Up to eighteen years they pass muster, but after that age they are useless; in reality they need caring for all their lives.

They possess no initiative, no self-reliance, and little capability for honest work, unless it be simple work done under close supervision.

Our industrial life is too strenuous for these young men; they are laggards in life's race, they quickly fall behind, and ultimately become disqualified altogether.
Many of their parents refuse them shelter, the streets become their home; absolute idleness supervenes; their day is past.

Henceforward they are lodging-house habitues, or wanderers on the face of the earth.
More pitiable still is the case of those that may be classed as feeble-minded, and who are just responsible enough to be quite irresponsible.

Idiots and imbeciles have largely disappeared from country villages and small towns.