manufacturing enterprises. The children employed in the South are practically all native born Americans. They are the same flesh and blood as those by whom they are employed, and thus far their relations have been cordial.

AUGUST KOHN,

Manager, Columbia (S. C.) Bureau, The News and Courier.

CHAPTER III.

CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE DEFECTIVES IN THE SOUTH.

W

HILE it is granted that the South has not reached as high a standard, in extent or character of the work for defectives, as

might have been desired, or as a careful critic might require, still there are grounds for congratulation as to her past achievements, and the outlook for the future is bright.

As used in this article the word defective embraces: First, those individuals in whom congenital or acquired brain defect or disease has resulted in mental deficiency or alienation. To this class belong the insane, the epileptic, the idiot and the feebleminded. Second, those whose physical abnormalities either at birth or in very early life, have caused them to be dependent upon special training suited to their peculiar condition and needs. To this class belong the deaf-mute, the blind, the paralytic and the physically deformed.

It must be remembered that mental deficiency and physical defect of congenital origin are frequently associated, to a greater or lesser degree, and that if we expect to advance in the treatment of either class,

we must look in the direction of the correlation of the physical with the mental qualities.

Unfortunate specimens of humanity sometimes offer discouragement, yet as they are among us, the task of bettering and improving their condition is one of the most humane missions that we can undertake to perform.

Social conditions in the South differ from those in other parts of America and the traditional ideas of local self-government, of individualism, and personal independence have not been at all times conducive to paternalism, but under changing conditions, and with material advancement, the viewpoint of the South has been modified in many respects, and better and more extensive methods in dealing with her defectives have resulted.

In our relations with the defective classes four conditions must guide, viz.: a spirit of genuine humanitarianism, a comprehensive knowledge of the needs and requirements, a stern sense of duty and responsibility of the stronger to the weaker, and sufficient resources under control of organized forces to put into effect plans for the welfare of the afflicted and of the community at large.

The first asylum for the insane and the first school for the deaf were due to the benevolence and intelligence of the Southern people. The former was opened at Williamsburg, in 1773, and the latter near Petersburg, on the Appomattox, in 1812. Antedating by nearly thirty years the granting of the charter to establish in the Old Dominion a state "hospital for the reception of idiots, lunatics and persons of insane and disordered minds," the colony of South Carolina passed an act authorizing the "legal commitment and care, at the public expense, of indigent lunatic slaves." In 1762 a charitable organization

in that colony was founded for the purpose of providing an infirmary for the "reception of lunatics and other distempered persons." The Revolutionary struggle, however, seems to have prevented this body of philanthropists from carrying out these purposes. Nevertheless it is recorded that in 1776 there was a "madhouse" in "Charlestown." This was probably the "poorhouse and asylum" which dates back to 1712 or possibly earlier. It is recorded also that the insane were kept in an "outbuilding by themselves." Their treatment was doubtlessly crude.

Before the close of the Eighteenth century, Maryland had opened an asylum for the insane, which was reorganized in the early part of the next century. During the second decade of the Nineteenth century South Carolina, after many setbacks, built an asylum which for years offered shelter to the insane in her own territory and to many beyond her borders. Before the dawn of the Twentieth century all the Southern states had provided comfortable and humanely conducted hospitals under state control. The oldest existing asylum building in this country, erected by a state, is still a haven of rest for the insane in the Palmetto state, standing as a monument to a benevolent people.

In no part of this country do the colored insane, the former slaves, receive more humane care than in the South. Here again the steps were initial in establishing separate institutions for the negro race, differing in no material way from those for the whites. Virginia led in 1870; North Carolina coming next, in 1875; and recently Alabama has opened a branch hospital exclusively for this special class.

In the entire South there are to-day thirty state institutions for the insane, as follows: three in West Virginia, five in Maryland, four in Virginia, three in