_Tupin._ When we began to get short in the house, my wife and I started to quarrel. Every time a child came we were mad at making it worse for the others. And so ... I ended up in the saloon. It's warm there, and you can't hear the children crying nor the mother complaining. And besides, when you have drink in you, you forget.... And that's how we got poorer and poorer. My fault, if you like.... Our last child was a cripple. He was born in starvation, and his mother was worn out. And they nursed him, and they nursed him, and they nursed him. They did not leave him a minute. They made him live in spite of himself. And they let the other children--the strong ones--go to the bad. With half the money and the fuss they wasted on the cripple, they could have made fine fellows of all the others. _Mme. Tupin._ I have to add that all this is not my fault. My husband and I worked like beasts; we did without every kind of pleasure to try and bring up our children. If we had wanted to slave more, I declare to you we couldn't have done it. And now that we have given our lives for them, the oldest is in hospital, ruined and done for because he worked in "a dangerous trade" as they call it.... There are too many people in the world.... My little girl had to choose between starvation and the street.... I'm only a poor woman, and I know what it means to have nothing to eat, so I forgave her. Thus _Mme. Tupin_ also understands that it is a crime to add one more victim to those who are born ill and for whom society has no place. Then _Lucie_ faces the court,--_Lucie_ who loved her sister too well, and who, driven by the same conditions that killed _Annette_, has also been compelled to undergo an abortion rather than have a fourth child by the man she did not love any more. Like the _Schoolmistress_ and the _Tupins_, she is dragged before the bar of justice to explain her crime, while her husband, who had forced both _Annette_ and _Lucie_ out of the house, has meanwhile risen to a high position as a supporter of the State with his favorite slogan, "Motherhood is the highest function of woman." Finally the midwife _Thomas_ is called upon for her defense. _Thomas._ A girl came to me one day; she was a servant. She had been seduced by her master. I refused to do what she asked me to do: she went and drowned herself. Another I refused to help was brought up before you here for infanticide. Then when the others came, I said, "Yes." I have prevented many a suicide and many a crime. It is not likely that the venerable judge, the State's attorney or the gentlemen of the jury can see in _Mme. Thomas_ a greater benefactress to society than they; any more than they can grasp the deep importance of the concluding words of the counsel for the defense in this great social tragedy.