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FEEBLE-MINDED CITIZENS 
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 Feeble-minded citizens in Pennsylvania; 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 030 300 093 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. WILHELMINE E. KEY 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE PUBLIC CHARITIES ASSOCIATION 
 
 OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Empire Building, Philadelphia 
 
 1915 
 
 Publication No. 16 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030300093 
 
FEEBLE-MINDED CITIZENS 
 
 IN PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. WILHELMINE E. KEY 
 
FEEBLE-MINDED CITIZENS 
 IN PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 BEING 
 
 THE REPORT OF A SURVEY OF A CERTAIN 
 
 LOCALITY COMPRISING ABOUT 700 SQUARE 
 
 MILES AND HAVING A POPULATION 
 
 ESTIMATED AT 16,000 
 
 MADE BY 
 
 DR. WILHELMINE E. KEY 
 
 DURING 
 
 THE FOUR MONTHS FROM AUGUST 7 
 
 TO DECEMBER 6, 1914 
 
 FOR 
 
 THE PUBLIC CHARITIES ASSOCIATION 
 OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 PUBLICATION No. 16 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE PUBLIC CHARITIES ASSOCIATION 
 
 OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Empire Building, Philadelphia 
 
 1915 
 

 Qii^<^OD^£> 
 
 X 
 
Foreword 
 
 THE following survey, made by Dr. Wilhelmine E. Key, of 
 Polk, Pennsylvania, for the Public Charities Association 
 of Pennsylvania, was made possible by the generosity of 
 Mrs. Edward T. Stotesbury of Philadelphia, to whom not only 
 the Association but the State owes a debt of gratitude. 
 
 The State of Pennsylvania is caring for about four thousand 
 feeble-minded. It supports two institutions for this class of 
 dependents and is in process of constructing a new one to be 
 used exclusively for feeble-minded women of child-bearing age. 
 It also pays a private institution for the feeble-minded to care 
 for quite a number of such persons for whom the State has no 
 accommodation . 
 
 The waiting list of the three existing institutions is apparently 
 from eight hundred to one thousand. 
 
 A recent investigation of the hospitals and asylums caring for 
 the dependent insane in Pennsylvania, including the County 
 almshouses having insane patients, indicates that, collectively, 
 they are caring for at least five or six hundred feeble-minded. 
 
 Although reliable statistics are not available as to the number 
 of mental defectives in the various penal and correctional insti- 
 tutions of the State, in view of the fact that the combined census 
 of these institutions exceeds ten thousand, the experience of 
 other communities would make it almost certain that the number 
 of feeble-minded confined in such places is considerable. 
 
 The same thing is probably true of the various homes and 
 asylums for dependent children. 
 
 Experts who have made a special study of the incidence of 
 feeble-mindedness tell us that the number of people of this char- 
 acter at large in the community and, therefore, not included in 
 any of the classes above described, far exceeds those receiving any 
 sort of custodial care. It has been difficult, however, to secure 
 data on this subject, so far as Pennsylvania is concerned, and 
 the Public Charities Association of Pennsylvania has, therefore, 
 
 [I] 
 
thought it worth while to have a survey made of a definite portion 
 of the State by one who has had special experience in this kind of 
 work, with a view to obtaining at least an approximate idea of the 
 relative number of feeble-minded in the locality studied, their 
 cost to the community, and such other facts as might prove of 
 value to the State Legislature and others interested in doing what 
 seems best and feasible for this class of our population. 
 
 To determine accurately the number of mentally defective 
 persons in even a small group of population is a task which pre- 
 sents enormous difficulties. It involves a personal mental ex- 
 amination of each individual in such a group, a careful study of 
 the family history and the social adaptability of each and, not 
 infrequently, a re-examination or a short period of observation. 
 It is only by such means as these that it can be ascertained 
 whether a person is mentally defective or not. It is obvious that 
 to perform such a task in an entire settlement would require 
 the services of a number of well-trained medical examiners, a 
 considerable expenditure of time and a degree of co-operation 
 almost impossible to obtain in an American community. Health 
 officers, even clothed with the police power which the law dele- 
 gates to them for the welfare of the community at large, would 
 experience great and perhaps unsurmountable difficulties in 
 making a physical examination of each person to determine the 
 incidence of tuberculosis, for instance, in the district in which Dr. 
 Key made this study. 
 
 Dr. Key was obliged, therefore, after recording those persons 
 whose mental defect was obvious without a personal examina- 
 tion, to identify the mentally defective by a study of the actual 
 results of their contact with their environment as shown in police 
 records, history of dependence and current popular opinion as to 
 their conduct; by their school records and by the family ties 
 which bound them to those whose mental defect was so obvious 
 as to admit of no doubt. 
 
 The results of such a study have much value but, in interpreting 
 these results, it is essential to bear constantly in mind a very 
 important qualifying factor — the influence upon normal children 
 and even adults of the type of environment, moral training and 
 social reputation which characterize the homes of the mentally 
 defective. The influence of a feeble-minded mother, whose 
 mental defect is not necessarily of a type which can be transmitted 
 
 [2] 
 
to her children, would profoundly affect the character of the chil- 
 dren who are reared in that home. Their conduct would often 
 be indistinguishable from that of the mentally defective. 
 
 This factor has undoubtedly influenced the enumeration which 
 Dr. Key has made and it is necessary to bear in mind that in 
 this report she has used the term "feeble-minded person" as 
 meaning an individual whose defect was so obvious that no mental 
 examination was necessary to detect it or one who is a member 
 of the family of such a person and whose social reactions are 
 such as to make him indistinguishable from a mentally defective 
 person without a personal examination. 
 
 That the mentally defective, uncared-for and unrecognized in 
 a community, can so distort the influence of the home as to pro- 
 duce a human type indistinguishable from themselves except by a 
 careful mental examination is a fact of profound social significance. 
 
 No one can read the report submitted without a realization of 
 the seriousness of the problem considered, the immense im- 
 portance of immediate steps toward meeting it more adequately 
 than is being done at the present time, and the conviction that 
 the segregation and care of these unfortunate persons is the 
 greatest step toward the prevention of a vast number of social 
 evils which can be taken by the people of this State. 
 
 The burden of feeble-mindedness can apparently be lessened 
 only by prompt steps toward the elimination of at least the worst 
 strains in each community. It is imperative, therefore, that the 
 State of Pennsylvania complete its Village for Feeble-minded 
 Women at once, and also, at the earliest possible date, provide 
 still further accommodations for the segregation, care and training 
 of its rapidly increasing feeble-minded population. 
 
 Charles H. Frazier, M.D., 
 
 President 
 The Public Charities Association 
 of Pennsylvania. 
 April S, 1915 
 
 [3] 
 
Table of Contents 
 
 PACK 
 
 Foreword i 
 
 Introduction 5 
 
 Preliminary Survey — Scope, Method, Results 7 
 
 Intensive Studies: 
 
 Area selected. Location, Extent, Topographical features, General 
 
 character of population 8 
 
 Method of Gathering and Evaluating Data 9 
 
 Types of Defectives: 
 
 The Partially Dependent lo 
 
 The Intemperate 12 
 
 The Sexually Immoral 14 
 
 The Criminalistic 17 
 
 Feeble-minded Mothers 20 
 
 Misfits in the Rural School 23 
 
 Condensed account of fifty defective children 23 
 
 Schools burdened with backward and defective children 34 
 
 Number of Defectives — Mental Classification— Totals 35, 36 
 
 Comparative Fecundity of Defective aito Normal Women 37 
 
 Percentage of Defectives 38 
 
 In Centers of Degeneracy 
 In Adjacent Territory 
 In Remainder of Area 
 
 Causes of the Variation — Growth of Centers 42 
 
 Cost of These Defectives to Society 44 
 
 Underlying Causes: 
 
 Heredity as a Factor in the Situation 46 
 
 Brief Pedigrees Illustrating Inheritance of Defect 48 
 
 Two Networks Showing Uninterrupted Defect for Many Gene- 
 rations 50 
 
 Suggested Remedies 61 
 
 Summary and Conclusion 62 
 
 [4] 
 
Introduction 
 
 RECENT years have marked a great extension of interest 
 in the occurrence of mental defect. The recognition of 
 such defect as a factor in most social ills and the proofs 
 of its strongly hereditary nature are leading to a broader view 
 and a more far-reaching policy among all progressive workers for 
 social betterment. 
 
 We now see how inevitably the victims of an unfortunate 
 heredity drift into poverty and crime, and we seek to provide for 
 them in our great institutions a special environment where, in 
 place of these dire results, they may have happy and relatively 
 useful lives. But our policy of prevention involves a further and 
 far more valuable result. It is destined to prevent the occur- 
 rence of mental defect in society at large. Since these defec- 
 tives too often represent degenerate lines of the human family, 
 their failure to procreate means the elimination of these lines and 
 gives promise of greatly simplifying the manifold problems which 
 they have occasioned. Accordingly, we are stressing more and 
 more the custodial aspect of these institutions and inquiring 
 how far their number and capacity should be increased. 
 
 That the effective handling of our social problems demands 
 such an increase is generally accepted, but the question of the 
 number of defectives at large and needing institutional care is at 
 present largely a matter of conjecture. Heretofore all estimates 
 of the number of such defectives have been reached by the ap- 
 plication of a fixed ratio to the number of inhabitants. This was 
 done on the assumption that the proportion of defectives to nor- 
 mals is relatively uniform, whereas it may well be far from 
 uniform. Is it not reasonable to expect that a State like Penn- 
 sylvania, whose resources are so varied and whose population has 
 been so diversely derived, should present in various sections not 
 only great extremes of social worth, but wide differences in inher- 
 ent ability? Indeed, pedigree studies of institutional cases have 
 
 [51 
 
already verified this idea. They have shown the majority of 
 these cases to be single units in a vast ramification which stands 
 for nearly every form of social inadequacy. More than once 
 they have called attention to whole communities infected with 
 degeneracy and defect. 
 
 It is to the existence of such centers of degeneracy and defect 
 and the conditions they present that attention should be especi- 
 ally directed, as the quickest and most effective means of carry- 
 ing out the present policy of prevention and elimination. 
 
 The present study is an attempt to state the situation for a 
 small portion of Pennsylvania. Are there such centers in this 
 State? What kinds of defectives are found there? How do 
 their proportions vary in different parts of the area of study? 
 What causes can be assigned for this variation? What is neces- 
 sary to the cure of the conditions found? The answers which 
 this study furnishes to these questions suggest — 
 
 1. The importance of further attempts at gaining a proper 
 perspective for the whole State, that is, locating its bad spots. 
 
 2 . The necessity for definite information about the tainted stocks 
 whose unrestrained reproduction gives rise to these bad spots. 
 
 3. The wisdom of immediate and adequate provision for the 
 institutional care of the offshoots of such stocks. 
 
 [6] 
 
Preliminary Survey 
 
 IN undertaking to answer the first question: Are there areas 
 which, by common consent, are regarded as centers of de- 
 generacy and defect, a preliminary survey was made in the 
 northeastern portion of the State. The area comprised the ten 
 northeastern counties. County officials, social workers, and rep- 
 resentative citizens were interviewed, particularly in the cities 
 and at the several county-seats. Criminal and charity records 
 were consulted for confirmation of the reports given, and the ac- 
 counts further verified by personal visitation to the sections in 
 question. 
 
 By this means at least half a dozen such areas were defined 
 for this part of the State. These differ, of course, in extent and 
 character and the gravity of the problems they present. In 
 some there is great sexual laxity, which leads to various forms of 
 dependency and sometimes to extreme mental defect. In others 
 alcoholism prevails and the people show a propensity for deeds 
 of violence. All informants, however, practically agreed to the 
 following characterization : 
 
 1. Because of the thefts and depredations and the frequent 
 applications for charitable relief from such sections they con- 
 stitute a parasitic growth which saps the resources of the self- 
 respecting, self-sustaining contingent of the population. 
 
 2. They furnish an undue proportion of court cases and are 
 thus a serious expense to county and State. 
 
 3. They are a source of physical decay and moral contamina- 
 tion, and thus menace the integrity of the entire social fabric. 
 
 The evidence for the existence of these areas casts further 
 doubt on the supposition that there is any uniformity in the dis- 
 tribution of the socially unfit. At the same time their use as 
 starting-points for further investigation and the application of 
 remedial measures may save much time and effort in clearing 
 up the situation for the whole State. 
 
 7] 
 
Intensive Studies 
 
 THE next step in the investigation was the intensive study 
 of a restricted area in the same part of the State. This 
 had for its object the answer to the other questions sug- 
 gested in the introduction. These are here repeated in a more 
 exphcit form: 
 
 1. What types of defective are found in this section, as judged 
 by their social reactions? 
 
 2. What is the mental status of these defectives? 
 
 3. What variations do their number bear to the number of 
 normal individuals in various portions of the area? 
 
 4. What factors are chiefly accountable for their occurrence 
 and distribution? 
 
 5. What have they cost society? 
 
 6. What measures are suggested for their care and for the 
 prevention of further spread of the evils they engender? 
 
 The area for intensive study roughly defines a square, with 
 its four angles directed toward the cardinal points, and is 
 cut in two by the winding valley of a large stream, which 
 here has a general southeasterly course. It comprises about 
 700 square miles, thus approximating Chester County in extent, 
 and has a population estimated at 16,000. 
 
 This area was selected primarily for the uniform physical and 
 industrial conditions and the wide diversity in population which 
 it presents. In the north and east it is a region of high hill 
 country, drained by a number of creeks which here have carved 
 out broad, meandering valleys. Toward its southwestern boun- 
 dary it grows wilder and more mountainous and is cut by narrow, 
 deep canons. Here the surface is still covered by ancient forests, 
 which mark the limit of human habitation. Throughout the 
 
 [8] 
 
rest of its extent, however, patience and industry have developed 
 good farms from the rather unpromising soil. 
 
 Accordingly, the region is distinctly rural in character and 
 has only one village of more than 500 inhabitants. Its population 
 has been derived chiefly from early pioneers from New England 
 and New York, and a later infusion of Irish and Welsh blood. It 
 has remained untouched by the stream of recent immigration, the 
 influences of a large city, and the disturbances incident to the 
 growth of great industries. Its people are in the main sturdy, 
 self-respecting, progressive. They have sent out a good many 
 pioneers to the West and professional men and women to our 
 great cities. They support schools and churches, employ modern 
 methods on their farms, and take an intelligent interest in ques- 
 tions of the day. 
 
 Scattered among them, but remaining relatively distinct from 
 them, since they seldom intermarry with them and remain un- 
 touched by their standards and ideals, is another element. 
 This, too, has been derived from the pioneer stock of more than 
 a century ago. It is characterized by gross ignorance and various 
 forms of social inadequacy. 
 
 In the following account these classes have been grouped 
 according to the type of offense of which they are prevailingly 
 guilty. An analysis was attempted whereby conclusions could 
 be reached concerning their mental status. While this method 
 of social diagnosis has its faults and limitations, it is felt by the 
 writer to have given in this instance more reliable results than 
 would have been the case in many other sections. In a section 
 where there is little sharp competition, where a degree of native 
 wit coupled with industry secures a good livelihood, and where 
 school and church influences and general neighborliness make 
 possible community of ideas as to standards of conduct, the 
 social reactions of the individual furnish safer grounds for in- 
 duction than in a more complex society. 
 
