Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1916-06-08
WHY GIRLS
LEAVE HOME
HEREDlTY is CAUSE, ASSERTS
DR.. CHARLES DAVENPORT
Says Americans are Race of Wander
ers-Love of Roaming Deeply
Rooted in Men

Science has now determined why
girls leave home.
It's the fault of the man, of course
but not in the way you think.
DR.. Charles Is. Davenport, director
of the Carnegie Institutions Station
for the Experimental study of Evoiu
tion at Cold Springs Harbor Long Is
land, has tackled the great problem
DR.. Davenport knows that heredity
IS the cause of most of the things yoa
do, so he started by getting the pedi-
gree of 100 families in which there
were numerous wanderers, nomads,
vagabonds, vasrants and hoboes.
Some of these wanderers were WON
On, but the greater part of them were
men.
Then he looked around to see how
much wanderlust there is among other
animals. 1t occurred to him that many
birds migrate twice a year, and that
mans poor relations, the great apes,
who are said to have the same basal
instincts as man, hardly ever sleep
twice in the same place.
Being a father he was furthermore
reminded that children frequently run
away. When 2 year old starts off
down the road it evidently isn't be-
cause he has been reading yellow
back novels or travel advertisements.
at must be an inherited instinct
said DR.. Davenport. 1T must be fun
Iamental instinct which is common TO
man and the lower animals alike"
If it is an instinct he says it ought
TO lie most noticeable at the age of
adolescence, because all the Instincts
are most highly developed at that age.
So he investigated the statistics of
runaways and found, as he expected,
that more persons run away at the
age of adolescence than at any other
age.
Dr. Davenport felt that he had a
good case. The love of roaming, he
Thinks. is an inherited instinct in man,
which is suppressed in most people by
the necessities of civilized life, but
breaks out in those who lack an in
hibiting factor" and so become hoboes
OF globe trotters, or hunters. or gyp-
sizes.
The instinct is much less controlled
IN America he points out, than 1t is
in some other countries, such as
France and China, because the pres
ent Americans are all the descendants
of emigrants-that is, of people In
WON the instinct was not suppressed
Nomadism, as he calls the instinct
appears to be widespread. "The Amer
lean is nomadic in religion, in ideas
in morals, and leaves his faith and
opinions with as much indifference as
he leaves the house in which he
lives
Now, why are more men than WON
en- found leading a vagrant life? You
may think ii so because women can
not so easily ride the brakebeams, oil
because the police make it difficult
.yr a woman to follow out her nomad
10 instinct, or because women are
more afraid of the dark. But Mr., Dav
export doesn't agree with you. There
FAUST be a more scientific reason.
The scientists are not quite agreed
on what it is, and writer who re
views the evidence in the Journal o.
Heredity, organ of the American
Genetic Association of Washington
ID. c., refuses to accept DR.. Daven
ports technical explanation is tina
the machinery of heredity has. just b,
accident tied up the factor that makes
hoboes with the factor that makes