Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-03
"CASE NO. GAG" AN
OBJECT LESSON IN
FEEBLE-MTNDEDNESS
Girl Has Mentality of Child, Is
FL Years Old and Unable
to Judge Between Right
and Wrong
NO PLACE TO SEND HER
Court Forced to Return Her to Her
Home, Where She is Not
Wanted

She is just listed as Case No. $40 Of
the Misdemeanant branch of the Municipal
Court
That's ALL But the pathos Of the facts
1t Is one of the hopeless cases of unmar-
ried feeble minded mothers. One such as
the Public Charities Association workers
are pleading for in the Exhibit on Feeble
Mndedness now being held in the Wild
ener Building.
Case No. $40 Is girl--a feeble-minded
girl She has no one to care for her. The
State has no place wnere It can put her
to protect her from herself and from VII
Cious companions She is not case for
Spring City, according to court findings
She can be easily led, is irresponsible, and
has no idea of right and wrong. All this
came out in court within the last day or
two.
Doctors have examined her. They find
she has the mentality of n nine-year-old
child although she is 81 years old. She
remained In school until she was IA years
of age. but she never passed beyond the
third grade.
What Case No. 649 has cost the com.
munity in the last year no one can even
estimate. If the girl had been put in an
institution such as the Village for Feeble
minded Women of Collaborating Age at
Laurelton, It would have cost $500 year
a little over 73 cents n day As II is, the
village is still uncompleted and the girl is
at large. officers declare It Is useless to
try to do anything with Case No. $40. Her
only salvation is segregation, where she
will not meet men,
Her mother has tried everything she
knows, but without result. As last
resort she appealed to the law. Her
daughter, she said is incorrigibe. She
stayed out late at night. Sometimes she
stayed out all night. She has an ungov-
ernable temper, and cannot get along with
girls in any place where she has ever
tried to work Repeatedly charitably
inclined people have procured positions
for her, but she leaves without notice.
During the last year shH has been in
five different charitable institutions-St.
Joseph's Home, the Good shepherd, the
Salvation Army Home, st, Vincent's and
the Philadelphia Hospital
She admits she does not know who the
father Of her little 7-months-old daughter
Is. That child is now in an institution.
II the mother had been segregated, there
would have been no child--there would
have been no necessity for the expendi-
ure of raising and educating the child,
who may in turn prove another case No.
$40. The babe is too young for any
statements concerning its mental condi-
tiOn.
girl, the court sent that young mother
home-to the home of her poor parents,
who are struggling for a mere existence
themselves. She has brothers and sisters.
They are working. Case No. $40 is of
such a quarrelsome disposition that the
brothers threaten to leave home unless
the girl is put away"
But there is no place to put her, Seeing
the Exhibit on Feeble -Mindedness will
give the public an idea how such cases
could be handled at great saving
Signing the petition at the exhibit may
help the 1917 Legislature to see how such
problems can be solved.
The exhibit at the Widener Building
Will be open tonight to the public. This
Is the only evening session. The request
from many people employed during the
daytime Is responsible for the opening of
the exhibit for one evening. The doors
will close at 10 o'clock. There is no ad-
mission fee at any time.
DIR, Riley NJ. Little, executive secretary
of the Society for Organizing Charity,
speaks tomorrow noon. At 4 o'clock to.
morrow DR.. owen Copp, superintendent of
the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane,
Philadelphia, speaks. Motion pictures will
be shown between 10 o'clock and 1880, and
the play the Woman unaware" will be
given at $3.50 as usual tomorrow.