Fruitfulness

t she had given birth to a child a fortnight previously, and he wished to ascertain the exact state of affairs, in order to carry to an end the mission with which Beauchene had intrus

rience when he at last learnt that the whole business was at an

e the house on the following Thursday, she still kept her bed. And at the foot of the bedstead, asle

write to you, for I wanted to see you before going away

ig oranges, which glistened on the table beside the bed. The little girls had made the journey on foot, greatly interested by all the sights of the streets and the displays in the shop-windows

gayly, but pouted somewhat at the prospect of having so soon

had already seen there on the occasion of a previous visit. She slept in one of the two other beds which the room contained, and now sat beside it mending some linen. She was to leave the house on the morrow, having already sent her

the great city from their native village. "Well," said she, "it's quite certain that one won't be able to dawdle in bed, and that one won't have warm milk given one to dr

e not of this opinion. Then, as her little sister

say that papa's still angry with me

neighbors would point their fingers at him if he let you come home. Besides, E

g to be married? You

uste Benard, a jovial young mason who lived on the floor above them. He had taken a fancy to Euphrasie, though she had no

re over. You can just tell mamma that I don't care a rap for any of you, and that I need nobody. I'll go and look for wor

"Why do you scold us? We didn't come to worry you. I wanted to ask yo

them that although they must run away now they might come back another day to see her if it amused them. "Thank mamma from me for her or

nced at it, and saw a healthy, sturdy-looking child, with a square face and str

ither to offer to procure them a nurse. She also certainly recognized this gentleman, whose wife, proud of being able to suckle her own children, had evinced such little inclination to help others to do b

y? Here is the person I spoke to you about. She comes from Normandy every fortnight, bringing nurses to Paris; and each time she takes babies away with her to put them out to nurse in the country. Though you say you won't feed it, you surely n

pillow, over which streamed her thick fair hair, whilst her face darkened

ds to her eyes as if anx

his one, to nurse their infants. You are aware that this often saves not only the child, but the mother herself, from the sad future which threatens her. And so, however much she may wish to abandon the child, we leave it near her as long as possible, and feed it with the

eaming hair, with her hands pressed to her face. "Come," said he, "you are a goodhea

e me?" she asked bitterly. "I can't love the child of a man who has behaved as

m you condemn, yourself whom you punish, for now you wil

. We all know what we can do, don't we? Well, it is of no use my questioning mysel

ty which she felt in the depths of her being. With a gesture he expressed his sadness,

n't praiseworthy to abandon the child. Why not trust it to Madame here, who would put it out to nurse, so that you woul

s to see the little one disappear. If he had dared he would have told me to kill it! Just ask that gentleman if I speak the truth. You see that he keeps silent! And

t him on my knees, so that I may look at him and kiss him. You are always worrying me with him, and making him cry with the hope that I shall pity him and take him to my breast. But, mon Dieu! can't you understand that if I turn my head away, if I don't want to kiss

nk back in bed, and buried her

h yellow ribbons she retained the air of a peasant woman in her Sunday best. And she strove to impart an expression of compassionate good-nature t

how well the little ones are cared for! It's the only occupation of the district, to have little Parisians to coddle and love! And, besides, I wouldn't charge you dear. I've a friend of mine who alre

h of nurses at the different offices, she hastened round the nurses' establishments to pick up infants, so as to take the train homewards the same evening together with two or three women who, as she put it, helped her "to cart

ld to take back with me. Well, I had better see her at once to make final arrangements. Then I

ne. Mathieu had seated himself near the cradle, gazing compassionately at the poor little babe, who was still peacefully sleeping. Soon, however, Victoire, the little servant

g other people's milk. She was no better than she should be at one time, but at last she was lucky enough to marry a big, coarse, brutal fellow, whom at this time of day she leads by the nose. And he helps her. Yes, he also brings nurses to Paris and takes babies back with him, at busy times. But between them they have more murders on their consciences than all the assassins that have ever been guillotined. The mayor of Berville, a bourgeois who's retired from business and a worthy man, said that Rougemont was the curse of the Department. I know well enough that

way, as one whom Paris has not yet turned into a liar

old in their scanty, ragged swaddling-clothes. One or another often died on the way, and then it was removed at the next station and buried in the nearest cemetery. And you can picture what a state those who didn't die were in. At our place we care better for our pigs, for we certainly wouldn't send them travelling in that fashion. My father used to say that it was enough to make the very stones weep. Nowadays, however, there's more supervision; the regulations allow the agents to take only one nursling back at a time. But they know all sorts of tricks, and often take a couple. And then, too, they make arrangements; they have women who help them, and they avail themselves of those who may be going back into t

ne was still weeping, while Mathieu listened, mute with

much, and so she feeds her children on soup. That clears them off all the quicker. At La Loiseau's you have to hold your nose when you go near the corner where the little ones sleep-their rags are so filthy. As for La Gavette, she's always working in the fields with her man, so that the three or four nurslings that she generally has are left in charge of the grandfather, an old cripple of seventy, who can't even prevent the fowls from coming to peck at the little ones.* And things

tion in what M. Zola w

French Government re

een devoured by pigs!

t certain Norman and

d with little P

ing, and looked at Mathieu

little one shall die. It's settled in a very easy fashion: the parents give a sum of three or four hundred francs on condition that the little one shall be kept till his first communion, and you may be quite certain that he dies within a week. It's only necessary to leave a window open near him, as a nurse used to do whom my father knew. At winter time, when she had half a dozen babies in her h

servant girl's stories, had ended by listening to them with great interest. But directly she perceived the agent she once more hid her face i

ieu has given me a slip of paper bearing the date of the birth and the address. O

