36 HEREDITY AND SOCIAL FITNESS 



primitive manner of life. Their kitchen is bare and dirty, chickens run- 

 ning in and out of the open door, Hving-room crowded with farm 

 machinery and broken furniture. Interest extends to her few im- 

 mediate relatives. The information she can give is restricted to: 

 "Billy," (her nephew,) '*he is gone away off"; "I'm the only girl that's 

 left"; "I don't know how old I am, but I was born in buckwheat time." 



The second (III-36), born 1829, the only son, who inherited nearly 

 70 acres of good farming land from his father. He, too, was without 

 sense of number and proportion, and although he went to school for 

 several years, w'as never able to learn anything. He was too feeble- 

 minded to plan his Avork carefully or successfully and too careless and 

 slack to do well what was planned for him. The land which he did not 

 sell fell into disuse, and his neighbors, out of pity, used to hire him to do 

 simple tasks for them, but he could not be relied upon to use even the 

 hoe properly. In his old age he went to the county home to die. 



In 1854, III-36 married III-35, born about 1830. Her- immediate 

 family were of fairly good repute, thrifty, poor, hardworking, and 

 non-aggressive, but belonging to a strain showing lack of sex control. 

 She never w^anted to learn anything at school and was very wild and 

 immoral as a girl, the common property of the dissolute young men of 

 the neighborhood. She had one illegitimate child and was about to 

 have another when her father persuaded simple-minded III-36 to 

 marry her and provide against further trouble of the sort. She has 

 preserved her reputation for licentiousness throughout her married 

 life, and has had at least one child who is said to be "not a Rufer" 

 during this time. While her brother and seven sisters found decent, 

 fairly respectable partners and founded families of self-respecting 

 citizens, and in most cases have bettered their conditions, she speedily 

 sank below the condition of her husband's people, taking no interest 

 in her housekeeping or in the bringing up of her large family of children. 

 The house was never clean, nor was the food well cooked; everything 

 going without plan or purpose while the mother raced the countryside 

 five days out of every week, getting entertainment for herself and her 

 children from anyone on whom she could impose. She is still living 

 with one of her sons in a dilapidated log house reached by a path 

 through neglected fields. In spite of her great age she continues to be 

 active and vigorous, but is too nearly blind to do any work; accordingly 

 the filth and confusion of the place are unspeakable. The low walls 

 are black with smoke, the dirt could be taken off with a hoe, and it is 

 impossible to tell the original color of covers and cushions, so faded 

 and soiled are they. Her mind is still fairly clear and memory good; 

 she is cheerful, and has a kindly spirit toward the whole world. She 

 spends her time smoking by the stove or on a rickety porch, or visiting 

 the few old cronies in the village. 



