56 HEREDITY AND SOCIAL FITNESS 



mischief. The following is an instance: Once when his foster-father 

 had just finished giving the house a coat of white paint, IV-9, then a 

 grown man, secured some red paint and daubed it all over so that it 

 had to be painted again. This man beat his wife shamefully, and she 

 came back to the home in the dead of winter, trundling their daughter 

 in a little cart. lV-8 now "keeps house" for V-199, Line D, and his 

 two children. Is a small, bent woman with long face and knobby fore- 

 head. Keeps the house neat and is devoted to this man's little sons. 

 Her steady stream of inconsequential talk, coupled with curious judg- 

 ments of people and events, mark her as plainly defective. Her little 

 daughter (V-7), born 1908, was taken by the Salvation Army and 

 placed by them with a family where the father drank and abused the 

 child, so that his wife feared that he would kill her. A neighbor, whose 

 sympathies were aroused by the situation, became so attached to her 

 that they have legally adopted her and are giving her a good home. 

 She is a slender, wide-awake, attractive little thing, active and helpful 

 in the home. Is somewhat indulged by the whole family. She has 

 pretty ways, but many little mannerisms already suggest her mother. 



IV-10, the son of III-l, born 1866, is reported as immoral, good-for- 

 nothing, with even less ability to learn than his sisters. Stole and 

 cohabited with various women. Later was convicted of larceny and 

 sent to the Western Penitentiary, where he died about 20 years ago of 

 typhoid fever. A surviving daughter has not been located. 



The youngest surviving daughter of III-l is IV-12, born 1871, 

 whose mentality is on a par with that of her brother. She was har- 

 bored for a time at the county home. When she left to keep house for 

 her father, fell in with IV-13, who is thought to be a bastard son of a 

 woman of good family. He is alcoholic and very abusive in his family ; 

 is not stupid, but shows much small cunning. They had two daughters, 

 one of whom died, the surviving one (V-10), born 1883, was married off 

 by her mother at 13 to get her away from the father's cruel treatment. 

 She is now, at 20, an overgrown child, the mother of five children. She 

 is trim and rather pretty, but without orderliness, neatness, or sense of 

 obligation so far as her family is concerned. She is thought to carry 

 on the business of prostitution on a small scale. 



Her husband (V-9) is the only son of a cousin of the vagrant, sexually 

 immoral III-35, Line D. The antecedents of his mother are unknown, 

 since she came from Germany alone and separated from her husband 

 shortly after this son's birth. He (V-9) describes himself as a physiog- 

 nomist and a phrenologist, deeply interested in spiritual things and a 

 natural-born musician. In point of fact, he is a big, queer-looking 

 fellow, his mind seething with curious and unrelated ideas, opinionated 

 and so disagreeable in his person that people hesitate to employ him 

 on the rare occasions he chooses to work. The field-worker learned that 