 The Gathering of the Data. — ^This was accomplished by much 
 house-to-house visiting, which did not mean a hurried five minutes 
 on the door-step, but more often a stay of an hour or repeated 
 calls. In this way the whole family was usually seen and initial 
 impressions were gathered concerning the ability of the members. 
 This done, a system of cross-reference followed, which eliminated 
 wrong statements from other sources. Verification by county 
 
 [9] 
 
records of crime and relief was also resorted to. A careful study 
 was made of local efforts toward the improvement of individual 
 cases or families. In the case of children the grade reached in 
 school was ascertained, the school history gone over, and the 
 particular problems which they presented considered. Medical 
 inspection being general in these schools, made possible the 
 elimination of those in whom retardation and delinquency were 
 chiefly attributable to physical causes. Unless unmistakably 
 defective, children under six years were not included in the 
 census. 
 
 TYPES OF DEFECTIVES 
 
 The Partially Dependent. — Nearly every section has its quota 
 of the shifting and the ne'er-do-well, but this area appears to 
 have an unusually large number belonging to this class. They 
 have few vices : they do not figure largely in the criminal docket. 
 Still, existing as they do on the ragged edge of destitution, any 
 untoward circumstance sends them under and they become can- 
 didates for outdoor relief or subsist by the charity of their abler, 
 hard-working neighbors. Often, too, their petty thefts and 
 depredations are a factor in the way in which they continually 
 move on. When asked where they have lived, they usually 
 reply — "Oh! all over," and to the question, "What kinds of 
 work can you do?" the invariable answer is, "Oh! just anything 
 we can get to do." A few of the better class sometimes try to 
 pay for an acre or two of stony land, and you listen to their tale 
 of futile struggle before "So and so" agreed to take it back. 
 Sometimes they stay for a year as tenants on a farm, but usually 
 investigation shows that their appeals for work come when the 
 work is all finished. It is a significant fact that such a family, 
 once located, shows much the same character in all its branches. 
 
 On entering their homes the writer more than once found her- 
 self on the point of saying, "Don't let me interrupt your sweep- 
 ing." The accumulations of rags, shavings, corn-husks, potato 
 parings, and similar litter near the door made it hard to believe 
 that they had not been swept there from the rest of the house, 
 but when a further glance revealed no sign of a broom in opera- 
 tion, and the rest of the floor in similar condition, the remark 
 was naturally suppressed. Then everything which normally 
 belongs on hooks or shelves is strewn on chairs and floor. The 
 
 [10] 
 
table is crowded with tin boxes and dishes which see service 
 without washing for days together. The rusty stove is covered 
 with grease and unwashed utensils. Even in summer, with the 
 doors and windows open, the atmosphere is overpowering, since 
 odors of stale food and every imaginable kind of human filth 
 vie with one another for preeminence. 
 
 The head of the family in such cases is usually found to be 
 lazy and ambitionless, or having fair industry, this is coupled 
 with inability to plan or calculate on the probable return from 
 his labor. His wife too often proves to be no manager, and when 
 both are defective, the situation is sorry indeed. Both have 
 usually worked out before marriage on farms and in households 
 where system and neatness were the order of the day, but, left 
 to themselves, they show no trace of the training thus received. 
 In other words, they belong to the high-grade feeble-minded, 
 whom example and constant assistance cannot lift to useful, 
 independent lives. 
 
 The children in such families nearly always prove to be lag- 
 gards at school, in many cases markedly defective. The visitor 
 frequently found the whole family kept at home on the slightest 
 pretext — fretful baby, the family washing, mother's back ached. 
 But more often the limited supply of shoes and other garments 
 made it impossible for the whole family to be completely clothed 
 and in school on the same day, so that even an average child 
 has small chance of keeping up with his fellows. 
 
 As an example of this type, we may take the L. family. The 
 three generations studied all show the same drifting, irresponsible 
 tendency. No one can say they are positively bad or serious 
 disturbers of the communities where they may have a temporary 
 home. Certain members are epileptic and defective to the point 
 of imbecility. The father of this family drank and provided little 
 for their support. The mother, though hard working, was never 
 able to care for them properly. So they and their 12 children 
 were frequent recipients of public relief, a habit which they have 
 consistently kept up. Ten of the children grew to maturity, 
 and all but one married and had in their turn large families. 
 With two exceptions these have lived in the territory studied. 
 Nobody knows how they have subsisted, even with the generous 
 help they have received. They drift in and out of the various 
 settlements, taking care to keep their residence in the county 
 
 [II] 
 
which has provided most liberally for their support. In some 
 villages it is said they have been in and out half a dozen times 
 in the last few years. First one family comes slipping back, 
 then one by one the others trail in as long as there are cheap 
 shelters to be had. Then rents fall due, neighbors become sus- 
 picious of invaded hen-roosts and potato patches, and one after 
 another the families take their departure, only to reappear after 
 a year or two. 
 
 The seven children of the eldest son were scattered years ago 
 through the death of their father. They were taken by strangers, 
 and though kept in school, none of them proved capable of ad- 
 vancement. Three at least could not learn to read or handle the 
 smallest quantities. The rest do this with difficulty. All but 
 two are now married and founding the fourth generation of this 
 line. The family of the fourth son are now county charges. Of 
 the 14 children of school age in this and the remaining families, 
 all are greatly retarded. One is an epileptic and at sixteen can- 
 not read and write. One at fifteen is in the third reader and 
 should be set down as defective. The remainder are from one to 
 four years retarded. 
 
 There is nothing striking in the annals of this family. It 
 comes as near the lowest margin of human existence as possible 
 and illustrates how marked defect may sometimes exist without 
 serious results in the infringement of law and custom. Its serious 
 menace, however, lies in the certain marriage into stocks which 
 are no better, and the production of large families which continue 
 to exist on the same level of semi-dependency. In place of the 
 two dependents of a generation ago we now find in the third 
 generation 32 descendants who bid fair to continue their existence 
 on the same plane — certainly an enormous multiplication of the 
 initial burden of expense. 
 
 The Intemperate. — In a large number of families the defective- 
 ness is associated with the vice of intemperance. The sentiment 
 in favor of abstinence is making its way very slowly in this part 
 of the State. Every little country hotel has its bar, and the 
 amount of drunkenness that is witnessed on fair or circus days, 
 even in men of otherwise good standing, is revolting. The 
 Saturday-night drinking, after the day's marketing, would be a 
 scandal in many other communities. When the heavy drinking 
 is conjoined with mental defect, which entails low earning power, 
 
 [12] 
 
the conditions presented are most lamentable. In many of the 
 histories given under other heads, alcoholism is also a serious 
 factor. We subjoin a few of the many cases where intemperance 
 and mental deficiency on the part of one or both parents may be 
 said to constitute the chief factor in the unhappy situation: 
 
 Charles N. :* A man in early middle life. Has never worked 
 steadily at anything, but after his marriage occasionally rented a 
 small piece of ground and made some pretext of supporting a 
 rapidly increasing family. His wife, who belonged to degenerate 
 stock, is said to have been unfaithful to him, quarreled with him 
 constantly, and has left him several times, but always returned. 
 Her conduct was made an excuse for greater excesses and abuse 
 on his part, and last spring, after a prolonged debauch and fright- 
 ful quarreling, they broke up permanently. The mother is said 
 to have made way with the youngest child, a babe a few weeks 
 old. The six older children are now scattered, since neither 
 parent would assume any responsibility for their care. The 
 two eldest are staying with their father's sister. They appear to 
 be defective. The third has gone to her grandmother, while the 
 younger ones are being boarded in a temporary home at the ex- 
 pense of the county. 
 
 Ephraim B.: An ignorant, middle-aged ne'er-do-well, who 
 makes his neuralgia and other physical ailments an excuse for 
 working as little as possible. Drinks to excess whenever he has 
 any money. Comes from a family which for generations has 
 wandered in and out of various communities, settling to little 
 that is useful. His brothers have been county charges and in 
 court for various offenses. His father, vicious, violent, is in 
 custody now on a charge of attempting to shoot up the whole 
 family. Ephraim is married to a woman who knows nothing of 
 her antecedents, since she was a waif and brought up by stran- 
 gers. She is very ignorant, nervous, and flighty. Neighbors 
 constantly help with food and clothing, but she has little ability 
 to turn to good account what is given her. They move from one 
 poor shack to another, parasitizing themselves in turn on one 
 community after another. Their three children appear wide 
 awake, but are insufficiently fed and clothed and are not sent to 
 school with any regularity. 
 
 *A11 names are, of course, fictitious. 
 [13] 
 
William V. : The son of a simple-minded father who occasion- 
 ally drank to excess and a hard, bad-tempered, cruel mother. 
 He lived in most squalid circumstances and was brought up to 
 no regular work. Married an immigrant Irish girl who, too, 
 acquired the habit of drinking. They now live in a little cabin 
 up a lonesome mountain road. They do nothing but quarrel, 
 and drink when the small returns from the farm yield anything 
 above the barest subsistence. Of their four children, the son is 
 good for nothing, a drunkard and criminal, and living with the 
 wife of another man. The eldest daughter has had three chil- 
 dren, all born out of wedlock and each by a different father. The 
 second is home at present suffering from venereal disease; has 
 been leading an immoral life in the city. The third disappeared 
 last May after a violent quarrel with her father over two dollars. 
 She wished the money to purchase seed wheat, and her father 
 wanted it for a spree. She was the only one who made any 
 attempt to cultivate the farm. 
 
 Albert G. : A man of thirty-five who works only fitfully and 
 then squanders the money in drink. His wife drinks with him, 
 and helps out in the matter of providing the necessary money 
 by the business of prostitution. They live in a poor little two- 
 roomed house and have three little boys who have nearly died 
 from neglect and starvation. Neighbors continually give food 
 and clothing, but little is done by either parent for the main- 
 tenance of the family. When clothing is received, it is put on 
 whether suitable or not, rarely washed, and usually worn until 
 it falls off in rags. This man has recently announced his in- 
 tention of getting work in another part of the country, but all 
 agree that both father and mother are beyond the possibility of 
 reform and should have permanent care where there will be no 
 more children. 
 
 The Sexually Immoral. — ^There is very general sexual laxness 
 in certain portions of this area. Not only are there many sexu- 
 ally immoral women who disseminate disease, but the investi- 
 gator found many couples who were living together out of wed- 
 lock, and many men who have not been married but who take 
 up with one worthless woman after another. When children 
 come from these temporary unions, the woman usually goes to 
 
 [14] 
 
the County Home and the child becomes a burden on the public. 
 The following histories are illustrative of these conditions : 
 
 Blink M.: A very dark, heavy, brutal-looking man. Works 
 with fair steadiness and is a useful farm hand, living alone in a 
 two-roomed house furnished by his employer. He is unspeak- 
 ably gross in his drinking and sex practices, but as a rule confines 
 his orgies to Sundays and holidays. Every pay night he brings 
 home an extra supply of liquor and two or three women who stay 
 with him until the drink and his money are gone. 
 
 Ned S. : A rough, violent mulatto, one of 17 children, who 
 owns many acres of stony land, which he makes little effort to 
 improve, preferring rather to pick berries and hunt for a bare 
 livelihood. Is a heavy drinker and has a court record for false 
 pretense, criminal assault, and theft. His wife was respectable 
 and hard-working and had some success in keeping their sons to a 
 decent manner of life. Since her death all three have consorted 
 with the worst characters in the countryside. When visited last 
 summer the small house, which stands back from an unfrequented 
 road, was harboring the following inmates: Ned and his two 
 grown sons, a young woman who had been picked up temporarily 
 by one of the sons while huckleberrying on the mountain, a 
 woman of bad repute living apart from her husband, her ten- 
 year-old daughter, and a widow of notorious character who since 
 her husband's death has gone from place to place, staying as 
 long as any money could be gotten from the men of the family. 
 She had her three. young children with her, one of whom, a girl 
 of fifteen, is said to be pregnant by one of Ned's sons. 
 
 The Mells: This couple have lived together as man and wife, 
 although it is generally known that Mrs. Mell had a husband 
 elsewhere from whom she had never been divorced. They are 
 bringing up six children, including a son by Mrs. Mell's husband. 
 The paternity of several of the remaining five is somewhat in 
 doubt, but Mr. Mell views his consort's derelictions jocularly. 
 He dandles his latest born on his knee saying, " I don't know who 
 your daddy is, but I love you just the same." 
 
 Mrs. R.: A very pretty, attractive, plausible woman, who 
 
 [IS] 
 
comes from a sexually loose strain. Her husband belongs to a 
 line showing marked defect. He earns very low wages and spends 
 a good portion of them for tobacco, drink, and cheap amuse- 
 ments. The family is often in want, and to offset this Mrs. R. 
 has taken in sewing and lately has been encouraging the visits of 
 other men. The home has become the scene of violent quarrels, 
 and the six children, all as pretty as their mother, but dirty and 
 disheveled beyond description, are being corrupted by the shame- 
 ful scenes and the knowledge of their mother's mode of life. 
 
 Obadiah V.: A lazy, ineffective man, who though physically 
 capable, has never made any attempt to maintain his wife and 
 children. Belongs to a family notorious for their lazy, ambition- 
 less lives. His wife was weak and ailing and lost four or five of 
 her children in infancy, finally dying in child-birth. The family 
 has moved from one mountain hut to another, the children being 
 sent out to beg, and neighboring farms contributing hams, vege- 
 tables, etc., usually without the owner's consent. Only one of 
 the four children who grew up was capable of normal advance- 
 ment at school. They have finally taken refuge in a little shanty, 
 resembling a hen-roost, which they built with their own hands 
 in an out-of-the-way cranny of the hills. The eldest daughter is 
 now married. The son has bought off his father's claim on him 
 for $ioo, thus showing evidence of independence. Though badly 
 crippled, he works by the month for farmers. The second daugh- 
 ter is capable of doing housework, but is very violent tempered 
 and abuses her little sister shamefully. The latter is thirteen 
 years old, but very timid, simple, and childish. Has never got- 
 ten beyond the first grade. Her tales to the neighbors of the 
 relations between her father and her sister have brought upon her 
 the most cruel treatment. She is sent on errands barefooted 
 through the snow. She frequently sleeps in the barn or runs to 
 some friendly family, asking to be taken in for the night. She 
 is so filthy and covered with vermin that it takes an evening's 
 work to make her fit for a decent bed. 
 
