it is true in general that if you have a good family you do not have a bad individual. the well-organized family, with property and standing, is in a position both to regulate and gratify the wishes of its members. the boy of good family has no occasion to steal or the girl to practice prostitution. therefore, when a member of a family shows a tendency to demoralization, good people, benevolent institutions, and the state naturally try to strengthen the family, to save the whole situation of which the boy or girl is a part; and when a family is about to be wrecked they try to strengthen it both for its own sake and for the security of the children.

if we examine the following document, which is a specification of the type of family situation described more generally in document no. 58 (p. 100) above, we realize the difficulty of the task of a social agency which attempts to rehabilitate a broken family and to save the children from demoralization by visiting, giving food or money, taking the parents into court, and coming to the rescue in times of crisis. the case represents the patient and heroic work of a charity organization during nearly twenty years. the record extends from the time the oldest child was three months old to a period following her marriage. it is a very long record, and i am able to give only a portion of it. this is an immigrant family, but in the largest cities 152as many as 80 per cent of delinquent children are foreign born or native born of foreign parents.[92]

83. joseph meyer, a german pole born of peasant parents, came to this country at the age of twenty-three.

mrs. meyer, an illiterate woman, had been in america six years at the time of her marriage. she had for two years prior to her marriage done housework.... the first application for assistance occurred in 1898 when mrs. meyer came to the relief and aid society of chicago, asking rent. mr. meyer had been out of work for three months; there was one child [mary] 13 months old.... [this was two years after the marriage. there is no further report until the family applied to united charities in 1908. meantime other children were born, tillie in 1899, theodore in 1903, bruno in 1908].

january 30, 1908, mrs. meyer came to office of united charities. husband had not worked for four years; mentally slightly abnormal. she had recently begged, but usually had been working very hard. mary picking coal from the tracks.... [helped by united charities and county agent.]

january 3, 1909. visited man at home, says he had to care for children while wife went out to work. told him he must get work at once as doctor says he is able to work. family receiving help for a year and a half. woman working as janitress in united charities office.

november 1, 1910. miss campbell, whose mother has employed mrs. meyer for years, in office to ask if man cannot be sent to bridewell. says woman has come to work with arms black and blue from beatings.... mrs. meyer says man has not worked for more than two months at a time in the 19 years of his married life; says he taunts her with the fact that she must work while he stays at home.

november 3, 1910.... man given 60 days in bridewell.

153january 13, 1911. visitor heard ... that man had taken carbolic acid new year’s eve. asked woman about this; at first she did not want to tell, but finally acknowledged it; says he took 20 cents worth of poison while she was at work. the children yelled when he fell and the landlord came in.... woman says man sleeps during the day and will not sleep at night, annoying her considerably, thus causing her to lose considerable sleep. quarrels with her and uses vile language in the presence of the children.

january 16, 1911. man in office asking to be arrested, said he is unable to live with woman any longer. [jealous of unmarried man who calls.] also stated that woman took some clothes from office of united charities, where she is janitress. mrs. meyer acknowledged doing this and said man told her to take anything she could lay her hands on, as she did not receive enough salary for the amount of work she did.... while woman was away at work, man burned all the bedding, lace curtains, new veil mary had received at christmas, insurance policies, all the woman’s clothes he could get hold of and some of the children’s clothes; also broke a clock and bit up woman’s wedding ring....

january 20, 1911. visited a neighbor who said at the time the man was in the bridewell the woman had some man staying with her....

visited. mary ironing; does not go to school; said father has not returned; said father has very often abused mother for many years and mother would not tell any one; also says the man who has been coming to the house bought her mother a comb for christmas, worth about $1.00, which her father also burned.

february 8, 1911. mary in office to say her mother was sick; told same story as mother regarding tony r., says he is a brother of mrs. meyer’s brother’s wife. [march 7, 1911. man given a year in bridewell. august 25, mrs. meyer gave birth to a boy. mary working in the mary crane nursery at $3.00 a week.]

