THE INFLUENCES OF NURTUEE 113 



isolated region, now within two hours' railroad journey 

 of New York, there drifted nearly a century and a half 

 ago a number of persons whose constitution did not 

 fit them for participation in a highly organised society. 

 There were, of course, various degrees of inadequacy ; 

 and the retired, well-wooded, and well-watered valley 

 [one recalls Mr. H. G. Wells's wonderful picture of 

 ' the country of the blind '] gave many of the immi- 

 grants a chance to pull themselves together. It was 

 a change of nurture, and some profited by it ; but per- 

 haps the conditions were too easy. Among the immi- 

 grants who did not profit by the change were some 

 uncontrolled types who had been ' assisted out ' of 

 Europe, with a strong hereditary bias towards evil. 

 From such came the Jukes. Here are some of them : 

 Max, the hunter and the fisher, the jolly, alcoholic 

 ne'er-do-well ; Lem, the stealer of sheep ; Lawrence, 

 the licentious, free with his ' gun ' ; Margaret and Delia, 

 the wantons ; and Bell, who had three children by 

 various negroes." Dr. Davenport, who writes the 

 preface to Dr. Estabrook's investigation of the later 

 history of the Jukes, points out that inbreeding of 

 originally bad stock made matters worse, for defects 

 were brought in from both sides. Some outbreeding 

 with good stock yielded progeny who were able to hold 

 a good position in organised society. 



Mr. Dugdale was a quiet reticent Englishman resident 

 in New York, who had an unusually lively faith in 

 political education, and was keenly interested in social 

 reform. On an official visit to jails in County ' Z ' in 



H 