. Then, in a faint distressful

y a second Christian name, so as to identify him the more rea

to tear a reply from No

I've everything I need. Only it's four o'clock already, and I shall never get back in time for the six o'clock train if

se, a diminutive of

orm of Hon

his mission to the very end by driving with her himself to the Foundling Hospital, so that he might be in a position to inform Beauchene that t

y to wake the little one, since he's so sound asleep; bu

d, perhaps, however, a little roughly, forgetting her assumed wheedling good nature now that she

ng if he keeps up this music in

er. "Won't you kiss h

ying her hands to her ears, distracted as she was by the sound of those cries. "No, no

she suddenly shuddered, sat up, and gave a wild hasty kiss, which lighted on the little fellow's cap. She had scarcely opened her tear-dimmed eyes, and

me! Take him away

els filled him with emotion. La Couteau, who kept him on her knees, at first remained silent, as if interested in the peop

be hard up for money. I know very well that in our calling there are some people who are hardly honest, who speculate and ask for commissions, and then put out nurslings at cheap rates and rob both the parents and the nurse. It's really not right to treat these dear little things as if they were goods-poultry or vegetables. When folks do that I can understand that their hearts get hardened, and that the

she doubtless feared that she had not lied with sufficient assurance, and had somehow negligently betrayed herself; for she did not insist, but put on more gentleness of manner, and contented herself with praising Rougemont in a general way, saying what a perfect paradise it was, where the little ones were received, fed, cared for, and coddled as if they were all sons of p

t you know, monsieur, there's a good deal to be said on the matter. At Rougemont we have a number of nurslings that it sends us, and they don't grow any better or di

athieu followed her, but he did not enter the office where a woman received the children. He felt too much emotion, and feared lest he should be questioned; it was, indeed, as if he considered himself an accomplice in a crime. Though La Couteau told him that the woman would ask him nothing, and the strictest secrecy

children had to be deposited openly, and there was a staff which took down names and dates, while giving a pledge of inviolable secrecy. Mathieu was aware that some few people imputed to the suppression of the slide system the great increase in criminal offences. But each day public opinion condemns more and more the attitude of society in former times, and discards the idea that one must accept evil, dam it in, and hide it as if it were some necessary sewer; for the only course for a free community to pursue is to foresee evil and grapple with it, and destroy it in the bud. To diminish the number of cast-off children one must seek out the mothers, encourage them, succor them, and give them the means to be mothers in fact as well as in name. At that moment, however, Mathieu did not reason; it was his heart that was affected, filled with growing pity and anguish at the thought of all the crime, all the shame, all the grief and distress that had passed through that anteroom in which he stood. What terrible confessions must have been heard, what a procession of suffering, ignominy, and wretchedness must have been witnessed by that woman who received the child

which enabled a moth

ut being seen by thos

as far back as 1847;

t, and I recollect s

Empire, cir. 1867-70

in the neighborhood

deposited in the sli

of which M. Zo

ts in the cab; and only some ten minutes afterwards, when the vehicle was already rolling through bustling, populous streets, did the woman begin t

left the office. She's one of those who put the babies out to nurse in the provinces.* Well, my friend told me that she was going to Rougemont t

out 600 beds at the

ajority of the chil

d out to purse in

ued: "How comical, eh? The mother wouldn't let me take the child to Rougemont, and now it

ilessly took its own course. What would become of that poor little fellow? To what early d

ain that she would miss her train, particularly as she still had some accounts to settle and that other child upstairs to fetch. Mathieu, who had intended to keep the cab and drive to the Northern terminus, then experienced a feeling of curiosity, and though

y girl; she carefully detached each section of the orange, and, her eyes half closed the while, her flesh quivering under her streaming outspread hair, she sucked one after another

e," he si

t she should say something, and so she began: "You did not tell me you would come back-I was not expect

e audacity to turn her away. Thus she continued while the minutes went slowly by. The conversation had dropped, Mathieu scarcely replying to her, when La Couteau, carrying the other child in he

exclaimed: "Oh! how plump and pretty he is!" And she began another sentence: "What a pity! Can one have the heart-" But th

train. And I've got the return tickets, too; the five others are waiting for

the stairs, where she almost fell with her little burden. B

t, and yet she reproaches that good Mademoiselle Rosine, who has just given me four hundred francs to have her little one taken care of t

ered that Norine had told him that the child was the offspring of crime. Born amid secrecy, he was now, for a fixed sum, to be handed over to a woman who would quietly suppress him by simply leaving some door or window wide

Lazare Station. "Thank you, monsieur, you have been very kind," said she. "And if you

sy way hither and thither, like crows in trouble, with big yellow beaks quivering and black wings flapping with anxiety. Then, on perceiving La Couteau, there was one general caw, and all five swooped down upon her with angry, voracious mien. And, afte

for lucre, flocked to the great city from the four points of the compass, and bore away all the budding Life that their arms could carry in order that they might turn it to Death! They beat down the game, they watched in the doorways, they sniffed from afar the innocent flesh on which they preyed. And the babes were carted to the railway stations; the cradles, the wards of hospitals and refuges, the wretched garrets of poor mothers, without fires and without bre

y per cent; in the best of them it was forty, and seventy in the worst. It was calculated that in one century seventeen millions of nurslings had died. Over a long period the mortality had remained at from one hundred to one hundred and twenty thousand per annum. The most deadly reigns, the greatest butcheries of the most terrible conquerors, had never resulted in such massacre. It