DEGENERATION. 287 



is scandalous and infamous." (Whymper ; Scrambles 

 among the Alps.) 



True charity would give these creatures not less 

 helpful care, but a care which would guarantee that each 

 individual cretin should be the last of his generation. 



In isolation as under charity, weakness may mate 

 with weakness and perpetuate degeneration. The clas- 

 sical studies of Dr. Dugdale into the 

 Degeneration in ^^^yj-al history of the group of degen- 

 erates called "the Jukes" shows that 

 the conditions of the slums may be transferred to the 

 forests. Outside of the swift current of life in a shel- 

 tered nook of the mountains this family 

 The Tukes. , , , , ,.,. ^ t a 



of cutthroats and prostitutes found a 



place for development. The crush of a great city is 

 in some degree an instrument of purification. It brings 

 evil and weakness into close competition with wisdom 

 and strength, and the former come to speedy destruc- 

 tion. The evils of the city rise from corrosion rather 

 than from competition. There is nothing in the pure 

 air of the mountains that will purify the lineage of 

 thieves and paupers. Doubtless the fact of isolation 

 and freedom from stress of competition has been a fac- 

 tor in the preservation of the decaying Jukes, and the 

 same conditions bring about the results in the declining 

 classes driven from the plains to the mountains in other 

 parts of the world. The Great Smoky Mountains are 

 not responsible for the poor whites of 

 the highlands of North Carolina. These 

 people belong to the lineage of England's pauperism 

 transported first to her colonies, afterward driven from 

 the plains to the mountains because of their inability to 

 keep slaves, and since preserved there by their isola- 

 tion from new currents of life. In like manner, the 

 lowest type of negroes is preserved in the isolation of 



