HEREDITY VS. ENVIRONMENT 



An Attempt to Show that the Jukes Might Have Been Reclaimed if Given a Good 

 Environment — Evidence Alleged Has no Critical Value 



A. H. EsTABROOK, Indianapolis, Ind. 



THE Children's Aid Society of 

 New York, in the "Emigration of 

 Homeless Children to the Coun- 

 try," 1910, tells of one little 

 foundling (page 7) who, upon investiga- 

 tion, was found to be descended from 

 "Margaret, the mother of criminals," a 

 member of the Juke family of criminals, 

 paupers and defectives, described by 

 Dugdale in 1874. In describing the 

 Jukes and this case, the pamphlet says, 

 "Had the little Margaret and her 

 sisters been born fifty years later, 

 their unfortunate parentage and 

 environment would undoubtedly have 

 brought them to the attention of some 

 one of the organized associations to be 

 found in New York City and throughout 

 the State, for the rescue and care of 

 just such neglected children. They 

 would have been saved both from the 

 criminal negligence of the parents, and 

 the no less culpable indifference of the 

 public, before their innocence had been 

 lost and their youth perverted. Trans- 

 ferred to some good home among God- 

 fearing people, amid proper environment 

 and under judicious guidance, they 

 would, in all probability, have developed 

 into good true-hearted women, leaving 

 behind them a line of descendants who 

 in honesty and uprightness would have 

 been a blessing, instead of a curse, to 

 the community in which they lived 

 and have been reckoned among the 

 good and faithful, who are the backbone 

 of the nation. That this is not a fancy 

 picture, the concluding incident in 

 connection with this family will show." 

 The article goes on to say, "Twenty 

 years ago there came into the care of 

 the Children's Aid Society a little 

 foundling, who, upon investigation, 

 proved to be a descendant of this same 

 Margaret in the seventh generation. 

 A home for the child was found in the 



country several miles from the nearest 

 town, with a kind-hearted widow whose 

 own children had grown up. A careful 

 supervision was kept over him, and for 

 ten years satisfactory^ reports were 

 received as to his progress. Then the 

 little fellow began to develop a spirit of 

 unruliness, and owing to the advanced 

 age of his foster mother it was thought 

 advisable to place him under firmer 

 guidance, and he was removed to a 

 distant State and placed in a home far 

 from town, where firm discipline was 

 joined to great kindness. Here he 

 remained until 1901. He had then 

 reached his young manhood and 

 achieved a thoroughly good reputation 

 in the community, and he struck out 

 for himself with a good moral founda- 

 tion on which to build his subsequent 

 career. Had he been allowed to grow 

 up after the manner of his ancestors, 

 who is prepared to foretell the result?" 

 x\s for the first part of the statement, 

 no one knows whether Margaret or 

 any of her sisters was normal mentally 

 and so capable of benefitting by the 

 improved environment which they 

 should have had, or was feeble-minded 

 and so would not have been able, under 

 any environmental condition, to produce 

 a line of descendants that would be good 

 citizens. 



sam's case proves nothing 



Now the young boy, whom we shall 

 call Sam for the sake of a name, was 

 the illegitimate child of his mother, the 

 father being unknown. It may be, then, 

 that the boy inherited potential good 

 traits from the unknown father. The 

 recent investigation of the Jukes has 

 shown that many of the intelligent, 

 industrious men of the neighborhood 

 had immoral relations with many of the 

 Juke women, and this child may have 



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