THE DATA 15 



presence of other factors. For example, if a man was 

 strongly alcoholic, it is almost impossible to determine 

 whether he was also feeble-minded, because the reports 

 usually declare that the only trouble with him was that 

 he was always drunk, and they say if he had been sober, 

 he would have been all right. This may be true, but 

 on the other hand, it is quite possible that he was feeble- 

 minded also. 



After some experience, the field worker becomes ex- 

 pert in inferring the condition of those persons who are 

 not seen, from the similarity of the language used in 

 describing them to that used in describing persons whom 

 she has seen. 



In Deborah's case, the woman first visited was the one 

 who interested herself in the child and its mother when 

 the latter had just given birth to her baby in the alms- 

 house. From this woman was learned the subsequent 

 history of Deborah's mother as given in the first part of 

 this description. But references, supplied by her, soon 

 led to further discoveries. The present family was 

 found living within twenty miles of what was afterwards 

 learned to be its ancestral home and in a region that was 

 neither the slums of a city nor the wild desolation of the 

 extreme rural community, but rather in the midst of a 

 populous farming country, one of the best districts in 



