HEREDITARY INEFFICIENCY. 



305 



number of stillborn children found in sinks, etc., would 

 not be less than six per week. Deaths are frequent, and 

 chiefly among children. The suffering of the children 

 must be great. The people have no occupation. They 

 gather swill or ashes; the women beg, and send the 

 children around to beg ; they make their eyes sore with 

 vitriol. In my own experience I have seen three gen- 

 erations of beggars among them. I have not time here 

 to go into details, some loathsome, all pitiable. One 

 evening I was called to marry a couple. I found them 

 in one small room with two beds. In all eleven people 

 lived in it. The bride was dressing, the groom washing. 

 Another member of the family filled a coal-oil lamp 

 while burning. The groom offered to haul ashes for the 

 fee. I made a present to the bride. Soon after I asked 

 one of the family how they were getting on. ' Oh, 

 Elisha don't live with her any more.' 'Why?' 'Her 

 husband came back, and she went to him. That made 

 Elisha mad, and he left her.' 



" All these are grim facts, but they are facts and can 

 be verified. More, they are but thirty families out of a 

 possible two hundred and fifty. The individuals already 

 traced are over five thousand, interwoven by descent 

 and marriage. They underrun society like devil grass. 

 Pick up one, and the whole five thousand will be drawn 

 up. Over seven thousand pages of history are now on 

 file in the Charity Organization Society. 



" A few deductions from these data are offered for 

 your consideration. First, this is a study into social 

 degeneration, or degradation, which is similar to that 

 sketched by Mr. Lankester. As in the lower orders so 

 in society, we have parasitism, or social degradation. 

 There is reason to believe that some of this comes from 

 old convict stock which England threw into this coun- 

 try in the seventeenth century. We find the wandering 