 Allie B.: Is a pretty, pink-cheeked, bright-eyed blonde of 
 twenty-five, who knows no better than to talk openly of her go- 
 ings-on with any neighbor who will listen to her. She was the 
 child of an illicit relation between two equally immoral, irrespons- 
 
 [i6] 
 
ible people. Her mother took no care of her, and for years has 
 continued her life of shame in another State. Her father early 
 devoted his daughter to immoral purposes, and when she was 
 twelve years old married her to an old man. Not being equal to 
 the task of caring for her, he was finally taken with her to the 
 almshouse. Here she was placed out in various families, but 
 since she could do only the simplest tasks, she was never retained 
 long. As a rule, she worked for 50 cents a week and failed to 
 earn even that. One woman who was sorry for her kept particu- 
 lar watch over her for more than a year, and that is the only 
 period in the girl's life when she has been guiltless of sex offense. 
 Later she married a young man who works irregularly and goes 
 on frequent sprees. It is the favorite diversion of all the young 
 men of loose character in the neighborhood to gather, sometimes 
 to the number of a dozen or more, and after getting the husband 
 dead drunk, make their cabin the scene of unspeakable and out- 
 rageous practices. Any weak young man of the better families 
 in the community who can be drawn into the crowd and persuaded 
 to drink with them is pretty certain to be taken to this cabin, and 
 since Allie is badly diseased, the consequences are correspond- 
 ingly serious. 
 
 The Criminalistic. — ^The mental defect of many of those 
 studied expresses itself in crime. The long list of offenses in- 
 cludes among others larceny, receiving stolen goods, assault and 
 battery, rape, breaking prison, and keeping a disorderly house. 
 Six murders have also been committed here in the past dozen 
 years. Of the lesser crimes, larceny is the most common. The 
 prosperous members of the community expect to be victimized 
 by the less competent. So general is the expectation that cer- 
 tain families will steal that question as to their honesty invariably 
 evokes the answer, "Find me one of that family who doesn't lie 
 and steal." The number of persons who impose in this fashion 
 on their abler neighbors is considerable, and while there is no 
 means of calculating the cost, it should further weight our argu- 
 ments for giving this class institutional care. 
 
 Silas F.: A heavy, awkward man with foolish, grinning face 
 and silly manner. Belongs to a very defective strain. Though 
 barely above the grade of imbecile, he is able to earn a fair wage 
 
 [17] 
 
at the roughest farm work. Is a heavy drinker, however, and 
 spends all his earnings for whisky. He keeps his family supplied 
 with vegetables, eggs, and chickens from his neighbors' gardens 
 and hen-roosts. Has been caught repeatedly and punished, but 
 this works no reform. The past summer has been associated with 
 Wesley A. and nine others in systematic plundering of a neigh- 
 boring farm. He is also very cruel and abusive to his imbecile 
 wife, and with her was guilty of gross neglect of their only child, 
 who died from want and exposure to the cold. 
 
 Wesley A.: Is an example of the canting, hypocritical thief. 
 He delights in sermonizing. Is an ardent supporter of the Salva- 
 tion Army, and holds cottage prayer meetings. However, he 
 has rarely been known to do an honest day's work if he can 
 manage to exist otherwise. If begging or stealing fail, there|is 
 always the friendly county relief. His wife keeps a fairly neat 
 house, but is ignorant and illiterate. His three daughters are 
 married to men of similar stamp, and his three sons lack the 
 merest rudiments of learning. They cannot read or write their 
 names and do little better than their father in providing for 
 themselves and their families. 
 
 Betsy B.: An example of the vicious, violent defective with 
 some ability in mischief-planning. Is known as The Fire- 
 Brand, The Fire-Cat, as she has burned several barns and three 
 times has burned her house down. Her family ascribe these 
 actions to her bad temper, and say that the destruction of the 
 buildings was from spite and followed a violent quarrel. But 
 since the buildings were flimsy structures, insured beyond their 
 real value, and in the case of the houses the furniture upon which 
 she was trying to collect insurance was found hidden in the hay- 
 loft, the conclusion is natural that she wanted the insurance. 
 She has turned her husband out-of-doors. He is decent, but 
 stupid. She now adds to her resources by making her house a 
 meeting-place and temporary home for couples who do not care 
 to marry and who cannot afford a house to themselves. One 
 of her sons inherits the same uncontrollable temper, and some 
 years ago stabbed his brother-in-law to death with a pitchfork 
 during a quarrel over a trifling matter. 
 
 [18] 
 
The Tanda Family : The father and mother and most of their 
 12 children, all living, have been up repeatedly for various 
 offenses, among them malicious mischief, larceny, assault and bat- 
 tery, and receiving stolen goods. The sons are heavy drinkers, 
 quarrelsome, thieving. Several daughters are alcoholic, and all 
 have had illegitimate children. One is said to be serving a peni- 
 tentiary sentence at the present time. This family has drifted 
 about, "never doing any good." For more than four years now 
 they have lived in a flimsy little shack of three tiny rooms and 
 an attic. This is surrounded with every conceivable form of 
 litter, and inside would outdo a pig-sty in bestiality. Walls and 
 every available corner are crowded with dirty, rusty, leaky 
 utensils, broken-legged furniture, useless implements in every 
 stage of decrepitude. Besides its human denizens, the place is 
 overrun with dogs and chickens, and horses have been known to 
 be stabled in the cellar. Here live the father, the mother, a 
 married son with his feeble-minded wife and child, the three 
 younger sons of the family, who are still unmarried. In response 
 to the visitor's question concerning sleeping quarters, the feeble- 
 minded young wife said, "Oh! the boys they just bunk around in 
 their clothes anywhere," indicating several bundles of foul rags 
 in as many corners. 
 
 Maria F. : A querulous, vindictive woman, who was never 
 able to get on with her husband. He failed to support her and 
 she lived with him only part of the time, taking refuge in the 
 County Home whenever hard pressed by want or in need of a 
 shelter for the safe delivery of her children. In this way seven 
 children were born to this couple. Efforts were repeatedly made 
 to place them in good families, but the mother always objected, 
 preferring for them life in the almshouse or a half-starved exist- 
 ence with her. Later one of her sons married and, growing jeal- 
 ous of his wife, connived with his mother for her murder. For a 
 consideration of I3 she and another son broke into the house one 
 night, brutally murdered her daughter-in-law and a little niece 
 who was there, and ran to give the alarm. They then poured 
 kerosene over the bodies and burned the house with its victims 
 to the ground. All three sons and the mother were tried for the 
 crime ; the two sons were found guilty and hanged for it. During 
 the time these men were in prison it was learned that they knew 
 
 [19] 
 
nothing of the significance of the words "God" and "Christ 
 beyond their use in profane speech. Her husband finally com- 
 mitted suicide by sitting on the rails in the way of a train, and 
 Maria is now married to her third husband. Seems a harmless, 
 shrinking old woman, though suspicious of close questioning. 
 Her eldest daughter was a hard-working woman who supported 
 a tubercular husband and his brother, with whom she afterward 
 cohabited, by washing and scrubbing. She died seven months 
 ago of a paralytic stroke. Two other daughters are loose in their 
 sex relations, and the sole surviving son is married to an imbecile 
 girl belonging to the same strain. She is the daughter of an 
 imbecile woman by her alcoholic uncle. All the surviving chil- 
 dren of Maria have families. 
 
 Feeble-minded Mothers. — The tendency of the feeble-minded 
 woman to indolence, criminality, and sexual offense is well known. 
 Social investigation frequently discloses women who show none 
 of these characteristics, but who nevertheless have families in 
 which they abound. This seems to be especially true of the 
 lower classes. In a class where a woman is not a wage-earner 
 and where superficial culture may cloak even serious defect, a 
 feeble-minded woman often attracts a man of strong and sterling 
 qualities. The resulting union may produce children in whom 
 the positive traits from the father's side make good the lack on 
 the part of the mother. But where the well-being of the family 
 depends largely on the ability of the mother as a producer and 
 the conserver of her husband's scant earnings, the situation is 
 necessarily very different. Such a woman, even though indus- 
 trious and by a fortunate circumstance chaste, rarely secures a 
 partner who is not as defective as she. The children from such 
 unions are often far more defective than their parents, and 
 brought up, as they are, in an adverse environment, their im- 
 moral tendencies inevitably lead to many misdemeanors. 
 
 Sarah C. : A very defective woman who can neither read nor 
 write nor manage her household. She comes from a family 
 which has shown incest and other forms of sexual offense, but so 
 far as known she has led a decent life in this respect. She 
 married at twelve years a man who drank but was very strong 
 and industrious. He had, however, no idea of number nor the 
 value of his services, and it is said that he often did a hard day's 
 
 [20] 
 
work for 30 cents. In common with their kind, they have 
 moved about a great deal, but because of their evident wish to 
 lead honest lives, neighbors have always loaded them with gifts 
 of food and clothing. Since Mrs. C. could not prepare a meal 
 nor mend and adapt the garments given her, their large family was 
 nearly always destitute. Some are markedly defective, and all 
 have grown up ignorant, disorderly, and willing to depend on 
 others for support. The eldest daughter has been married and 
 working in a hotel in New York. Details of later history un- 
 known. The eldest son died at forty of appendicitis, leaving 
 his family dependent. The two surviving sons work for farmers 
 and spend most of their small earnings in tobacco and drink. 
 One of them is married. The second daughter has always been 
 wayward and thieving. She cohabited with a widower of some 
 respectability, but since she was objectionable to his children, 
 the relationship was broken off by them. Lately she has con- 
 sorted for various periods with any one who would take her up. 
 The third daughter, a high-grade imbecile, married several years 
 ago a man of bad ancestry who is working now with fair steadi- 
 ness on the section. She has a little child. Is lazy, unkempt, 
 filthy, sits all day with the child in her arms in a house where 
 dirt and disorder and foul smell simply beggar description. The 
 youngest daughter is an imbecile, stubborn, intractable. She 
 has always refused to go to school, but could not have learned 
 anything had she gone. Cannot perform the simplest tasks 
 acceptably. 
 
 Katie F. : A very comely, pleasant-spoken young woman, who 
 tries to keep her children and her house clean and in order. She 
 does not know her age, but appears to be under thirty. Cannot 
 read nor write and has not the slightest idea of number. Said 
 her eldest child, one of seven, was probably five years old, and 
 when asked the age of the fourth child, said she thought it might 
 be going on six. She is married to a man of somewhat better 
 mentality, but who makes no attempt to provide for her and the 
 children, spending what he occasionally earns in drink. She 
 is already the mother of seven children, the youngest being a pair 
 of twins six weeks old. She keeps the older boys at home to 
 care for the younger children. They are defective in sight and 
 hearing, and are still struggling along in the first reader. 
 
 [21] 
 
Abbie E. : A woman of about twenty-seven who does not talk 
 plainly, has no idea of number, though she reads and writes a 
 little. Is married to a man who has defective speech and is ill 
 much of the time with stomach trouble. He has never been in 
 school at all. Cannot read nor write, but has learned to handle 
 small quantities. In spite of his disabilities he works with fair 
 steadiness for farmers. Both are decent morally, well behaved, 
 fond of their children, but insufficient earnings and the wife's 
 inability to manage mean a home destitute of the barest necessi- 
 ties. The first child died of spasms, the second of tuberculosis, 
 the third, a boy of nine, a weakling physically and mentally, 
 has never been kept at school because of constant colds and 
 incipient tuberculosis. The fourth, a girl of eight, cannot pro- 
 nounce "w" and "m" nor her brother's name. The one-year 
 old baby is bright and to all appearances strong. 
 
 Dora K. : This woman should be classed as high-grade feeble- 
 minded. She is illiterate, lacking in good common sense. 
 Keeps her house and family with fair neatness. Is married to a 
 man of about the same mental grade, who works steadily at 
 rough mechanical tasks. Supports his family in relative comfort. 
 Five of their ii children died before the age of four. One or 
 two of the remaining children are deaf and said to be defective in 
 other ways. The two-year-old son is deaf. The eldest daugh- 
 ter is an imbecile and deaf. Has attended the school at Scran- 
 ton nine years, but has never learned to talk or read. The eldest 
 son also deaf. Is making slightly better progress. At home 
 both are useless, spending their time playing up and down the 
 country roads like children of five. 
 
 Sophie D.: A very erratic, silly woman, who has never been 
 able to tell the time of day or attend to her family's crudest needs. 
 Came with her husband from Poland about forty years ago. 
 He is illiterate but possessed of some native sense, and has 
 managed to pay for a small piece of hilly land. His wife has 
 always run the country roads, neglecting the home and children. 
 The latter grew up ignorant, quarrelsome, immoral in various 
 ways. The eldest son married a woman of better family, who 
 was disowned in consequence. During her lifetime he supported 
 her and their three children by working in the railroad shops, but 
 
 [22] 
 
since her death they have come to relatives in this section. He 
 spends most of his money gambling. Two other sons drink 
 heavily, work fitfully. One had an intrigue with his sister-in- 
 law before her death. Two daughters are married, with families 
 now being reared in similar circumstances of squalor and moral 
 laxity. The youngest, a girl of thirteen, has reached only the 
 fourth grade. Is very wild and wayward, and at present said 
 to have immoral relations with her brother-in-law. 
 
 MISFITS IN THE RURAL SCHOOL 
 It is now understood that inability to fit into the school regime 
 is often prophetic of social unfitness in later life. Accordingly, 
 much attention has of recent years been given to the subnormal 
 and incorrigible child in the public school. 
 
 So far, however, no census of defective children in the rural 
 schools has been attempted. If such children constitute a prob- 
 lem in the city school, with its manifold appliances and varied 
 curriculum, they must prove a sore trial to the district school 
 teacher who is young, inexperienced, and burdened with a 
 crowded program. The present study included inspection of 
 practically all the schools in the territory. Where a family was 
 known to have adult defectives, special inquiry was always made 
 into the records of all children of school age. By far the greater 
 number of these schools send annually to the county superin- 
 tendent's office a record of age, grade reached, and character of 
 work done for each pupil. These records were of great value as 
 starting-points for investigation of families hitherto unknown 
 to the investigator. The testimony of the teacher who had 
 worked for several years in a community and who, perhaps, had 
 gone to school with the parents or the older brothers and sisters 
 of her pupils, served also as a valuable check on observations 
 made at first hand. Following is the condensed account of 50 
 children, selected from a total of 160 pupils whose inability to 
 advance may be laid primarily to hereditary defect. This list 
 does not include cases of extreme defect, where the child, though 
 of school age, has never been sent to school, nor does it include 
 any of the merely backward and dull. 
 
 Case I. — Girl. Fourteen years. Fourth grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Parents foreign born. Father 
 stupid but fairly industrious. \Mother imbecile. Both very 
 
 [23] 
 
quarrelsome. Brothers sexually loose, alcoholic. Home neglected 
 in every particular. 
 
 School Record. — Irregular attendance. Backward in all sub- 
 jects. No interest. 
 
 Characteristics. — No physical stigmata. Lively, but silly, 
 shallow, running after men. 
 
 Case 2. — Girl. Fourteen years. Second grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — ^The daughter of the eldest 
 brother of Case i , who works in shops but gambles and keeps low 
 company. Mother from a better family, which, however, shows 
 dullness, lack of ambition. Home until last spring with parents, 
 who sent her to city school. Since the mother's death has lived 
 with an aunt, who though poor takes a great interest in her. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance regular. Reads in the second 
 reader, but with no expression. Handles only the smallest 
 quantities. Unable to master addition tables. 
 
 Characteristics. — Fully developed physically. Neat, pretty, 
 docile, tries. Seems almost without memory or reasoning power. 
 Poor memory extends to events in her own experience as well as 
 to school work. 
 
