A REJOINDER 113 



until they are fourteen years of age. When they leave 

 school some of them remain upon the island and are 

 employed in farm work by the crofter upon his 

 croft. It was expected that under these conditions 

 they would become healthy, useful, law-abiding 

 citizens. Taken from the slums and from their 

 parents' evil influences, and in many cases deprived 

 of all knowledge of whom their parents were, and 

 placed under those healthy conditions which it is sup- 

 posed had produced the native population, it was 

 optimistically believed that a great transformation was 

 going to be effected. It was thought that the young and 

 plastic minds and bodies of the offspring of congenital 

 civic wrecks were to be turned into successful farmers 

 and useful citizens. Doubtless in a few cases there 

 have been ostensible successes. I say ostensible, 

 because in some of the supposed successful cases 

 with which I am acquainted, a sufficiently long 

 period has not elapsed to enable one to judge of 

 permanent success, and in a few cases it is possible 

 that the ancestry has not been bad. But these 

 cases are outside my present contention, which is, 

 that environment cannot modify an inherently had 

 stock. What we require to know, in attempting to judge 

 of the success or failure of these efforts, is not that 

 a particular girl has been in service for a few years 

 and is doing well, but we should seek to know what 

 has been the nature of her career when her life is 

 over and her children are old enough to show their 

 worth or worthlessness. Brass may be polished 

 and shine like gold for a little period, but it is time 



