DEGENERATION. 287 
is scandalous and infamous.” (Whymper; Scrambles 
among the Alps.) 
True charity would give these creatures not less 
helpful care, but a care which would guarantee that each 
individual cretiz should be the last of his generation. 
In isolation as under charity, weakness may mate 
with weakness and perpetuate degeneration. The clas- 
sical studies of Dr. Dugdale into the 
natural history of the group of degen- 
erates called “the Jukes” shows that 
the conditions of the slums may be transferred to the 
forests. Outside of the swift current of life in a shel- 
tered nook of the mountains this family 
of cutthroats and prostitutes found a 
place for development. The crush of a great city is 
in some degree an instrument of purification. It brings 
evil and weakness into close competition with wisdom 
and strength, and the former come to speedy destruc- 
tion. The evils of the city rise from corrosion rather 
than from competition. There is nothing in the pure 
air of the mountains that will purify the lineage of 
thieves and paupers. Doubtless the fact of isolation 
and freedom from stress of competition has been a fac- 
tor in the preservation of the decaying Jukes, and the 
same conditions bring about the results in the declining 
classes driven from the plains to the mountains in other 
parts of the world. The Great Smoky Mountains are 
not responsible for the poor whites of 
the highlands of North Carolina. These 
people belong to the lineage of England’s pauperism 
transported first to her colonies, afterward driven from 
the plains to the mountains because of their inability to 
keep slaves, and since preserved there by their isola- 
tion from new currents of life. In like manner, the 
lowest type of negroes is preserved in the isolation of 
20 
Degeneration in 
isolation. 
The Jukes. 
The poor whites. 
