Hare: A Study of Handicapped Children 29 



Contrary to this flagrant example of poor social conditions 

 is the report of the department's state worker, who says that 

 in the rural districts she finds the homes of the crippled chil- 

 dren cases above the normal average. 



Directly related to social and home conditions is the ques- 

 tion of broken families, which forms the biggest problem of 

 the sick poor. 



BROKEN FAMILIES— 



1. Patient's father dead 26 



2. Patient's mother dead 18 



3. Patient's both parents dead 6 



4. Patient's parents separated 12 



5. Illegitimate cases 2 



6. Orphans' home cases , 19 



Total number of cases 83 



Percentage of cases studied 55.33 



Institutional Cases. This table indicates the large percent- 

 age of institutional cases included in so small a group of chil- 

 dren as 150 cases. In addition to the 19 orphans' home cases 

 which represent 9 different orphan asylums, 12 other cases 

 mentioned represent 8 other institutions, including sanitari- 

 ums and reform schools, making a total of 31 institutional 

 cases among the total 150 cases. 



Case M. T. 4,252. This case is an illustration of one of 

 the worst types of conditions found among the entire 150 de- 

 pendent children studied, and the fundamental cause of the 

 condition was a broken family situation. The case is a tiny 

 shrunken girl of sixteen with tuberculosis of the hip, whose 

 mother had died and whose father brought home different 

 women at different times who posed as ''mother" to the fam- 

 ily. The father had a bad reputation and'^at one time served 

 a two-year sentence at the penal farm. At the same time the 

 two oldest girls were sent to the Indiana School for Girls on 

 account of incorrigibility, and the younger children were sent 

 to' the Board of Children's Guardians' Home. Upon the 

 father's release, he managed adroitly to get the children away 

 from the Home and with another woman he settled down to 

 housekeeping again. The home conditions were the most 

 wretched and dirty imaginable, and the children were left un- 

 cared for and unfed most of the time, — a hopeless condition 