october 21, 1911. miss c. ’phones to advise office about 154mary. says that many small articles have been disappearing since mary arrived. finally they deliberately put temptation in her way by leaving money in the nursery room, which disappeared within a half hour and nobody but mary had entered the room. mary steadfastly denies everything, and they feel absolutely baffled by the mother; they had found her to be untruthful several times which has complicated matters since she has been working at the nursery.... later visited and told mother.... she cried and said that mary did not bring anything home, and said she had warned her before she started to work that she was not to touch anything; said she never brought home any candy or anything which would lead her to suspect her of wrong doing. mother went to work; mary stayed home.

february 8, 1912, woman in office; said man had come home the day before at noon ... and the children let him in. when she came home he knelt before her and kissed her hands and begged her to allow him to remain. because he humbled himself to kneel before her she weakened and told him if he worked he could stay....

march 14, 1912, mary in office first thing in the morning to say that her father tore good overcoat into strips last night and burned it in the stove; that early this morning when they were all asleep in the house, he tore the curtains down and cut them, cut some of woman’s clothing into strips, poured kerosene over feather beds, slashed the leather seats of the four dining-room chairs and did other damage of this sort. [threatened to buy pistol and kill mrs. meyer.] ... mrs. meyer frightened and nervous and broken-hearted over the loss.... [later mary ’phones that her father has come home and is sitting quietly in the kitchen.] visited. mr. meyer announced that he had nothing to say for himself except that “the woman got the best of it and had everything her way.” he stated that he knew the patrol was coming for him that day and wished to “fix” things for his wife, that he “had not done much but had done something.” his attitude in the matter was one of spite and the attitude of his 155wife toward him unusually fine. despite all that had happened she was rather gentle and almost pathetic in her statement of the case....

march 15, 1912, case tried in court. man had no excuse to give and did not attempt to defend himself before judge other than to make the statement that “there was a god in heaven.” was given $100 costs; sent to house of correction....

may 3, 1912. took mary to dr. healy ... he could find nothing wrong with the child.... while she is slow she is normal.... he finds no evidence of kleptomania; he fears that too much temptation was put in the child’s way. [found new rooms for the family so that man might not find them when released.]

december 12, 1912, a neighbor ’phones, saying mr. meyer home, and as mrs. meyer wanted to put him out again he beat her unmercifully [with a poker].

december 24, 1912, woman says man was arrested....

february 14, 1913, visited detention court. man was sent to kankakee [insane asylum]. after sentence was pronounced woman and mary were hysterical; said they had never wanted him to go and they would not leave the court unless he was released. woman’s cousin told mr. moore that mary is not working ... and that she is making her mother’s life miserable. mary ... begins to show something of her father’s temperament.... the child’s confidence has never been gained. she has always taken her father’s side, and her mother is worried over her as she feels she is untrustworthy, is rouging her cheeks and not coming home directly from her work. she is a woman whose enjoyment of household possessions is undiminished by the miseries of her domestic experience, as is a natural coquetry which she has always possessed. we believe that this is an innocent attribute and that all her husband’s accusations of infidelity are the suspicions inevitably resulting from sexual obsession in a man otherwise unoccupied for 20 years. he has, undoubtedly, a diseased mind.

156april 3, 1913, woman says that mary did not go to work today as the paint made her sick. asked that we call up the firm and verify this. mary had been to miss farrell to get suit which had been promised her, but failed to see miss farrell and insisted upon getting a coat for which she agreed to pay $8 on the installment plan. an agent came to the house to collect for this and mary behaved so badly, screaming and crying, that woman finally paid him $2. mary now has the suit from miss farrell and woman wishes to return the coat, but she refuses to do so. [mary discharged from present position because it was proved she stole from one of the girls. mary refused to take housework offered her.]

june 9, 1913, woman in office in great distress; says mary has not worked at all at the hat factory [as she had pretended].... has been going with a girl who worked there. the girls say the employer is an evil man and showed them a check book and said they could draw what they liked.... mary [refused to let him kiss her but] stole this check book and on the 29th forged a check for $12 which she brought her mother saying it was her pay. on the 2nd she forged another check for $11; $6 of this she gave to her mother and $5 she spent at riverview park....

july 29, 1913.... probation officer says mary lost her job on the 25th, that one of the girls had loaned mary a ring and when the time came for mary to restore it, mary could not find it.... [a report from kankakee that meyer had escaped was followed by a letter saying] “he escaped one evening but returned of his own free will at bedtime and has since been residing in the institution.”...

