Answers Suit for Baby

ANSWERS SUIT FOR BABY Director Neff Gives Reasons for Taking Child Assistant City Solicitor William T. Connor filed the answer yesterday of Joseph S. Neff, Director of Public Health and Charities, to the writ of habeas corpus taken out by Walter Edgerton, alias the "Kentucky Rosebud," the colored prizefighter, to recover possession of Nettie August, the eight-months-old white baby, which he claims to have adopted, and which was taken from him by order of Assistant Superintendent of Police O'Leary, and is now in the keeping of the Department of Health and Charities. Edgerton declares that he legally adopted the child by having the mother sign away all her rights to it before a magistrate, and it is upon this claim that he bases his writ of habeas corpus. The answer to the writ filed by Solicitor Connor admits that the child is being maintained by the Department of Public Health and Charities "in order that its moral and physical welfare may be conserved and protected."