ENVIRONMENT 



63 



sion that the outcome was due to environment 

 alone would not be inevitable until it was proved 

 that the two children were true representatives of 

 their respective classes. In the midst of the slums 

 are not a few persons of natural refinement who 

 have been carried down by sheer misfortune ; and 

 it is well known that many who are rich and intel- 

 lectually cultivated are morally weak — and some 

 of them vile. The child of the coarse rich will 

 gravitate downward as naturally as a child born 

 of the lower classes ; and the child having good 

 blood in his veins will naturally rise, even though 

 born in the slums. The influence of environment 

 is strong enough without having ascribed to it the 

 effects of heredity also. 



This allowance being made, one broad fact 

 remains. A child born in a swarming tenement 

 where pauperism and crime abound ; where a 

 dozen people sometimes live in a single room ; 

 where both parents are intemperate ; where words 

 and actions are alike vile ; where gin palaces con- 

 stantly invite ; where there is only poor food to 

 eat, and liquor is given even to infants, must be a 

 totally different being in tendencies, in desires, and 

 in ability, from a child of pure parents, born in a 

 Christian home, where the surroundings make for 

 righteousness, and where good food, pure air, and 



