Due to eugenic beliefs perpetuated throughout society, "the mentally disabled [partner] posed a threat to community morality, as did any potential offspring who might inherit ethical and physical deficiencies of the parent. and thus hinder genetic improvement” (Arant 70). This concept of disabled people being a threat to the community that must be contained is not only evident in the aforementioned works, but also in other works and presents a key (if despicable and unhealthy) motivation for many of the actions of imprisonment detailed in early American works. literature on disability. The short story “Lily Daw and the Three Ladies” shows where these concepts of moral intelligence and containment meet. The story alludes to the idea that the three right-thinking women who see themselves as protectors of the disabled protagonist, Lily, believe that they have a higher moral intelligence than her and that as such they have the right to control and govern one's life. They see themselves as the righteous protectors of the community. So when it is discovered that Lily may have been sexually promiscuous, they take it upon themselves to contain her and prevent the threat of her sexual maturity from ruining the morality of the community. It's obvious that they don't care how she's confined, but that her risk is removed when they hesitate between sending her to an institution or marrying her off. They bribe her and end up using