RURAL HEALTH MENTAL 207 



Everywhere they have made desolate, alcoholic homes which 

 have furnished State wards for over fifty years, and have re- 

 quired town aid for a longer time. Enough of the families 

 still live in the original neighborhood so that, although they 

 occupy tenant houses of respectable farmers, for they own no 

 land now, the district of the "Hill" is spoken of slurringly. 

 Where the children have scattered to neighboring towns, they 

 do not remain long enough to secure a residence and are conse- 

 quently referred back to the original town when they require 

 outside aid. As the younger generations have grown up, they 

 have, almost without exception, married into American families 

 of the same low mental grade, so that the "Hill" people are 

 linked by their consorts to a similar degenerate family a hun- 

 dred miles away. 



The attitude of the townspeople is that of exasperated neigh- 

 bors. They have lived beside these troublesome paupers for so 

 long that they are too disgusted with them, and too accustomed 

 to the situation, to realize the necessity for aggressive work upon 

 it. A few of them realize that hard cider is a large factor in 

 the cause of their neighbors' poverty, but more of them, appar- 

 ently ignoring the fact, keep it on tap free or sell it. This poor 

 class of people are left largely to themselves until they need 

 town aid, or some member becomes so drunk that he disturbs 

 the peace, or some girl becomes pregnant and has to be taken 

 to an institution. About once every eight or ten years, a state 

 agent is informed of the conditions, and four or five children 

 are removed from the families. Then the father and mother find 

 that their financial problems are relieved for the time and settle 

 down to raise another family. 



A few of the men and some of the women have soldier's or 

 widow's pensions and state aid, but most of them work, when 

 they do work, as wood choppers or farm laborers. Most of 

 their wages go for hard cider or, if handed to the wives, are 

 spent in other equally foolish ways. They move frequently from 

 one shanty or tumbled down house to another. So long as food 

 and a small amount of clothing are furnished by some means, 

 they live in bovine contentment. 



From the biological standpoint, it is interesting to note that 

 mental defect manifests itself in one branch of the pedigree by 