 Case 3. — Boy. Twelve years. First grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Brother of Case 2. Home at 
 present with quarrelsome, defective grandparents. Poor food. 
 Almost no clothing. 
 
 School Record. — Until this year has attended city school. 
 Does only first-grade work with difficulty. 
 
 Characteristics. — -Generally defective. Attention wanders. 
 Almost no memory. 
 
 Case 4. — ^Boy. Nine years. Primary grade. 
 
 Personal and Family History. — Brother of Cases 2 and 3. 
 At present with his quarrelsome, defective grandparents. 
 
 School Record. — -In school two years and has not yet mastered 
 the smallest words and quantities. 
 
 Characteristics. — Undersized. Blind in one eye. Poor at- 
 tention and memory. 
 
 Case 5. — Girl. Fourteen years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — ^Vagrant, irresponsible stock. 
 Many epileptic and feeble-minded. Fatherless, neglected by 
 mother. Home at present with a sister-in-law, who is a neat 
 housekeeper and anxious to help her. 
 
 School Record. — Attendance regular. Reads a little. Handles 
 small quantities, but has never yet been able to learn long divi- 
 sion. 
 
 Characteristics. — Large but listless in attitude and with a dull, 
 vacant look. Tractable. Attention and memory poor. Very 
 little interest in school work. 
 
 [24] 
 
Case 6. — Girl. Seven years. Kindergarten. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — On the paternal side occasional 
 defect. The maternal side average, self-respecting people. 
 Father alcoholic and unfaithful. Has deserted mother, who is 
 ill most of the time and struggling to give her children the barest 
 necessities. The child weighed three pounds when born and 
 developed very slowly in every particular. 
 
 School Record. — Has attended now four months. Cannot 
 learn to distinguish colors or form, or understand much of what is 
 said to her. Teacher feels that all her efforts thus far have been 
 wasted. 
 
 Characteristics. — Delicate, pretty, rather uncertain in her 
 movements. Affectionate, with occasional streaks of obstinacy. 
 Marked speech defect. 
 
 Case 7. — Boy. Eight years. Second grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — -Brother of the foregoing. 
 Living under same circumstances. Development from birth 
 apparently normal. Wants proper food. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance regular. Appears interested. 
 Reads in the second reader with fair ease, but cannot do anything 
 with numbers. 
 
 Characteristics. — Good-looking, with a bright, alert manner. 
 Talkative, boasting, inclined to lie and steal. 
 
 Case 8. — Girl. Fourteen years. Third and fifth grades. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Parents moral, though ignor- 
 ant. Home dirty and disorderly. The youngest in the family. 
 Older sisters somewhat retarded. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance irregular, partly on account of 
 frequent illness. Reads intelligently and has made fair progress 
 in geography and language. Does not seem able to advance 
 beyond third grade work in arithmetic. 
 
 Characteristics. — ^Well-behaved, diffident. Indifferent mem- 
 ory and very poor ability to reason. 
 
 Case 9. — Boy. Ten years. Second grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — No marked defect in his im- 
 mediate family. Circumstances fair, but family are bleeders and 
 refuse operation for adenoids. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance fair, but seems to become more 
 and more retarded. At present is making practically no prog- 
 ress. Occasionally restless and very hard to manage. 
 
 Characteristics. — ^Shambling gait. Sullen look. Vicious ten- 
 dencies. Inclined to pick on younger children. Very cruel 
 to animals. 
 
 Case id. — Boy. Ten years. Primary grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Immediate family shows no 
 other cases of marked defect. Father steady and of average in- 
 
 [25] 
 
telligence. Mother slightly defective, though a fair housekeeper. 
 Ordinary home comforts in a thriving village. 
 
 School Record. — Has attended ten months and is still a be- 
 ginner. Recognizes only a few simple words and counts ten. 
 
 Characteristics. — No marked stigmata. Tractable and ap- 
 pears to try, but sees and remembers little. Marked speech de- 
 fect. Talks only in broken sentences. 
 
 Case ii. — Boy. Thirteen years. Second grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — In the main self-respecting, 
 hard-working. Earn a fair living at various kinds of manual 
 labor. None of them has been able to learn anything at school. 
 
 School Record. — Is making only slight progress in all branches. 
 Memorizes in a parrot-like fashion, but apparently has no idea 
 back of his words. 
 
 Characteristics. — No stigmata. Well-behaved, willing. At- 
 tention rather poor and practically without number sense. 
 
 Case 12. — Boy. Eleven years. Second grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Father shiftless and from de- 
 generate stock. Mother low-grade imbecile from a family show- 
 ing many instances of mental defect and insanity. No training 
 in a home lacking the first essentials of decency. Half-fed. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attends with fair regularity and makes some 
 effort, but is unable to advance with other pupils. 
 
 Characteristics. — Average size. Careless posture. Dull look. 
 Manner apathetic. 
 
 Case 13. — Boy. Seven years. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Brother of Case 12. Brought 
 up under similar conditions. 
 
 School Record. — In school for two months, but taken out 
 because of his refusal to do anything the teacher asked. 
 
 Characteristics. — Undersized, and with a dull, vacant look. 
 Stubborn and intractable. 
 
 Case 14. — Girl. Fourteen years. Fifth grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Paternal side unknown. 
 Father a drayman, sick much of the time, and earns only irregu- 
 larly. Mother comes from a bad family. No manager. 
 
 School Record. — Irregular attendance. Makes no progress 
 when she comes. 
 
 Characteristics. — Pretty, vivacious, rather silly in her speech. 
 Her chief interest at present is young men. Giving her family 
 trouble on account of her waywardness. 
 
 Case 15. — Girl. Twelve years. Fourth grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Father a day-laborer belonging 
 to a family showing low mental ability. Mother^ a slattern; 
 helps out in the support of her family by prostitution. House 
 filthy and disorderly. Children unkempt and in rags. 
 
 [26] 
 
School Record. — Poor attendance. Fair interest. No special 
 defect, but generally retarded in all branches. 
 
 Characteristics. — Pretty, but exceedingly untidy. Inatten- 
 tive. Only fair memory. 
 
 Case i6. — Girl. Ten years. Second grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Sister of Case 15. Similar 
 home conditions. 
 
 School Record. — Like her sister, generally retarded. 
 
 Characteristics. — ^Very untidy in her habits and poor memory 
 and attention. 
 
 Case 17. — Boy. Thirteen years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Both sides show mental defect. 
 Father is dead. Mother and brothers work hard on a rented 
 farm, where they despoil the timber and steal. Home very dirty 
 and disorderly. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attends irregularly and makes no progress. 
 Apparently has reached his educational limit. 
 
 Characteristics. — Large and strong. Has mentality of a boy 
 of ten. 
 
 Case 18. — Girl. Sixteen years. Sixth grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Father hard-working, quarrel- 
 some, sexually loose, and from a very bad strain. Mother for- 
 merly a prostitute and has continued her practices since marriage. 
 Home conditions exceedingly vulgar and degrading. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance irregular, but seemed able to 
 advance when she cared to try. Little interest except in sex 
 matters. 
 
 Characteristics. — Immoral, obscene, source of corruption to 
 the rest of the school. 
 
 Case 19. — Boy. Fourteen years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Brother of Case 18. All con- 
 ditions similarly deterrent. 
 
 School Record. — Did good work in third grade, but apparently 
 has no ability to advance further. 
 
 Characteristics. — Rough, obscene, a very bad influence among 
 the other pupils. 
 
 Case 20. — Girl. Fourteen years. Fourth grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Both parents from strains 
 showing low mentality. Bare little home on a poor farm; no 
 marked vices. 
 
 School Record. — Attendance fairly regular. Is in the fourth 
 grade, but can do little with numbers. For several years now 
 has appeared at a mental standstill. 
 
 Characteristics. — Clumsy, large, prominent teeth, and rather 
 dull eyes. Good-natured, willing, and obedient, but has little 
 regard for the truth. 
 
 [27] 
 
Case 21. — Boy. Twelve years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Father a drunkard and has 
 deserted his family. Mother keeps house for her brother-in-law 
 on a stony little farm. Has one brother of the same mental 
 grade, another decidedly better. Family above the condition of 
 actual want, but have few comforts. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance irregular. Appears at times to 
 try and makes slight progress. At other times his mind seems a 
 perfect blank. 
 
 Characteristics. — Shambling gait, dull, vacant look, slightly 
 deaf. Attention wavers, fickle memory. 
 
 Case 22. — Boy. Fourteen years. Second grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Degenerate stock on both 
 sides. Both parents thieves and drunkards. Seven in the fam- 
 ily crowded into four tiny rooms. Filth and disorder unspeak- 
 able. Insufficient food. Sleeps in day clothing on the floor. 
 
 School Record. — Attendance very irregular. No interest or 
 ability to grasp the simplest operations. 
 
 Characteristics. — Hulking figure; sullen look; very clumsy 
 movements. Apathetic; inattentive; lazy. Source of physical 
 and moral contamination. 
 
 Case 23. — Boy. Fourteen years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Degenerate stock on both sides. 
 Mother dead ; father indolent and a drunkard. Live in squalor 
 in a tumble-down shack. Always unwashed, unkempt, and has 
 scarcely any food except what the neighbors bring him. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance poor. Incapable of advance- 
 ment in any branch. 
 
 Characteristics. — Very small for age; pale, listless, apathetic. 
 Harmless type of defective. 
 
 Case 24. — Boy. Sixteen years. No educational attainments. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — On the maternal side vagrancy, 
 epilepsy, feeble-mindedness. Father steady worker and sober. 
 Mother feeble-minded and works hard at washing. Home clean. 
 No control of children. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attended only occasionally. Apparently 
 incapable of learning anything. 
 
 Characteristics. — Halting movements; large mouth; vacant, 
 staring eyes; apathetic. Epileptic imbecile. 
 
 Case 25. — Boy. Fifteen years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Brother of Case 24. Family 
 and personal history similar. 
 
 School Record. — Never kept in school with any regularity. 
 Attends now only occasionally in the winter. 
 
 Characteristics. — ^Able-bodied, but inattentive. Indifferent. 
 No aptitude for any sort of mental work. 
 
 [28] 
 
Case 26. — Girl. Fifteen years. Fourth grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Both sides show sex offense. 
 Alcoholism. Shiftlessness. Parents did not marry until forced 
 to do so after this child's birth. Three half-sisters, all illegiti- 
 mate, very immoral. Home fairly clean and tawdry decorations, 
 but influences bad, talk vulgar and obscene. Frequent neigh- 
 borhood brawls. 
 
 School Record. — Poor in all studies. No interest. 
 
 Characteristics. — Fair looking; plausible. Drinks; lies; is 
 obscene; has immoral relations; is a source of corruption. 
 
 Case 27. — Boy. Thirteen years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Brother of Case 26. Influences 
 similar. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance irregular. Poor in all branches. 
 
 Characteristics. — Lazy; inattentive; objectionable in speech 
 and habits. 
 
 Case 28. — Boy. Thirteen years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Comes of strains showing 
 shiftlessness, alcoholism, inability to advance in school. Father 
 earns fair wages. Goes on sprees. Mother careless housekeeper. 
 Indifferent to needs of children. Neighborhood very bad. 
 Brawling, sexual looseness, obscenity. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attended irregularly. Poor in all branches. 
 Truant. 
 
 Characteristics. — Is called "Numskull." No interest beyond 
 loafing. 
 
 Case 29. — Boy. Twelve years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Paternal stock inert; ambi- 
 tionless. Degenerated through consanguineous marriages. Ma- 
 ternal sex-offending, lawless stock. Father hcis never worked. 
 Spent his time in litigation over property left to his brothers. 
 Is irascible, lazy, ineffectual. Home clean, but lacking in many 
 necessities. Ten in two little rooms. On a mountain farm re- 
 mote from neighbors. 
 
 School Record. — Frequently kept home. Ability generally 
 low. Cannot concentrate. 
 
 Characteristics. — Listless; shuffling gait; slow of speech; 
 slow to observe and remembers little. 
 
 Case 30. — Boy. Thirteen years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — ^Stock on paternal side de- 
 generated through consanguineous marriages. On mother's 
 side mentality generally low. Ten children. Barest subsistence 
 on a stony, lonely mountain farm. 
 
 School Record. — Poor in all branches. Small ability to con- 
 centrate or remember. 
 
 [29] 
 
Characteristics. — Shambling gait; wide mouth; large teeth. 
 Expression somewhat vacant and staring. 
 
 Case 31. — Girl. Eleven years. Second grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Sister of Case 30. History, 
 record, and mentality similar to that of her brother. 
 
 Case 32. — Girl. Thirteen years. First grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Paternal side unambitious, 
 shiftless, many cousin marriages. Father lazy, pilfering, abuses 
 children. History on maternal side little known. Mother died 
 in childbirth about six years ago. Family drifted about from 
 one mountain cabin to another. Only care is given by a sister 
 three years older than she who neglects and abuses her. 
 
 School Record. — ^Incapable of advance in spite of proper at- 
 tention on the part of the teacher. 
 
 Characteristics. — ^Weak, timorous, slow, and uncertain in 
 movement. Mentality that of a child of eight. 
 
 Case 33. — Boy. Twelve years. Second grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Father's side much defect and 
 inability to get on in the world. Mother's side little known. 
 Parents married very young and separated, mother going to 
 New York, where she is said to be in a woman's reformatory. 
 Father married again and took no responsibility for son. He 
 lives with his grandparents in part of an old barn. Is clothed 
 through the charity of sympathetic neighbors. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance fair. Deportment good, but 
 unable to advance in any way. 
 
 Characteristics.— Obliging; willing to try, but very little 
 ability along any line. 
 
 Case 34. — Boy. Fourteen years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — On both sides self-respecting. 
 Fair mentality; industrious; prosperous. Mother and father 
 apparently normal. Two younger sisters show ability above the 
 average. Home comfortable and excellent neighborhood. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attends regularly. Is mischievous; in- 
 attentive ; shows general lack of ability. Apparently has reached 
 educational limit. 
 
 Characteristics. — ^Subnormal in observation, attention, mem- 
 ory. Interests childish. Inclined to indulge in foolish pranks 
 and enjoys playing with little children. 
 
 Case 35. — Girl. Twelve years. First grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Both sides from indolent, 
 shiftless stock. Both parents have low mental ability. Two 
 brothers imbecilic. One brother wife deserter. Home isolated 
 mountain farm. Filthy and disorderly in the extreme. 
 
 School Record. — Has not attended for two years. Reads a 
 little. 
 
 [30] 
 
Characteristics. — Weak from attack of appendicitis. Shows 
 symptoms of "heart trouble." Undeveloped mentally and 
 physically. 
 
 Case 36. — Boy. Fourteen years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Paternal side shows long line 
 of pilfering, lawless, hard-drinking people. Father no excep- 
 tion. Maternal same stock as preceding case. Mother has 
 worked hard to keep nine children decent, but has had to have 
 county relief. All children kept from school and put out to work 
 young. 
 
 School Record. — Poor attendance. Little ability in any 
 branch. 
 
 Characteristics. — Large; clumsy; slow; stupid; apathetic. 
 
