Hansford: Mental Defectives in County H., Indiana 145 
intensifying and concentrating the bad traits until at the 
present time the common descendants of all these families are 
of much lower grade than were the original settlers of the 
county. There are living in these communities people who 
are the common descendants of 1 man, yet who are not aware 
of the fact that they are related. 
(3) The third cause of the great amount of mental defect 
in the rural isolated districts is that there has for many years 
been a draining off of the most ambitious blood from the coun- 
try to the city where are to be had greater advantages. Con- 
sequently the inferior stock left behind tends to inbreed, pro- 
ducing more inferior individuals out of which number the 
best in their turn tend to move toward the city. 
Growing out of the inferior quality of the rural population 
are almost all the other problems connected with the schools. 
One of these is the attitude taken toward the school and the 
teacher by the patrons. To many of them, the school is a 
place where time is wasted at the command of the law, and 
where the children are sent to be imposed upon when the 
parents are not nearby to protect them. Every opportunity 
is taken to keep the child at home, and if the school authori- 
ties do not take the matter in hand, in some of the districts 
there are children who would never attend. In all the un- 
progressive schools mentioned, there are children who have 
not been in school the whole year. The attendance officer gets 
his monthly reports but does not act upon them. In every 
district the teacher complained about the lack of cooperation 
on the part of this official. In one school district there was 
found a boy who had not been in school for 3 years. He 
boasted of the fact that his father had killed a man in Ken- 
tucky and would readily kill another in Indiana. Therefore 
the truant officer would not act. The probable truth of the 
case is that the officer did not care to make the long trip to 
the edge of the county to see that the boy did attend school. 
The trouble seems to be that the people cannot see the neces- 
sity or the advantage of sending their children to school, and 
that the attendance officer does not see his duty and act ac- 
cordingly. This last might be remedied by paying a salary 
such as would attract the right sort of a man. 
The present holder of the office can act when he finds that 
the teacher is determined to have him do so. This was proved 
