How could that mother be trusted?

Ever since the first excitement caused by the finding of little Robert Dunbar I have watched this valuable column of The Times-Democrat to see if some mother would not write a few words in the interest of motherhood of Louisiana, which I consider has been so often insulted. I know it has made the blood boil in thousands of mothers’ veins and made their hearts ache. Some weeks ago, one of our evening papers came out with such headlines as these: “Now the Mystery Will Be Solved; Julia Anderson Has Arrived.” This is wherein I speak of insult; to bring that unfortunate, wretched woman from the slums of some of our sister states to solve a mystery, which was not a mystery at all, for Mrs. Dunbar knew her baby from the first. And if such a thing could be possible, and she were mistaken, how could that mother be trusted, who was not a mother at all, for she gave her child into the keeping of a man, of whom, she said, she would not be astonished at anything he would do, not even if she heard that he had murdered her innocent little boy. Look at the two mothers; which do you think would be able to solve the mystery; the unfortunate woman just mentioned, or a lady that had from the moment of its birth loved, cherished and trained that baby and was so broken-hearted when he was stolen that she and his father have left no stone unturned to find their darling?

A MOTHER

(New Orleans Times-Democrat, June 7, 1913)