 Case 37. — Boy. Thirteen years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Nephew of foregoing. Father 
 works with fair steadiness in a stone quarry. His family show 
 chorea and other forms of nervous trouble. Home shabby, 
 fairly comfortable. Younger brothers and sisters somewhat 
 retarded. 
 
 School Record. — Attends quite regularly. Unable to advance 
 in any branch. 
 
 Characteristics. — ^Well developed physically; strong; exceed- 
 ingly slow of speech. Apparently decidedly subnormal. 
 
 Case 38. — Boy. Ten years. Second and third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Paternal fair stock, showing 
 irresponsibility with indications of mental defect. Mother un- 
 known. An orphan and boarded by the county in a temporary 
 home. Abundance of food, warm clothing, little training. 
 
 School Record. — -Attendance regular. Reading and memory 
 work fair, doing only second grade work in number and finds it 
 very difficult. 
 
 Characteristics. — Obedient ; well-behaved ; willing. 
 
 Case 39. — Boy. Thirteen years. Fourth grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Paternal side shiftless; ne'er- 
 do-well. Low mentality amounting in some cases to imbecility. 
 Maternal side unknown. An orphan and boarded at county 
 expense in a temporary home, where he is well fed and warmly 
 clothed, but has little training. 
 
 School Record. — Regular attendance. Work in no respect up 
 to standard. 
 
 Characteristics. — Poor in attention, observation, memory. 
 Inclined to be quarrelsome. 
 
 Case 40. — Girl. Fourteen years. Fourth grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — On the paternal side very bad ; 
 paupers; criminals; sex offenders. Father in and out of the 
 county home, with no responsibility for children since the moth- 
 
 [31] 
 
er's death. Brother at Glen Mills for stealing. Another boarded 
 out by the county. She has been on the county for years. 
 Tried in 15 homes, but always returned for irresponsibility and 
 other faults. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance broken. Slight progress for the 
 time spent. 
 
 Characteristics. — Slow, inert, dull, undersized. Appears more 
 like a child of ten. 
 
 Case 41 . — Boy. Twelve years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Originally fair stock but dur- 
 ing later generations marriage with members of degenerating 
 branches has brought out on paternal side insanity and other 
 nervous disorders. Father a day laborer. Mother unequal to 
 the struggle of caring for family. Three children dead of tuber- 
 culosis. Eleven surviving children, nearly all retarded. Family 
 in a condition of absolute want. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance irregular. Poor in all branches. 
 
 Characteristics. — Physically weak, undernourished, mentally 
 slow, attention and memory poor. 
 
 Case 42. — ^Boy. Sixteen years. Fifth grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Strains on both sides show 
 much intermarriage between sex offenders. Criminalistic stock. 
 Father works with fair industry. Ignorant and shows very 
 limited mental capacity. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attends with fair regularity. Dislikes it. 
 No interest or ambition. Begs to stay out. 
 
 Characteristics.— Slouching gait; thick lips; sagging jaw; 
 stupid expression. Exceedingly slow of speech and thought. 
 
 Case 43. — Girl. Eleven years. First grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Both parents from very bad 
 stock. Father dead, since which time mother goes about with 
 her three younger children, consorting with rough characters. 
 Sister sexually immoral at fifteen. Child a witness of revolting 
 scenes. 
 
 School Record. — Has attended very irregularly. Apparently 
 no ability to learn. 
 
 Characteristics. — Flat nose; wide mouth; dull expression. 
 Cannot answer the simplest questions intelligently. 
 
 Case 44. — Boy. Twelve years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — ^Antecedents little known, 
 because so few of the family are found here. Father has cleared 
 a small patch of woods. Mother shows interest in the poor 
 home, but is ill much of the time. Older and younger brother are 
 somewhat backward. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance regular. Reads a little, but 
 without expression. Appears incapable of advance in any study. 
 
 [32] 
 
Characteristics. — ^Average size, shambling gait, facial expres- 
 sion rather vacant and dull. Generally defective mentally. 
 
 Case 45. — Boy. Fourteen years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Paternal unknown, since 
 family has few representatives here. Father sober, but little 
 ambition and intelligence. Mother from family showing fair 
 mentality. Not strong and often ill. Tries to keep home and 
 children in order. House a rude structure on.' -third of a mile 
 from the highroad in the midst of newly cleaied land, which 
 supplies only the barest subsistence. Brother at fifteen is up 
 with his grade. Younger brother defective. In the second 
 grade at eleven years. 
 
 School Record. — Fair attendance. Appears to try, but ap- 
 parently has reached his educational limit. 
 
 Characteristics. — ^A large, listless, hulking boy. Facial ex- 
 pression dull. Poor memory. Particularly defective in num- 
 ber work. 
 
 Case 46. — Girl. Twelve years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Few representatives of this 
 family in this territory. Father ignorant and shiftless, but not 
 markedly defective. Mother fair housekeeper. Home a poorly 
 furnished house and a few stony acres. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance good. Child helped by parents. 
 Is able to read, but fails in language work and has not been able 
 to handle anything but the smallest numbers. 
 
 Characteristics. — ^Average size. General appearance fair. 
 Willing; obedient; memory and attention little below the aver- 
 age. Little ability in number. 
 
 Case 47. — Boy. Sixteen years. Second grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Both sides from a long line of 
 defectives, showing very small ability to advance in school. 
 Grow up to be petty thieves, drunkards, county charges. Twin 
 brother advanced to the fourth grade at fifteen, and four younger 
 brothers and sisters all greatly retarded. 
 
 School Record. — Attended irregularly until the age of fifteen. 
 Never able to do more than read a little and handle the smallest 
 quantities. 
 
 Characteristics. — ^Average size; shambling gait; listless. 
 General mental defect. 
 
 Case 48. — Boy. Nine years. First grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Paternal side fair stock, but 
 father extremely alcoholic. Neglects family, who are often in 
 the direst want. Mother comes from long line of defectives. 
 Is neat and tries to care for her family. Is entirely without 
 number sense. Six younger brothers and sisters are all under- 
 sized and backward. 
 
 [33] 
 
School Record. — Has not attended regularly, and at present is 
 kept home because the medical inspector says he needs glasses 
 and the father is unable to provide them. Barely knows a few- 
 simple words, and is unable to handle numbers at all._ 
 
 Characteristics. — ^Very small, appearing not over six. Timid, 
 shrinking, slightly deaf and short-sighted. Willing and obedient, 
 but shows general mental defect. 
 
 Case 49. — Girl. Twelve years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Paternal side a long line noted 
 for great stature, laziness, and mental dulness. Maternal side 
 unknown, since mother was picked up in a lumber camp and has 
 not lived with the father for many years. Child was cared for 
 by paternal grandmother. Home poor but neat. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance fair. Docile and tries, but at 
 present making little progress in any branch. 
 
 Characteristics. — Small for her age, but shows no stigmata. 
 Quiet; timid; facial expression immobile. Eyes rather dull. 
 Slow to observe and grasp the meaning of what is presented to 
 her. Memory and reason below the average. 
 
 Case 50. — Girl. Fourteen years. Third grade. 
 
 Family and Personal History. — Belongs to a strain showing 
 some industry, though their poor farms and ill-kept homes 
 testify to inability to manage. Large family growing up in un- 
 speakable filth and allowed to be out of school on the slightest 
 pretext. Younger brothers also very deficient. One of twelve 
 years is still in the second and third grades. One of ten is still 
 in the first grade. 
 
 School Record. — ^Attendance very irregular. Memory and 
 attention poor. At times incapable of the simplest arithmetical 
 calculation. 
 
 Characteristics. — Shows no physical stigmata. General men- 
 tal defect. 
 
 The foregoing account should demonstrate one fact : That the 
 problem of the defective child looms quite as large for the rural 
 as for the city school. Only here the difficulty is not so easily 
 met. There is no need of rehearsing the disadvantages to the 
 teacher, the defective pupil himself, and the school in general, 
 which even the presence of two or three such children entails. 
 The 50 pupils herein described are scattered through 20 schools. 
 1/ When we remember that the actual number of permanent 
 retardates in this territory is more than three times this number, 
 we can readily see how distressing the conditions in certain 
 schools may become. In at least four schools the number of 
 
 [34] 
 
retardates is so great that it is impossible to maintain anything 
 like the normal standard of deportment and scholarship for the 
 remaining pupils. Fortunately, many of the schools are small, 
 averaging perhaps 20 pupils. One school, however, which al- 
 ways has a large number of defectives, opened this fall with an 
 enrolment of over 50. Ten pupils were apportioned to other 
 districts, leaving the teacher with more than 40, ten of whom 
 were defective or from two to four years retarded, and a program 
 so full that it allowed an average recitation period of only ten 
 minutes. Such a teacher cannot give the requisite attention to 
 the defective pupil, even were there promise of her being repaid 
 for her effort. 
 
 The after-history of these pupils can hardly be a matter of 
 question. With their heritage of mental and moral defect, 
 their handicap of deterrent home conditions, without initiative 
 or ambition, they waste ten years, in which they might have 
 mastered a trade, vainly trying to learn to read and write. Then 
 they go forth to recruit the ranks of the casually employed and 
 the criminal and to become in time the parents of children like 
 themselves. 
 
 NUMBER OF DEFECTIVES 
 One of the primary objects of the study was an enumeration 
 of the defectives belonging to the several classes. The following 
 table gives the number occurring under each class, with this 
 exception: no complete census of the merely shiftless and ne'er- 
 do-well was attempted. Were all those to be included here, who 
 without serious physical or mental handicap, nevertheless do not 
 succeed in maintaining themselves in comfort, the totals would 
 have been materially increased. The enumeration for this class 
 includes under caption "Partially Dependent" those adults 
 who exhibit no positive vices and are, therefore, not to be counted 
 with the other classes. Their disabilities range from patent im- 
 becility through the lesser grades of incapacity, which lead them 
 to pilfer, apply for county relief, and accept as much charity as 
 their long-suffering neighbors will offer. All are undesirable 
 citizens of their respective communities. The persons included 
 in the classes which follow are, with slight exception, also in some 
 degree dependent. Accordingly, the class of "alcoholics" does 
 not include those who, though often drinking to excess, are still 
 
 [35I 
 
able to maintain themselves and their families without public 
 
 aid. 
 
 ADULTS 
 
 Partially dependent 152 
 
 Alcoholic 30 
 
 Sexually immoral 89 
 
 Criminalistic 22 
 
 Alcoholic and sexually immoral 20 
 
 Alcoholic and criminalistic 15 
 
 Sexually immoral and criminalistic 10 
 
 Alcoholic, sexually immoral, and criminalistic 3 
 
 Total 341 
 
 CHILDREN (SIXTEEN YEARS AND UNDER) 
 
 Permanently retarded 144 
 
 Permanently retarded — incorrigible 14 
 
 Permanently retarded — wayward and sexually immoral . . 9 
 
 Total 167 
 
 508 
 
 Dividing this grand total of 508 by 16,000, the estimated 
 population for the whole area, we get 3.2 per cent., or an average 
 of 3 defectives for every 100 of the population. 
 
 MENTAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE DEFECTIVES 
 No formal tests were applied in determining the native capac- 
 ity of the persons studied. The amount of time at the disposal 
 of the investigator, as well as the circumstances under which the 
 study was conducted, precluded the use of such psychologic 
 tests, however useful they might have been as confirmatory of 
 other results. The scheme of inquiry included, besides pertinent 
 facts of the individual's family and personal history, a line of 
 questioning which gave information on the following points: 
 (i) His ability to read and write and handle quantities; (2) edu- 
 cational attainments beyond this minimum, judged in relation 
 to his school advantages; (3) common sense, as evidenced by his 
 account of his work, his amusements, his relations to his family 
 and friends; and (4) general intelligence, as evidenced by his 
 discussion of topics of the day, the war, the elections, etc. 
 
 Impressions gained in this way were corrected, confirmed by 
 the testimony of his employer, intelligent neighbors, by county 
 ofificials, social and religious workers. On this evidence adults 
 and children were classed as imbeciles when their educational 
 attainments were practically nil and their ability in practical 
 
 [36] 
 
work so slight as to serve no useful end. Adults were classed as 
 morons when, although capable of slight advance at school, 
 their after-life showed clearly their need of supervision and con- 
 trol, both for their own protection and for the well-being of others. 
 Children of school age were classed as morons when, although 
 making slight advance in school, they were yet proving incapable 
 of deriving proper benefit from the instruction given there. 
 The 508 defectives were distributed among these classes as 
 
 follows : 
 
 ADULTS 
 
 Morons 311 
 
 Imbeciles 30 
 
 341 
 
 CHILDREN (SIXTEEN YEARS AND UNDER) 
 
 Morons 139 
 
 Imbeciles 28 
 
 J&J^ 
 
 Total 508 
 
 FECUNDITY OF DEFECTIVES AS COMPARED WITH 
 NORMAL WOMEN 
 
 The total number of defectives includes 154 women who have 
 borne children. The inquiry resulted in the finding of only two 
 defective women over twenty who had not borne children. 
 
 The high fecundity of this type of woman is well known, and 
 here she proved to be no exception to the rule. Of the total 
 number of 45 defectives who have reached the end of the child- 
 bearing period — 
 
 3 have borne 2 children eac 
 
 2 " 
 
 3 
 
 
 5 " ' 
 
 ' 4 
 
 
 4 " ' 
 
 5 
 
 
 9 " ' 
 
 6 
 
 
 7 " ' 
 
 ' 7 ' 
 
 
 3 " ' 
 
 8 
 
 
 I has ' 
 
 9 
 
 
 3 have ' 
 
 ' 10 ' 
 
 
 4 " ' 
 
 ' II ' 
 
 
 4 " ' 
 
 ' 12 ' 
 
 
 This gives an average of 7 children each for these women, a birth- 
 rate which is fully twice that of the normal women of the popula- 
 tion. Of the total of 310 children, 62 are dead, 144 are defective, 
 
 [37] 
 
many of them figuring largely in this report. Of the remaining 
 104, ID have gone to other parts of the country and could not be 
 investigated. Four show industry and ambition above the aver- 
 age. The rest are at best indifferent in character, many of them 
 border-line cases, whom a more rigid classification would have 
 included among the defectives. 
 
 The birth-rate of 45 normal women, chosen at random from the 
 area of greatest incidence of defect, is 2.9 per cent., or 129 to 45 
 mothers. The survival ratio for these cases is 2.5 per cent., 
 while the survival ratio for the families of defective mothers is 
 5.5 per cent., again more than twice that for normal mothers. 
 
 The meaning of these figures is unmistakable. Their full im- 
 port can be realized only when it is remembered that the numerous 
 progeny of this class often exhibit aggravated defect, which leads 
 to marked anti-social conduct. It is to the unrestrained repro- 
 duction of the feeble-minded woman that we owe the dispro- 
 portionate increase of the socially unfit, with their burden of 
 pauperism, delinquency, and crime. Already this burden is 
 almost intolerable. What will it be a few generations hence? 
 
