FACTS ABOUT THE KALLIKAK FAMILY 77 



this girl had married her own cousin and that the pair 

 were living on the outskirts of a country town, with 

 this deaf boy and four of their own children. 



Arrived at this place, the field worker first sought the 

 school where these children were supposed to go, hoping 

 to obtain some light on the question of their mentality 

 and also to learn their school record. She found that 

 they so seldom attended school that the teacher could 

 give very little information regarding them. By dint 

 of persistent inquiry, the family was discovered liv- 

 ing in the back shed of a dilapidated country tene- 

 ment. 



It was a bitter, cold day in February and about 

 eleven in the morning when the field worker knocked 

 at the door. Used as she was to sights of misery and 

 degradation, she was hardly prepared for the spectacle 

 within. The father, a strong, healthy, broad-shoul- 

 dered man, was sitting helplessly in a corner. The 

 mother, a pretty woman still, with remnants of ragged 

 garments drawn about her, sat in a chair, the picture 

 of despondency. Three children, scantily clad and 

 with shoes that would barely hold together, stood about 

 with drooping jaws and the unmistakable look of the 

 feeble-minded. Another child, neither more intelligent 

 nor better clad, was attempting to wash a few greasy 



