discovered early In discretions on the part of his wife and cited this iniquitous law it was maintained and the four small children were turned over to the widow who promptly married their father the mother went away and shortly afterward took her own me life this Is a true case laws arent always just and laws con can be changed but the law that gives the surviving parent first claim on a child Is as old as solomon and never will be revoked and one of the sharpest lessons life us from the time we are babies walking on the grass in the park la Is that it never pays to fight the law |