 VARYING PERCENTAGES OF THE UNFIT 
 The total number of defectives for the entire territory as de- 
 termined by this inquiry was 508, and the percentage for the 
 entire population of 16,000, as already given, is 3.2 per cent., an 
 average of 3 defectives to each 100 of population. If, however, 
 we look into the distribution of these defectives, we are at once 
 struck by the astonishing lack of uniformity found in the number 
 in various portions of the area. 
 
 In England the Royal Commission found the ratios to vary 
 from I.I to 4.54 per 1000 of the population in areas that were 
 considered typical. Recent studies in America have shown a 
 far heavier incidence in certain sections, but no ratios have been 
 given for any of these communities. 
 
 In the present study 112 of the total number were found con- 
 centrated in two small settlements toward the northern boundary 
 
 of the area. One of these, which we will know as L town, 
 
 is a row of small frame cottages built along a by-road not far 
 
 from the prosperous village of M . These cottages, 14 in 
 
 number, have ill-kept dooryards, and most of them are badly 
 
 [38] 
 
in need of repair. They harbor a dozen families, which exhibit 
 almost as many kinds of defect. 
 
 In one lives a silly, childish young woman who, after much 
 wa3rwardness and a troublous marital experience, has recently 
 married a civil war veteran three times her age. His pension 
 supports them both, but he is by far the more able of the two. 
 In another, a man and woman belonging to two notoriously 
 bad strains have a brood of children who are laggards in school 
 and are being brought up to worthless lives. In a third is a 
 widow who has kept house for a long succession of men. Her 
 scheme is to stay with them until she has all they own, and then 
 to move on to another victim. Her sons are vagrants, her daugh- 
 ter of fifteen already an able helper of her mother. In a fourth 
 is a cantankerous old woman, herself an illegitimate child, who 
 has always been a willing abettor of evil designs of her family. 
 For years one of her daughters cohabited with a man belonging 
 to an otherwise good family. The three daughters, product of 
 this union, are prostitutes, carrying on their trade, sometimes 
 at the county seat or in New York State, always returning here 
 when threatened by arrest and punishment elsewhere. Their 
 mother, after consorting for years with a drunken, shiftless mem- 
 ber of her own clan, finally married him and is living farther down 
 the road. Her fourteen-year-old daughter is already following 
 in her footsteps. Next door lives her sister, who has also married 
 and brought into the community a drunken, degenerate son of 
 another family of fairly good repute. He is a braggart and very 
 daring, especially when he has been drinking. He is frequently 
 helpful to his nieces, the aforementioned prostitutes, in their 
 efforts to evade the law. Across from this couple lives a distant 
 connection, who, after a life rivaling that of any of her neighbors 
 in its license and extreme of condition, has lately married a man 
 of fair respectability and settled to his mode of life. She now 
 spends her time heckling her more riotous neighbors. Their 
 differences are frequently dragged into court, where the airing 
 of testimony shocks the sensibilities of all but the most hardened. 
 A little farther along this road is the shanty of the feeble-minded 
 Sara C, already described in these pages. The farm adjacent to 
 this settlement is owned by an old man, who has been hard- 
 working, but is profane, obscene, and filthy in personal habits. 
 His son, who lives on the place, has had five "wives." It is 
 
 [39] 
 
doubtful whether he was in every case married to the women. 
 His present wife he brought from a house of ill fame in another 
 part of the county. She has had for years a scandalous intrigue 
 with a neighboring farmer, which is generally known for miles 
 around. Her five children are laggards at school. The eldest, 
 a girl of sixteen, drinks, runs the countryside at night, and has 
 communicated venereal disease to a number of young men in 
 the neighboring village. 
 
 This little community is less than a quarter of a mile from a 
 village of about 500 people. The latter is prosperous, law-abiding, 
 has several churches, and a good high school. So far as is known 
 
 its citizens never interfere in the goings-on at L town. 
 
 When its frequent turmoil and rioting reach their ears, they 
 close the windows and, shrugging their shoulders, say, "It is 
 
 only L town broken loose again." They regard it much as 
 
 one would the barking of a dog or the screams of an obstreper- 
 ous child, over which one had no authority. 
 
 The other settlement is considerably larger, comprising several 
 parallel roads, with diagonal intersecting cross-roads, the former 
 merging into the streets of the county seat. Many of the houses 
 here make some claim to pretentiousness. Most of them, how- 
 ever, have been long since abandoned by their owners. Although 
 externally an occasional application of paint saves the general 
 appearance, inside, the torn, discolored paper, fallen plaster, and 
 sagging floors testify to general neglect and decay. This is the 
 home of many belonging to the Fale-Anwal clan, to be described 
 in the following pages. They crowd to the number of three or 
 four families under a single roof, and thus reduce the small 
 rental. This community, too, is the scene of many brawls and 
 much rioting. Many of its couples have lived together for years 
 without the formality of marriage. Some of its women carry on 
 the business of prostitution. 
 
 It differs from L town chiefly in that local agencies have 
 
 been at work for years for relief of the situation. It has a two- 
 roomed grade school, but since the compulsory school law is not 
 in force, large numbers of children spend much of the school 
 day in the streets. There is a little chapel, where Sunday-school 
 is maintained regularly and a church service occasionally. 
 For years the Salvation Army has been active here. In spite 
 of this, however, conditions are said to have grown worse instead 
 
 [40] 
 
of better. The better families get away as soon cis may be, and 
 their place is always taken by somebody worse. 
 
 L town has a population of 52, 30 of whom must be classed 
 
 as defective, giving a percentage of 57.7 per cent. Of the 308 
 inhabitants of the larger settlement, which we shall know as 
 
 M town, 82 must be classed as defective, and this takes no 
 
 account of miscreants, which it often harbors for one cause or 
 another. This gives a ratio of 26.6 per cent. 
 
 If, now, we take the portion of our territory adjacent to these 
 
 Fig. I. — Geographical Distribution of Defectives. 
 
 two communities, an area which roughly describes a half-circle, 
 with a radius extending eight miles from the larger settlement as 
 a center, we find it to have 174 defectives. Its population being 
 2730, gives a percentage of 6.4 per cent. The remainder of the 
 territory, having a population estimated at 12,910, has a total of 
 222 defectives and a percentage of 1.72 per cent. This variation 
 in distribution is graphically represented in the accompanying 
 figure (Figure i). Certain sections, accordingly, have four times 
 
 [41] 
 
as many defectives as others, while certain smaller zones have from 
 1 6 to 34 times as many defectives as the number generally found 
 throughout the territory. What is the cause of these wide dif- 
 ferences in distribution? 
 
 Causes Which Contribute to the Varying Percentages. — ^The 
 area just described as showing a ratio of 6.4 per cent, defectives 
 is the original home of the Vennams and of the Fale-Anwals, 
 two extensive connections which will be described in the follow- 
 ing section. It is also the place of settlement of two other 
 strains, whose members have largely intermarried with the fore- 
 going, and of a fourth strain, characterized by epilepsy and imbe- 
 cility. It, too, has largely intermarried with other defective fami- 
 lies in the same section. These degenerate stocks, planted here 
 six generations ago, have, by interbreeding, continued their de- 
 fects, and to-day are represented by hundreds of the socially unfit 
 as well as by several times that number on the border-line of 
 inefficiency. This element has kept itself comparatively distinct 
 from the other elements of the population, but all too frequently it 
 has drawn in the weaker members of an otherwise normal family. 
 In the majority of cases where this has occurred it has been a 
 woman of the defective stock who has attracted a man of better 
 family. Since she was usually sexually immoral and her consort 
 alcoholic, the family which was founded through this union re- 
 mained on the lower level, and thus increased the number of the 
 unfit instead of bettering conditions in any way. 
 
 The concentration at L town, which gives us the highest 
 
 percentage, can be traced to the natural attraction of like na- 
 tures, helped out by certain local conditions. Twenty-five years 
 ago it bore an entirely different character. There was a small 
 factory near by, and these cottages were put up as a speculation 
 and sold to its operatives on the instalment plan. Later the 
 factory was absorbed by a larger plant in another town. The 
 people scattered, and rentals fell to a point where the ne'er-do- 
 well could afford the houses as a shelter. They rent now for 
 $2 and $3 a month. The owner naturally is willing to get what 
 little he can on his original investment, and the settlement has 
 been allowed to descend to its present level. Its moral menace is 
 undoubtedly felt, especially as concerns the young men of the 
 neighboring village, but thus far public sentiment has not been 
 sufficiently aroused to interfere. 
 
 [42] 
 
The first defectives were drawn to M- town by a manufac- 
 tory which called for crude labor. The concentration was helped 
 by an adverse sentiment, which drove out some of the worst 
 elements in communities near by which had formerly been 
 lumber camps. The movement thus started resulted in the 
 driving away of the decent families who had made this their 
 home. Rents fell, thus attracting more degenerates, the factory 
 failed, its more enterprising operatives sought employment and 
 homes elsewhere, leaving the ineffectual and unambitious to con- 
 tinue an existence as best they might. The friendly and always 
 available county aid was practically at their doors, as were also 
 the saloons, where they might obtain their favorite beverage, 
 slightly diluted raw alcohol. So naturally they stayed and drew 
 in many others of their kind. 
 
 Such a center once established grows not only by the drawing 
 together of representatives of equally bad strains, but by its at- 
 traction for the weaker members of better families. It offers 
 them a refuge where their immoral tendencies suffer no check and 
 where their children are certain to have similar lives. 
 
 This settlement furnishes many illustrations of this process, of 
 which we will give the following: 
 
 Two daughters of a sexually immoral woman of L town 
 
 consorted with men whose families were distinctly above them. 
 They drew the men to their own level, and now their children are 
 leading immoral lives like themselves, either here or just over the 
 State's boundary. 
 
 One of the daughters of Maria F., the murderess, illustrates 
 the same process. She married first the shiftless, tuberculous 
 son of a good family. Although defective, she was hard-working 
 and faithful to him. She cared for him so well that upon his 
 death his younger brother, also tuberculous and with a criminal 
 record, allowed her to care for him in the same way. Their 
 children have not risen to the position of the parents and sisters 
 of the woman's consort, but have remained on her level, and now 
 have married men belonging to her strain. 
 
 Not only does such a center draw by additions of the character 
 just described, but it sends its aggressors in evil out to become 
 centers of contamination in other places. Many members of 
 these families are adversely known to social workers and county 
 officials in other portions of the State, as well as across the State 
 
 [43] 
 
line in New York. It is the testimony of a man who for years 
 has been active for the reclamation of these people that there is 
 no circle at the county-seat so exclusive and no corner of the 
 county so remote that it has not suffered from their pernicious 
 influence. A settlement of this character once well started on its 
 course defies every accepted means of regeneration. When we 
 add to the potential degeneracy of the bad blood unsanitary 
 home conditions, a prevailing low moral tone in the home and 
 without, we have an array of conditions for which nothing but 
 drastic action can hope to accomplish any permanent cure. 
 
 THE COST TO SOCIETY 
 
 No accurate estimate can be made of the cost of this unfortu- 
 nate class to the public at large. Naturally, no account can be 
 taken of their numerous pilferings, depredations, or their use of the 
 hard-earned wealth of the self-supporting part of the population. 
 Their ignorance and vice have led to their being badly affected 
 with rheumatism, tuberculosis, all forms of venereal disease, and 
 various other complaints. Physicians attend them for the most 
 part without pay. Probation officers and church visitors give 
 much time and effort gratuitously in a vain effort to help them. 
 Their drink bill is enormous. Every holiday and Saturday night 
 sees many of them intoxicated, and extra police duty is required 
 to keep them from harming other people. All these and many 
 other items are incalculable and must be left out of account in 
 estimating the economic drain of this class on society. 
 
 What their presence has entailed in actual money expended for 
 their maintenance and correction may be gathered from the 
 following estimate. This is based on figures furnished by the 
 commissioner's office of the county where the heaviest incidence 
 of defectives falls and gives the cost of these defectives to this 
 county alone during the past twenty-five years: 
 
 Outdoor relief $20,000 
 
 Care of orphans 30,000 
 
 Criminal cases coming to the commissioner's ofiice for 
 
 payment 75>ooo 
 
 Criminal cases settled in court 15,000 
 
 Maintenance in county home 125,000 
 
 Total $265,000 
 
 Could this sum have been applied to the segregation of its 
 
 [44] 
 
feeble-minded women, it would have sufficed to rid the county of 
 the whole of its younger generation of undesirables. We must 
 bear in mind, however, that at present the State has no institu- 
 tion for the care of such women, nor as yet has it made adequate 
 provision for an institution of this class. The training-schools 
 for the feeble-minded are overcrowded and have long waiting 
 lists, so that, granted a public sentiment sufficiently enlightened 
 to demand custodial care for the defective woman, we have to 
 face the fact that no matter how dire her plight, there is actually 
 no place where she may be sent to insure such care. 
 
 Our short-sighted policy of outdoor relief and county care has 
 not even the merit of being inexpensive. It costs a great deal in 
 money and then serves only to aggravate the evils which it is 
 designed to cure. The people of this county have had no choice 
 in the matter. Every winter sees these freezing, half-starved 
 creatures crowding the almshouse to its capacity or coming by 
 scores to the commissioner's ofifice to beg for a lift over the cold 
 season. There has been no alternative to letting them freeze 
 and starve save in this outworn system. The county has done 
 the best it could with the means at hand. Surely it is high time 
 that the State inaugurate a more intelligent and far-reaching 
 policy which shall forever rid these sections of their unequal and 
 undeserved burden. 
 
 UNDERLYING CAUSES 
 
 All the causes productive of social unfitness can be grouped 
 under two heads: First, those which inhere in the individual as 
 the result of a morbid heredity; second, those constituting an 
 environment inimical to the proper development of the individual. 
 
 We make no pretense of analyzing all the conditions comprised 
 under these two heads, even for this particular situation, and it 
 is perhaps futile even to attempt to strike a balance between the 
 two classes of factors involved. As already pointed out, in con- 
 sidering the distribution of defectives, whenever several such 
 families are associated, many environal factors are necessarily 
 present to emphasize their unfortunate tendencies. The physi- 
 cal environment, the remoter social conditions, the economic 
 opportunity, are here surprisingly uniform, but in spite of this 
 the handicap of the home environment is frequently great enough 
 to offset all these. To be brought up to habits of indolence and 
 
 [45I 
 
an attitude of dependence and in an atmosphere which encourages 
 all their worst impulses— these are conditions which might well 
 daunt the normally equipped. With the defective, they spell 
 certain disaster. 
 
 In the following account there is no wish to stress heredity as 
 the only factor in this situation. There would hardly seem to be 
 question, however, that of all possible factors, that of a morbid 
 heredity is easily the predominating one. 
 
 Hereditary Factors. — When we inspect the list of 508 defec- 
 tives with reference to the number of families which they repre- 
 sent, we find that they occur in 194 out of a possible 3000 families 
 living in this territory. This gives an average of three defectives 
 per family, even though we leave out of account the large number 
 of border-line cases found there. 
 
