l investigation at hand. The case, however, does show a surprising
number of criminals, paupers, harlots and misfits, descending from their
original ancestor. From time to time further investigation has brought
the history of the family down to 1918.

The ancestor with whom the investigation begins was born some time
between 1720 and 1740. In the report the original is called "Max." He
has been described as a "hunter and fisher," "a hard drinker," "not fond
of work," fairly intelligent and leaving no record of crime. He probably
left behind a large family, some of whom were legitimate and some
illegitimate. The family came from a barren, rocky, lake region in New
York and several generations grew up in the vicinity. The only industry
was rough work like quarrying stone, logging and the like. Later a
manufacturing plant was located in the region. The Jukes early got a bad
name in the small community. Even when they wanted to find employment it
was hard to get a job. They were socially ostracized and individually
boycotted. The region was poor, and for the most part the family grew up
in poverty. Often several members of a family lived in one room and
slept on the floor indiscriminately, regardless of sex. For several
generations few of them wandered far from the ancestral home. The
locality was one that naturally came to be the resort of the poor and
the outcast; these are always driven to the cheapest and most barren
land. Whether the community was related by blood or not, the residents
would almost inevitably be of the same class. Rich people cluster
closely together for association and fellowship. The poor and wretched
do the same. Common observation in city and country shows that this is
inevitable. It comes from deeper and more fundamental laws than human
statutes. It is born of the gregarious instinct and fostered and
developed by economic law.

In the main, lax habits grow from surroundings and association. The
tendency of all human beings is to revert to the primal. It is only
association that keeps the individual units up to the tension that
civilization expects and demands. Every community shows many examples of
this inevitable tendency. Nature is constant; civilization spasmodic.
Especially with sex relations, conditions are the chief factor. Nature
knows little or nothing of the regulations fixed by society and custom.
Poverty and wretchedness reach outward through a community and by
association between the