OF A CERTAIN PENNSYLVANIA FAMILY. 91 



XV. RELATIVE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT AND THE 



BLOOD. 



Those who attach a relatively greater influence to environment than 

 to inherent traits may argue that the increased efficiency of the better 

 lines has been due to improvement in external conditions rather than 

 improvement in the innate qualities. While there can be little ques- 

 tion that increase of opportunity in a more favorable environment 

 has been a factor here, its chief value seems to lie in the wider range 

 it has offered for marriage selection. In the great majority of instances 

 those who moved aw^ay from the homestead carried little capital with 

 them other than their willingness and ability to work. 



The 400 acres originally owned by Aaron Rufer proved to be among 

 the most fertile in the county; only 50 acres of this tract went to his 

 ablest son; the greater part w^as bequeathed to his more inefficient 

 children, who thus had a good economic start of which they were not 

 able to take advantage. Succeeding generations have seen these 

 holdings sold off bit by bit to their more enterprising neighbors, until 

 the total number of acres now in the possession of the Rufers is 47.5, 

 and these are lying idle or so badly tilled that they yield practically 

 nothing. 



Three families, who make their home here, live in circumstances 

 which would have shamed pioneer standards of a century ago. The 

 men are occasionally taken as farm-hands or to do odd jobs in the 

 village. The women work sometimes by the day for their more pros- 

 perous neighbors, who put up with their slackness and inefficiency and 

 usually overpay them. They would all have starved to death years 

 ago but for this charity, helped out as it is by the profits of clandestine 

 prostitution and the friendly county aid. In no sense do these people 

 suffer social ostracism. They attend the village school and are wel- 

 comed in the religious and social gatherings of the parish church. 

 They are in and out of the houses of the better families in the section, 

 who in the main seem ready to give them every advantage which they 

 themselves enjoy, except to marry them. 



Their degeneracy can not be traced to the untoward conditions of a 

 congested city life or to the isolation of a backwoods existence. For a 

 century they have been sharers in the ideals and opportunities of rela- 

 tively progressive people. Their degeneracy and defect can be looked 

 upon as nothing else than as the cumulative result of the mating of 

 defect with the defects of other bad strains. 



Even in the improved environment of the better lines, whenever 

 marriage of the inefficient takes place with defective members of the 

 inferior lines or other bad stock, there is a decided drop in ability and 

 efficiency. This is well illustrated in Line A. IV-7, who was decent, 

 a fair housekeeper, though devoid of foresight, had by IV-6 a daughter 