 This tendency of defect to run in certain families is brought into 
 even stronger relief when we note how rarely a solitary defective 
 is found in a family of normal individuals. Although a constant 
 lookout was kept, only three such cases occurred in the whole 
 area. The first is that of a midgrade imbecile of fourteen, who 
 is unable to advance in school beyond the merest rudiments. 
 He prefers to play with little children and is constantly indulging 
 in senseless pranks. His father and mother stand high in the 
 community, and he has two sisters who are above the average in 
 ability. The second is an epileptic imbecile of twenty. He 
 was never sent to school, and can do only the simplest errands. 
 He is carefully looked after by his parents, who are prosperous 
 farmers. His brother and sister are successful — the one as a 
 teacher, the other in practical work. The third is an idio-im- 
 becile of ten years, also the son of well-to-do farmers. He 
 can speak a few words very indistinctly, is constantly active, 
 grunting, gritting his teeth, turning in a circle. Has occasional 
 violent spells. He is the youngest of a family of five. His 
 brother and sisters all attended high school and are able in va- 
 rious lines of work. All three of these imbeciles have so far 
 been kept from harmful conduct by unremitting care on the 
 part of their relatives. 
 
 The tendency of defect to follow blood lines is further empha- 
 sized by the following observation: If we select the 10 family 
 names which for generations have been notorious throughout 
 this section for good-for-nothingness, hard drinking, criminality, 
 
 I 46] 
 
and sex offense, and then study our list of 508 defectives, we find 
 that 312 of these, or more than 60 per cent., belong to these ten 
 strains. Further pedigree studies would probably increase this 
 percentage, since our list includes a number of defectives whose 
 antecedents for various reasons could not be definitely ascer- 
 tained. 
 
 The foregoing histories, too, point unmistakably to the po- 
 tency of heredity as an underlying cause in this situation. In 
 the brief accounts which follow some new proof is adduced, while 
 the larger pedigrees give new instances and also show how many 
 of the individuals whose histories have already been given are 
 bound together in a ramification of vitiated blood lines extending 
 through many generations. 
 
 Chart A* illustrates the inheritance of lack of sex control. It 
 is now known that if a person showing poor sex inhibition marries 
 a person of normal control, half the children will tend to show this 
 defect, while if both parents have poor control, all the children 
 will tend to show the same defect. In this case the mother^ came 
 from a family exhibiting much sex offense, and was wild and un- 
 principled as a girl. She had, by an unknown man, a son,^ now a 
 fine-looking young fellow of twenty-six. Seven years ago he was 
 in court on a bastardy charge, of which he was convicted. He 
 later married a feeble-minded girl*" whom he had previously se- 
 duced. He has since deserted her. Since her marriage to a 
 prosperous farmer, his mother has apparently not left the path 
 of rectitude. Of the three children from this marriage, the eldest 
 daughter at eighteen is the mother of an illegitimate child. 
 
 Chart B f illustrates the accentuation of defect through a cousin 
 marriage. We will call this the Depue family. The father of 
 Joseph Depue^ and the mother of Joseph's wife' were brother and 
 sister, and bear a name which stands for nervous defect in other 
 sections of the State. They and their children are the only repre- 
 sentatives of the family in the territory studied. Joseph was a 
 good workman when he chose to be, but drank hard and almost 
 constantly, and was very abusive to his family. His wife was 
 indolent, though amiable, and incapable of caring for her family 
 
 in any way. They came to S a dozen years ago, since which 
 
 time their destitution, the unspeakable condition of filth, abuse, 
 
 * The figures refer to individuals on the charts, 
 t See pages 49-52 inclusive. 
 
 [47] 
 
and moral laxness under which they live, have been a sore prob- 
 lem to the community. 
 
 The youngest^* of their 12 children had cleft-palate and did not 
 live. The next older^' was a cripple who never walked, and died 
 at three. All the four grown daughters are very defective men- 
 tally; three are deaf and imbecilic, and three have had children 
 bom out of wedlock. Two of them'' " are now married to men as 
 lacking as they are, and have growing families of children. Of 
 the sons, only one,^* a young man of twenty-four, is steady and 
 works hard to keep the family from absolute want. The father 
 died last year. The mother has become bedridden from rheuma- 
 tism. Her feet are bent back, and it is six years since she has 
 raised a hand to her head. She lives with the five younger chil- 
 dren and her bastard granddaughter in part of a rickety store 
 building; sits smiling all day long on an old rope bedstead, the 
 only care she has being what her deaf, imbecile daughter" can 
 give her. Bed and clothing are black with filth and covered with 
 vermin. One daughter' has been sent to a State hospital and 
 there is no question but that the rest of the family should be cared 
 for in an institution. So far, however, they have resisted and 
 outwitted every effort to have them committed. 
 
 In the next family, illustrated by Chart C,* the mother is of low 
 mentality and addicted to morphine. The father is slow, am- 
 bitionless, dishonest. All the family are neuropathic or mentally 
 defective, and irresponsible in their relations to their fellows. 
 Two daughters have married into the L. family, so notorious for 
 vagrancy and shiftlessness. One of them' is now separated from 
 her husband and leads a useless, inert existence at home. The 
 other'^ is the mother of five children. She sits about nerveless, 
 leaving them ragged, dirty, to go to school or not as they please. 
 The sons lead an aimless existence, drifting about, working oc- 
 casionally, stealing when they have an opportunity. Most of 
 them, too, are said to be victims of the morphine habit. 
 
 Chart D * illustrates graphically a small portion of a considera- 
 ble network that has barely subsisted for generations in an out- 
 of-the-way portion of the county. They live on little patches of 
 half-cleared land, which they have not the wit or ambition to 
 extend or improve to the condition of a farm. The older genera- 
 tion are all feeble-minded. All the present generation are feeble- 
 minded, indolent, good-for-nothing. Three^''"'^^ are imbeciles of 
 * See pages 49-52 inclusive. 
 [48] 
 
Explanation of Symbols for Charts A to F, which follow. 
 
 A = Alcoholic. 
 
 B = Backward. 
 
 C = Institutional Care 
 
 Cr= Criminalistic. 
 
 D = Deaf. 
 
 E = Epileptic. 
 
 F = Feeble-minded 
 
 H = Hardworking. 
 
 I = Imbecile. 
 
 P = Permanently retarded. 
 
 Q = Quarrelsome. 
 
 R = Out-door Relief. 
 
 S = Sexually Immoral. 
 
 Sh= Shiftless. 
 
 W = Vagrant, wandering disposition. 
 
 t = Died young. 
 
 Omitted in many cases where other traits 
 indicate the feeble-minded conditions. 
 
 Used of children to indicate de- 
 fective condition above grade 
 of imbecile. 
 
 [49] 
 
[so] 
 

 WO 
 
 X 
 
 u 
 
 [51] 
 
h 
 
 a 
 
 srQ 
 
 '& 
 
 i.3 
 
 p® 
 
 r-H 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 -D 
 
 t^ 
 
 ^?fek)lP ^° 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 ia 
 
 s 13 
 
 [52: 
 
a midgrade type, capable of no useful work. A fourth" married 
 an ailing, defective woman," and when she became seriously ill, 
 deserted her. She is now cared for at the County Home. The 
 younger children are sent to school very little, so that what small 
 ability they have remains undeveloped. All are growing up as 
 irresponsible and shiftless as their parents. 
 
 Another network, and a very large one, whose name is synony- 
 mous with many kinds of defect, we will call the Vennam family. 
 It is said to grow worse with every generation, and is represented 
 here by dozens of families, hardly one of whom can lay claim to 
 independence. Many, too, are decidedly vicious. A small part 
 of this network is represented by Chart E.* 
 
 The first Vennam' came to the county at the end of the eigh- 
 teenth century. With the help of his sons he cleared a large tract, 
 and when he died the holdings of several of his sons amounted to 
 500 acres. To-day there is scarcely a man of the name who 
 owns a decent farm. Many are day laborers and need to have 
 their scanty earnings helped out by county relief and the charity 
 of the kind neighbors who now own the land which their grand- 
 father cleared. They also figure largely in the criminal record, 
 usually for sex offense, larceny, and disturbing the peace. Cer- 
 tain branches of the family suffer from nervous breakdown, 
 epilepsy, insanity, and senile decay. 
 
 It is said that the sons of the first settler could not read nor 
 write, but had considerable mechanical skill. Their lack of 
 education may not have argued serious mental defect in a day 
 when schools were few. However, it is certain that they made 
 marriages only with families which to-day show many defectives. 
 Since that time many first- and second-cousin marriages have 
 occurred in most branches, which have, no doubt, served to ac- 
 centuate many traits. With increasing incompetence they have 
 more and more been crowded up the mountain-side or into mean 
 tenements in the near-by county-seat. 
 
 As an example of one of the best of this family we may take 
 that of Lou Vennam,'^ who has settled on a poor little remnant 
 of the land bequeathed by his grandfather. At sixty-five he de- 
 scribes himself as "heart worn out and all broke down with 
 nervous trouble." Trembling hands and panting breath at 
 the slightest exertion testify to the truth of his complaining. 
 * See pages 49-52 inclusive. 
 [53] 
 
Two"'" brothers died of tuberculosis and one" of softening of the 
 brain. He is married to a nervous, energetic woman'* of better 
 family. They pride themselves on keeping away from the rest 
 of their clan, and so far none of their children has made cousin 
 marriages. Two of the sons are backward and ambitionless. 
 The daughters are better, several having taught school and later 
 made fair marriages. All, so far as could be learned, are manag- 
 ing to maintain their independence, though on a relatively low 
 plane of comfort and efficiency. 
 
 Turning now to other branches, we find three families of this 
 name at the top of the highest mountain in this section, where 
 they lead an existence as gray and as bare as the lichens which 
 cling to the rocks. On the little patches of meager soil their 
 small energies cultivate scanty crops of beans and potatoes, which 
 are altogether inadequate for their families' needs. One family 
 lived for years in a little sod shelter. There, 13 children were 
 born to the mother. Now a rude shanty has been placed in 
 front of this, with a loft reached by a ladder, which serves as 
 general bed-room. The indolent, irascible father^' spends his 
 time in law suits over the land which he says was unfairly left to 
 his brothers. He collects the small wages of his sons for the 
 support of the younger children. 
 
 All three families are large. The children P^-s') ("»-™) (iso-iss) tg^al 
 27, and with one exception make up the little school there. Their 
 chief defect is an utter lack of ambition. To the north and east 
 of the "mountain" there is a prosperous Irish-American settle- 
 ment, and here, for the greater part of the year, work is plentiful. 
 Farmers say, however, it is next to impossible to get any of the 
 Vennams to do a day's work, or if they do consent to work, they 
 have so little energy as to be of small account. The general 
 verdict is, "They would rather starve on their mountain than 
 turn an honest day's work, or when the work's all done and the 
 supply of potatoes and beans runs low, they come begging for 
 something to do, knowing that we'll see they don't die of starva- 
 tion." One instinctively wonders where they will all find mates, 
 for experience indicates they will be sure to do so. Four of the 
 older girls have already married into families well known for 
 their lazy, vagrant manner of life. 
 
 In illustration of still more serious defects which occur in this 
 family we will take the descendants of another of the sons of the 
 
 [54] 
 
original Vennam. As you follow a road from the little settle- 
 ment of B you pass a group of shanties and probably over- 
 look them as being too mean for human occupancy, but one of 
 them is the home of old Bose Vennam," the only surviving grand- 
 son of the first Vennam, who lives here with his wife and un- 
 married son. They live in the utmost squalor. The only decent 
 piece of furniture visible is a cook stove. Dirty, ragged garments 
 hang on the walls or lie around on the floor, which is apparently 
 never swept. Swarms of flies are everj^where, especially on the 
 table, where a month-old newspaper serves as table-cloth and the 
 unwashed dishes do duty from meal to meal. What little mind Bose 
 once had is quite gone. He should be cared for as a child, but is 
 not. Consequently, he is as objectionable as can be. He can only 
 mumble a few words and do silly things. When he becomes vio- 
 lent or runs half-clothed into the road, his son and his scolding, 
 hard-faced wife lock him in the stable for the ensuing day or night. 
 
 This son'^ is an odd character. He is able to read and write a 
 little and sometimes drive a hard bargain. He owns a hundred 
 acres of cheap, unimproved land, but he rarely does a day's 
 work. He keeps a few half-starved cows and a span of decrepit 
 horses in a tumble-down shed. Frequently the neighbors have 
 to interfere to have them properly fed and cared for. Whatever 
 cultivation the land receives is done by his brother Justus.** The 
 latter, too, is very ignorant, but is fairly industrious. He mar- 
 ried about a year ago a daughter of a notorious clan, to be de- 
 scribed later. She is avoided by all her neighbors, and is known 
 as a termagant, though she keeps her house and her children 
 clean. In her frequent altercations with her husband tin pans 
 and kettles, chairs, and other furniture follow his retreat out-of- 
 doors. She recounts her mixed marital experiences thus, leaving 
 out various interludes of promiscuity: "Yes, I was married to 
 H. This is his child. I couldn't get along with him, and when 
 I found he hadn't had a divorce from his first wife, that showed 
 I wasn't married to him. I up and left him and married J. We 
 didn't get along either. He was easy and let his brothers coax 
 him up to New York State; so then I married Justus." 
 
 The case of the third and eldest brother'" is even worse and hcis 
 already been alluded to in preceding pages. He and his wife 
 are quarrelsome, alcoholic, ne'er-do-well. They, too, live on an 
 unimproved mountain farm. All that is attempted here in the 
 
 [55 1 
 
matter of cultivation is done by the youngest daughter, who, 
 since last spring, has been away owing to a violent quarrel with 
 her father. The two other daughters and the son are sexually 
 immoral. The eldest daughter has had four children by as many 
 men. She spent last winter with a young man belonging to 
 good family at the home of the notorious Betsy B., and in the 
 spring the young man was called to court on a bastardy charge. 
 The case was settled for $200. 
 
 This section is found to be the home of another socially de- 
 generate group, which we may designate as the Fale-Anwals 
 or the Wal Tribe, a portion of which is shown on Chart F.* 
 The progenitors of this group came to the State at the close 
 of the eighteenth century. They were Jason Anwal, a good- 
 natured Dutchman, belonging to a family which in other States 
 takes high rank for professional success. He had been cast off 
 by them because of his marriage with Molly Fale, a half-breed 
 Oneida Indian. With this couple came two brothers of Molly, 
 whose wives were either half-breed or degenerate whites. The 
 descendants of these three couples have intermarried and amal- 
 gamated with a strain of Black Portuguese and the lowest white 
 element of this section. To-day the connection numbers hun- 
 dreds of individuals, and wherever it is found is a synonym for 
 low mentality, alcoholism, licentiousness, and deeds of violence. 
 
 The whole group is characterized by inability to advance in 
 school. Many of them never learn to read, write, or handle 
 figures. Others advance to the third or fourth grade, where 
 they are tolerated until released from compulsory attendance, 
 and then lead a hand-to-mouth existence at any rough work 
 which comes to hand. So generally is their deficiency recognized 
 that the fact that one member of the tribe once finished the eighth 
 grade and qualified as a district school teacher is regarded with 
 general wonder. The other noteworthy exception to the general 
 rule for the clan is a man who has gone to another State and be- 
 come a skilled artisan and there supports his family in comfort. 
 Many of the women are potent factors in the spread of venereal 
 disease. Physicians state that practically all who belong to this 
 connection suffer from it in some form. It has been a great 
 cause of mortality among them, and although much of their 
 promiscuity occurs among themselves, there are, nevertheless, a 
 * See pages 49-52 inclusive. 
 [56I 
 
considerable number of women who cross the State Hne into New 
 York or lead periodically the lives of prostitutes in other cities 
 of this State. 
 
