CHAPTER III 



WHAT IT MEANS 



THE foregoing charts and text tell a story as instructive 

 as it is amazing. We have here a family of good Eng- 

 lish blood of the middle class, settling upon the original 

 land purchased from the proprietors of the state in 

 Colonial times, and throughout four generations main- 

 taining a reputation for honor and respectability of 

 which they are justly proud. Then a scion of this fam- 

 ily, in an unguarded moment, steps aside from the 

 paths of rectitude and with the help of a feeble-minded 

 girl, starts a line of mental defectives that is truly 

 appalling. After this mistake, he returns to the tradi- 

 tions of his family, marries a woman of his own quality, 

 and through her carries on a line of respectability equal 

 to that of his ancestors. 



We thus have two series from two different mothers 

 but the same father. These extend for six generations. 

 Both lines live out their lives in practically the same 

 region and in the same environment, except in so far as 

 they themselves, because of their different characters, 

 changed that environment. Indeed, so close are they 



so 



