78 THE KALLIKAK FAMILY 



dishes in cold water. The deaf boy was nowhere to be 

 seen. On being urgently requested, the mother went 

 out of the room to get him, for he was not yet out of bed. 

 In a few moments she returned. The boy with her 

 wore an old suit that evidently was made to do service 

 by night as well as by day. A glance sufficed to estab- 

 lish his mentality, which was low. The whole family 

 was a living demonstration of the futility of trying to 

 make desirable citizens from defective stock through 

 making and enforcing compulsory education laws. 

 Here were children who seldom went to school because 

 they seldom had shoes, but when they went, had neither 

 will nor power to learn anything out of books. The 

 father himself, though strong and vigorous, showed by' his 

 face that he had only a child's mentality. The mother 

 in her filth and rags was also a child. In this house 

 of abject poverty, only one sure prospect was ahead, 

 that it would produce more feeble-minded children 

 with which to clog the wheels of human progress. The 

 laws of the country will not permit children ten years 

 old to marry. Why should they permit it when the 

 mentality is only ten ? These and similar questions 

 kept ringing through the field worker's mind as she 

 made her way laboriously over the frozen road to the 

 station. 