 No detailed analysis of this racial mixture has been attempted. 
 It is doubtful whether reliable results would repay the effort, 
 since in many branches the sex promiscuity which has prevailed 
 from the first makes it practically impossible to follow with cer- 
 tainty the pedigree lines. There appears, however, to have been 
 little blending of racial characteristics. A few of the clan are 
 almost uniformly fair, with nothing to suggest the Indian in 
 figure or physiognomy. They are thrifty, sometimes to the point 
 of parsimony, good-natured, open, and fairly honest. Such 
 branches have considerable pride in not marrying into lines which 
 show marked Indian character. One of their number, on being 
 asked by a dark-skinned Fale what the Indians he had seen on a 
 reservation were like, reports himself as answering, "Go home and 
 look at your own wife and then you will see," adding with pride, 
 "We don't have any one like that in our family." In other 
 branches the straight hair, coppery color, high cheek-bones, and 
 thin lips predominate. They are sometimes fine physical speci- 
 mens, but lazy, thieving, irresponsible. Many show, too, the 
 extreme taciturnity, vindictiveness, and cruelty usually asso- 
 ciated with the [Indian nature. Here there is often a similar 
 pride in being free from the strain of negro blood. They boast: 
 "We ain't none of them blue niggers," by which they mean a 
 type comparatively rare, with full, dark eyes, blunt features, 
 hair which may be curly or wavy, and dark skin deepening to 
 bluish black around the lips. These are also lazy, ambitionless, 
 and occasionally ferocious. This distribution of traits would 
 indicate that mental and moral qualities are somehow linked 
 together with certain physical characteristics. 
 
 With the exception of a number of self-respecting families 
 who, by industry and thrift, have succeeded in paying for farms, 
 this whole group may be denominated as socially unfit. How 
 largely its representatives have figured in appeals for charity and 
 in the discipline of the courts may be gathered from the following 
 facts: The name Anwal occurs 190 times in the county records of 
 outdoor relief of the past ten years. This means an average of 19 
 families in each year. In the same record the name Fale occurs 
 70 times. In the criminal docket of the past twenty-five years 
 
 [57] 
 
we find the name Anwal 127 times, and the name Fale 95 times. 
 These offenses are largely disturbing the peace, assault and bat- 
 tery, larceny, and keeping disorderly house, though cases of 
 murder and arson are not lacking. 
 
 We may take up its history at any point and follow it whither 
 we will. Everywhere it presents the same story of dependence, 
 often amounting to destitution, flagrant disregard of convention, 
 and deeds of cruelty and violence; all this in a section where 
 others find it possible to live blameless lives can argue nothing 
 but an appalling defectiveness. 
 
 Let us begin their story with one of the first families visited. 
 This is the family of old Danny Anwal.^' The house, which is a 
 decent frame structure, would make a respectable appearance 
 but for the accumulation of barrels, boxes, and worn-out farm 
 implements, which litter the yard. Inside it has the usual lack 
 of anything but the merest household necessities, but is quite 
 clean and sightly, for Damy,^^ the wife, shows a disposition to 
 make the best of matters. Danny has since died, and when vis- 
 ited was suffering from so many complaints that he rarely did 
 more than hobble from a couch to a chair in the front door. His 
 talk, though slightly inarticulate, had a certain picturesqueness, 
 lent it by frequent repetition and a sing-song utterance. When 
 asked where he had served in the Civil War he replied, "Go 
 way, go way, go way off." Then, by dint of hard thinking, he 
 recollected a few names which, however, had little meaning for 
 him. His enlistment as a soldier was undoubtedly the best thing 
 he ever did. He never learned to read or write, though he had 
 an appreciable idea of number. He established his claim to a pen- 
 sion, and though he once bought a small piece of ground, his fitful 
 efforts and lack of all plan or purpose in cultivating it brought in 
 nothing but a crop of debts. He and his sons have figured in 
 many suits, chiefly for assault and battery and thieving. 
 
 Damy, his patient, solemn-visaged wife, is his second cousin, 
 and explains how it was natural to marry "'lation 'cause they all 
 lived together in the same State" (meaning township). She 
 has a fondness for ornament. Her wrinkled neck is hung with 
 beads, lockets and chains, and there is a frill of lace in the neck of 
 her soiled calico dress. In her mournful voice she relates how 
 most of her 11 or 12 children (she doesn't remember whether it 
 was 1 1 or 12) lived to run about and then just died. She couldn't 
 
 [58] 
 
tell what " ailded " them. The only daughter to grow to woman- 
 hood died in her middle twenties of a "decline." A son,"' who 
 inherited his father's big frame and bragging ways and early be- 
 came a hard drinker, was murdered, they say, by a rival clique, 
 because he always came out first in a wrestling bout. Of the 
 three living sons, one"^ is sober and hard-working, though in- 
 clined to hoard his small savings and let the family suffer. The 
 second"^ has had an operation for cancer, leaving him unable to 
 work. He is also a great drunkard. His wife has deserted him 
 and there are no children. The third son'^" is an imbecile, can- 
 not talk plainly, drags himself about on the stumps of legs which 
 were burned off to the knees as he lay in a drunken stupor. Truly 
 a melancholy family, but one which at present carries no particu- 
 lar menace, since there are no children to carry on the line of 
 degeneracy and defect. 
 
 Not so harmless are the next of kin in this family. Danny's 
 sister is married to one of the few honest, industrious Anwals. 
 They own a little frame house which is furnished with some com- 
 fort and kept clean. He drinks, but only occasionally has he 
 had to answer in court for his conduct. His wife has been loose 
 in her relationships, and for a year lived with a neighbor. All three 
 daughters have been prostitutes, the youngest, with her husband, 
 being notorious for their drunken sprees, already described. 
 
 Damy's fraternity have all been notorious in one way or an- 
 other. One^' deserted from the Union Army, and until his death 
 was noted for violence, debauchery, frequent resisting of officers of 
 the law, and breaking prison. His sons and daughter shared his 
 character and reputation. A sister*' of Damy lived as the wife 
 of her uncle. Her son'* has been good-for-nothing all his life. 
 He alternated between the almshouse and a vagrant existence 
 with various women. When tired of the responsibility, he turned 
 them adrift and gave the children into the charge of the county. 
 Two of the latter, who are very defective, have been for years 
 boarded at county expense. They have been placed in homes 
 repeatedly, but always returned for incapacity and thieving pro- 
 pensities. A third is now at Glen Mills. Some years ago the 
 father stole a young feeble-minded woman'' from the County 
 Home, and after the birth of three children turned her over to 
 his eldest son, with whom she now lives as his wife. Another 
 daughter" of Damy's sister has lived for years as the wife of 
 
 [59] 
 
her uncle,^^ Damy's brother Jess. She is very feeble-minded, 
 cannot talk plainly, has no idea of number or of the management 
 of their little place. Her eldest son" is like his father, an habitual 
 drunkard, ignorant, idle, violent. Her imbecile daughter^^ has 
 married at fifteen the youngest son of Maria F. She is silly and 
 wayward, and does nothing but run the country roads. Her six- 
 year-old brother^' is imbecilic. 
 
 And so the story goes. The characteristics of many others in 
 the network may be gathered from the chart, which shows only 
 a small portion of the connection. Here belong, too, Wesley A., 
 Maria F., Betsy B., Katie F., and the wife of Charles D., 62 of 
 
 the defectives in the schools and most of the inhabitants of L 
 
 and M towns. Follow it as far as we may, everywhere its 
 
 story is one of derelictions which make it a burden to the com- 
 munity, or lawlessness which brings still worse consequences. 
 
 Could we eliminate this and the Vennam network from the 
 territory, it would reduce the total of defectives by 221. Divid- 
 ing 287, the number remaining, by 16,000, the total population, 
 we should get i .8 per cent, as a percentage for the whole territory. 
 In other words, the unrestrained propagation of these two net- 
 works in a small portion of the area has practically doubled the 
 proportion for the whole territory. Surely, no more convincing 
 argument could be asked for the importance to the State of the dis- 
 covery and stamping out of its defective and degenerate strains. 
 
 Had these people been left to themselves or in any real sense 
 been isolated from the better elements of the population, import- 
 ant contributing causes to their unfitness might be sought in 
 their environment. So far as the region in general is concerned, 
 it presents surprising uniformity of external condition. The 
 families who have been established here for years manage to get 
 on only by strict application to the business in hand, which in 
 most cases is farming. During the last sixty years a good many 
 sturdy Irish, Welsh, and German immigrants have gone into un- 
 reclaimed sections and hewn out of the primitive forest excellent 
 farms with all modern improvements. They have their churches, 
 their grange, their children in the high schools. Meanwhile, 
 this concentration of degenerates has been taking place, not in an 
 isolated corner of the territory, but on the very outskirts of the 
 county-seat, and more than this, these degenerate stocks have 
 sent out their representatives to form an entire ward of the 
 
 [60] 
 
county-seat and to found a segregated section in the shadow of 
 one of its largest churches. No means yet employed by the good 
 people of the city have availed to check the growth of this de- 
 generate element. Generous private relief, the maintenance of 
 a chapel and of special classes, constant efforts of the Salvation 
 Army, discipline of the courts, and the work of the commission- 
 ers — all these means have not proved remedial in any permanent 
 sense. In many cases they have produced the unexpected effect 
 of aggravating the situation. The root of the evil lies not pri- 
 marily in the external conditions, which the good people of the 
 community have been trying to alleviate to the best of their 
 ability, but in the inherently defective individual. The lighten- 
 ing of stress and struggle has only made it easier for him to live 
 on, procreate, and multiply his kind. 
 
 SUGGESTED REMEDIES 
 
 There are, then, no local means which can be successfully 
 applied for the cure of such a situation as is outlined here. No 
 one is more fully convinced of the futility of such means than 
 those who have tried them and have failed. The sentiment of 
 the better element throughout the section is strongly in favor of 
 State interference, and there has even been agitation for the es- 
 tablishment of a local colony for the segregation of this particular 
 clan. No sensible person to-day questions the State's authority 
 to cleanse a polluted water-supply or take any measures deemed 
 necessary to stop the spread of disease in a community. Why 
 should it not exercise the same jurisdiction with regard to these 
 plague spots, the sources of moral contagion? 
 
 State interference may be conceived as assuming two forms: 
 First, supervision of marriage by an effective marriage law; 
 second, segregation or sterilization of the unfit classes. As for 
 the first. State supervision of marriage can do little to prevent 
 the mating of the mentally and morally irresponsible. Too 
 often they dispense entirely with the formality of marriage. 
 What is needed is legislation securing the custodial care of all 
 who have demonstrated their mental incapacity and moral ir- 
 responsibility. Under the present commitment act the initial 
 steps toward commitment of defectives rest with the parents or 
 guardian, and they are usually the last persons capable of decid- 
 ing what is good for their children or the community at large. 
 
 [61] 
 
There is crying need for a new commitment act, providing for the 
 systematic investigation of the chronically dependent or delin- 
 quent, and their commitment to appropriate institutions. 
 
 Such organized effort to rid the State of its most pernicious 
 elements need not prove a great financial burden. A person who 
 has wit enough to be a nuisance because of his thieving or schem- 
 ing to get along without work can usually, with a little super- 
 vision, work enough to maintain himself. There are still forests 
 to be felled, and stump lands to be cleared, where the crude en- 
 ergy of the men could be successfully applied. There is plenty 
 of routine work at which the women would be self-supporting. 
 The simple needs of these people would require a relatively in- 
 expensive type of building and equipment. 
 
 Most of them would consider it a blessing to escape from the 
 burden of bearing and rearing children. Said a young feeble- 
 minded woman, the mother of seven, as she pulled back the cov- 
 ers from her latest bom, twins six weeks old: "What do you 
 think the Lord sent these to me for?" The visitor forbore com- 
 ment on the inscrutable ways of Providence. She might have 
 explained that the fault lay with the social order which allowed 
 this poor woman to marry at all. She is not so much the victim 
 of adverse circumstances as she is the victim of an intelligent 
 citizenship which knows the certain end of such neglect, the 
 misery for her and the multiplied defect in her progeny, and yet 
 allows the evil to continue. 
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 The facts brought out by this study may be summarized thus : 
 
 I. Preliminary survey in Northeastern Pennsylvania reveals 
 at least six areas which may be regarded as centers of degeneracy 
 and defect — 
 
 1. They furnish a disproportionate number of court and 
 charitable cases and thus unduly sap the resources of the 
 normal population. 
 
 2. They constitute sources of physical decay and moral 
 contamination, which threaten the soundness of the whole 
 social fabric. 
 
 II. Intensive study of a restricted area gave the following re- 
 sults: 
 
 I . No section of the territory is entirely free from defectives 
 
 162] 
 
excepting a narrow zone along its northeastern boundary 
 which is the home of the descendants of Irish, Welsh 
 and German immigrants of a generation ago. 
 
 2. There is great irregularity in the distribution of these de- 
 fectives. The percentages vary from 1.72 per cent, 
 throughout the greater part of this territory to 26.6 per 
 cent, and 57.7 per cent, in certain zones, which may be 
 denominated centers of degeneracy and defect. 
 
 3. The heavy incidence of degenerates is primarily due to 
 the unrestrained propagation of two notoriously defective 
 networks, which have flourished here for more than a 
 century. With these eliminated, the ratio becomes 1.8 
 per cent, for the whole area. 
 
 4. Practically all the matings are with degenerate stock, the 
 only exception being when a marriage occurs with a weak 
 member of a better family on the border-line of deficiency. 
 The resulting family is always below the standard of 
 the better family, thus giving little hope of regeneration 
 through this means. 
 
 5. The fecundity of the defective woman was found to be 
 twice that of the normaf woman in the same area. This 
 high birth-rate is not offset by greater mortality among 
 the defectives, since the survival ratio in this instance is 
 also found to be twice that of children of normal families. 
 
 6. The centers of defectiveness have flourished where reme- 
 dial agencies have been most active for the betterment of 
 external conditions. 
 
 7. Conditions in the centers of degeneracy are growing worse. 
 They are the despair of all who have attempted local 
 means of remedy. They call for State interference, 
 which would prevent marriage into the bad strains and 
 secure to their worst representatives permanent institu- 
 tional care. 
 
 These results suggest further the following general conclusions : 
 For the effective handling of the problem of the feeble-minded 
 in this State there should be — 
 
 1. Location of its worst centers of degeneracy and defect. 
 
 2. Study of local conditions at these centers, which shall 
 secure registration of notoriously bad strains. 
 
 3. Prohibitive legislation in the form of an effective marriage 
 law, which shall restrain from marrying into such strains. 
 
 4. Legislation which shall secure commitment to appropriate 
 institutions in cases where a marriage law would fail to 
 check the increase of defectives. 
 
 [63 I 
 
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 DATE DUE 
 
 
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 GAYLORD 
 
 
 
 PRINTEDIN U.S.A.