The morning journal-courier., 1908-07-11
YANKEE TOWNS
 ARE IN DECAY More Cofllns Than Baby Car riages Sold in Some Parts of Connecticut These
 Days.
FIGURES TELL THE TALE
New Haven Leads the Counties With m Excess of Deaths Over Blrths--Signs of De-
 generacy.

striking evidence of tho decadent ten dencles of rural communities of Con- necticut is supplied by official statistics which have. recently been compiled, and cover the calendar year 1906.
 In nearly quarter of the country communities deaths are of more fre- quent occurrence than births. The sale of collins exceed the sale of baby car riages
 In thirty-three of the towns whose population Is less than 5,O0o the deaths during the year enabled the obituary department to contain more subjects than the birth column.
 Moreover, In ten towns--Andover, Ashford, Bethlehem. Brookned, Canaan, Chaplin. Lltchheld Rock Hill, Simsbury and Westbrook---the census of births and deaths maintained an exact balance on the teeter board of vital statistics. Klllingly Is the only town of 5.00O in- habitants in which there was a surplus of deaths, and as the natural loss of population there was only one, 1t Is hardly worth mentioning.
 The total number of births in the decaying small towns was 901, while the aggregated mortality footed up l,l20, The excess of deaths over births was 2l3. Twenty four of the towns Id which crepe was hung on the door more Frequently than the cradle waa taken down from the attic have a pop ulation of less than 2,000.
 The towns which have developed a mild drift toward race suicide are seat tered all over the commonwealth, al- though some districts are only slightly affected. Based upon the vital statistics Of 1906 Fairfield county has more patch es of decadenee than any other county.
 Eight towns In that county furnished more jobs for the gravedlgger than for the stork. Wlndham and Litchneid counties, each with total five towns In which there was A shortage of births are tied for secand place. New Ha. ven, New London and Mddlesex coun- ties each showed four towns of dwin- ding tendencies. while Hartford and Holland counties each have two entries on the list.
 Brooklyn, in Windham county, devel- oped greater excess of deaths over births than any other town. The figure was sixteen, while Cheshire, in New Haven county. each with an unlucky mortality surplus of thirteen, followed closely. In each of three towns the death certificates outnumbered the birth certificates by only one
 The distribution of the excess of deaths by counties Is rather interesting, and il Is as follows Hartford g. New Haven 42, New London S5, Fairfield 39 Windham 3o Litchheld 26 MiddleseX IT, Toland 10.
 A suggestive and enlightening fact IS that in most of the towns in which the processes of physical and social de- thH patlkn Xnntf Al stock still predomlnates. In a large majority of them the infusion of for eign blood has been small, Examina- ton of the statistics of the parentage of children and of the nativity of the dead indicates the comparatively small part which the immigrant plays in the population of the affected towns.
 Tilc case of the agricultural town of Canterbury, in Windham county, may be cited as an example. It's nine births were more than offset by It's twenty deaths In the case of the births the parents, except in three cases were native Americans, while 10 of the 70 decedents were born under the Stars and Stripes
 The town has been 'irregularly de- clinlng for over q century IL attain ed it's maximum development In lIs2, when it's population, now fallen to S7i, was 2,5i4.
 tplFHApbht 4VNditI hP hAlVhS AAAN AliAio of Lltchieli county, is another town which reveals tho trend toward deterl- oration in various Connecticut commun- ities where the native stock still holds sw ay, Six of its seven births for l906 were issues of American born parents, and of the eleven persons who died only one was an immigrant When the census enumerators were last around they were able to count only half as many noses in Colbrook as they did In 1860
 In spite of tho social decay which Is affecting various localities the situation is not barren of hopeful results. The inquiry which the late Henry I Hutch ins, fiji the course of his work as agent for the Connecticut Bible society, made into rural decadence in this state, and the results of which he incorporated into d notable address delivered In 1903, mixed both light and dark colors in the picture which he painted.
 There is much dead Yankee blood m these towns he said. The stamp of degeneracy Is upon 1t. But the allen | has lately come into some of these | towns in some instances in great mum .