Hansford: Mental Defectives in County Indiana 125 
mon the well or cistern, the porches, the outside closets, and 
the yard. This congestion is worse in many cases than is 
usually found in the small double house because of there being 
2 houses built on the same lot. 
One would expect the rent of these houses to be at a 
minimum, especially for those which are in such bad repair. 
The average number of rooms, as has been stated before, is 
2 and for those 2 small, ill-smelling vermin-hlled rooms, the 
occupant is expected to pay at least $4. I know of none rent- 
ing lor less than this amount. The average rent for these 
double houses is a little more than $2 per room. Considering 
the poor condition of the property, this is rent at a higher rate 
than is paid in the better parts of town for well-kept houses. 
The average rent based on the whole 50 of the urban houses 
is $1.52 per room. This not only means that the poor of 
Stonetown are paying more in proportion to what they receive 
than are those renting expensive property, but that a few un- 
scrupulous landlords are making enormous profits on a small 
investment at the expense of the ignorant who are unable to 
help themselves. 
Practically all of these double houses are in bad condition. 
Many of the windows have been knocked out and the openings 
have been covered with boards nailed across; many of the 
roofs leak to such an extent that washing tubs have to be 
placed to catch a part of the rainfall which goes thru. The 
writer has personally seen homes where, in times of hard 
rain, the furniture of an entire room would have to be re- 
moved. Cases are known where 1 of 2 rooms had to be aban- 
doned permanently for this reason, and yet the poor ignorant 
renter had to go on paying for both rooms. In an- 
other district a renter of such a house as has been described 
lost 2 small children of pneumonia. The visiting nurse on the 
case said that the sole reason for the death was that the owner 
of the house would not repair the roof and that every tirne 
it rained the bedroom floor became flooded. The owner of 
this house also possesses 38 other such pieces of property in 
the town. 
Of the city houses, 13 are of the box type. There is very 
little difference between them and the box house in the coun- 
try. They are usually of 2 rooms each, loosely constructed 
of boards running up and down with no protecting weather- 
