File:Middle-grade Moral Imbecile H.jpg

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English: Case H. — C. W. Boy; aged 15 years when photograph was taken
and 12 when entering Training School. Brown hair, gray eyes, sight 
and hearing good ; had engaging manners, but proved sulky, brutal, 
cruel, and dangerous, sly, untruthful, and an adroit thief. His re- 
deeming trait was his fondness for animals, to which they responded, 
his influence over them being truly wonderful. I have seen him 
handle with entire immunity from harm, a coon that would bite 
savagely at anyone else ; he simply hypnotized squirrels, and con- 
stantly carried snakes in his pockets ; his special favorite, a large 
black snake, was over 4 feet in length. Powers of attention, imita- 
tion, and memory fair. Learned to read, write, and cipher. Had a 
good tenor voice and played well on the drum in the band. Abso- 
lutely fearless, he would do anything to accomplish a purpose. If 
detected in wrongdoing he would make humble confession with 
promises of amendment and would immediately proceed to carry out 
his designs perhaps on other lines. A run-away, he had delusions 
of persecution and gave much trouble generally. 

Under training in shoe-shop did very good work, but as time went 
on became more brutal and untruthful. Finally withdrawn from our 
care by his mother who had married a second time (a feeble-minded 
man), the mother and son within a few days made an attack upon 
the husband, and beating and disabling him, literally threw him out 
of the house and then walked round and round him shouting, scream- 
ing, crowing and flapping their arms like wings, for the delectation 
of their neighbors. 

Later C. enlisted, during the Spanish-American War, but his de- 
fect soon discovered, he was discharged. He is now a tramp, 
wandering over the country, has been in custody more than once, 
and will always be a menace to society. 

First-born ; ordinary labor ; nourished by mother, who was sub- 
jected to many hardships during gestation. The father 32 and 
mother 30 years of age, at time of C.'s birth. The father, peculiar 
and erratic, making a precarious living as a trapper and hunter, 
finally disappeared. The mother, an ignorant pauper, syphilitic and 
insane, was subject to delusions; thus she called this boy the Duke 
of Wellington, and always addressed him in the most respectful 
terms, as she did also his j'ounger brother, who, his exact counterpart 
both mentally and morally, she called Prince Charles Edward. 

The second child was still-born and is said to have resembled a 
ground hog; the mother had sustained a severe fright during preg-

nancy, the father having shot a ground hog and thrown it in her

lap. The maternal grandfather was insane ; the paternal grandfather 
became blind late in life; both grandmothers died victims of ex- 
cessive smoking.
Date
Source Mental Defectives: Their History, Treatment, and Training (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo1.ark:/13960/t47p9j653&view=thumb&seq=1&skin=2021)
Author Martin W. Barr

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Public domain
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.

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Note: This tag should not be used for sound recordings.PD-1923Public domain in the United States//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Middle-grade_Moral_Imbecile_H.jpg

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