january 17, 1914, mary brought home $6 on the 14th but insisted upon $4 being returned to her, and with this she bought a very elaborate hat of black velvet and gold lace. talked with mary. she was very defiant and said that she would spend her money on clothing until she had something to wear. was not satisfied with the coat that united charities had given her from second-hand store. said she would keep her money until she could buy a new-style coat. told 157her that if she did so the united charities would not help with food.

january 22, 1914, mrs. meyer in tears. the forelady at the shop where mary works telephoned that mary had gotten married in court today.... mary gave the date of her birth as december 18, 1895 [instead of 1896] and signed the affidavit herself....

january 30, 1914, visited. asked mrs. meyer to take a position.... suggested mary could stay and take care of the children.... mary was at first very unwilling to consent to the plan. while the visitor was there mr. andersen [her husband] came in. he agreed to the plan at least temporarily.

february 4, 1914, mrs. meyer in office. says the work is too hard at the present situation and she is not earning enough to feed the children. mary has had to give her money and she is ashamed and sorry. she feels too nervous to work and wants united charities to get mr. meyer out of asylum to support her. jennie, her niece, took her to visit him and she found him nicely dressed and sober, doing teaming work. he promised never to drink and to support the family.

a letter written by the united charities june 16, 1914, states “we have found her this spring in a peculiar mental condition due, we think, to sheer discouragement and a feeling of having been defeated in life. all of her home furnishings are dilapidated and of long usage, because of her inability to replace them. she has been a woman who always took a peculiar delight in her home and longed to have it furnished daintily so that it did not compare so poorly with the homes where she has worked. we feel now that if we might help her replenish her linen and some of her household supplies we might be able to tide over their period of discouragement and help her to feel that life was again worth living....”

august 19, 1914, mrs. meyer and mary in office. [mary very well dressed and living in her own apartment.] mary says she has been helping her mother continually with food 158and clothing. her husband makes $19 a week but she has to pay $17 rent and $5 a week for her furniture. she also has to save money because she is now several months pregnant. her husband wishes her to have a doctor. she is planning to have a midwife because it is cheaper. advised her not do this.... during a period of unemployment for her husband she refused to seek aid at her mother’s suggestion as she felt too proud....

november 13, 1915. tillie still earns $4.00 a week.... must buy new dress [refuses to wear dresses given by charity as being old-fashioned—same as mary]. for lack of satisfactory dress she has not gone to church for 3 weeks. mrs. meyer fears she will slip away from church unless allowed clothes she wants. her [mrs. meyer’s] ideas become more and more erratic. she said she wishes she were dead, had only trouble.

for the past year the church [irish, not polish, for the latter always demanded money instead of giving assistance] has had a decided influence over mrs. meyer. her children attend the parochial school and the priest has taken a very active interest in their welfare.... the family lives in a less congested district and although mrs. meyer is still very nervous and frequently complains, the whole complexion of the family has changed. she is very interested in a mothers’ cooking class started last winter ... and is also being taught to write by her 12–year-old son.... if the man remains in kankakee and the children keep well we feel sure the family will eventually become self-supporting. it is surely the highest point as far as the standard of living is concerned.... the present system of county relief cannot but have a debasing effect upon the family, particularly upon the children, who frequently must accompany the mother in order to bring home the dole of inadequate rations.... mary is a good housewife and a sensible mother. she is contented and happy and her ideals are considerably higher, due directly to her husband.[93]

159in this case the social agency, the charity organization, takes the part formerly played by the large family (kinship group) and the community. the man in the case, the cause of the disorganization, is treated as insane. pretty certainly he would not have been insane in europe, in his original community. he would have been difficult, but the pressure of the large family and the community would have kept him within certain bounds. his violent behavior is also due in part to the fact that his wife does not behave as a member of a community or family. she resorts to american institutions, hales him into court and lands him in jail. she must do this because she has no family and community back of her, but she breaks the family solidarity. this and the fact that she practices american freedom in associating with another man and receiving presents from him make him “insane.” the wife in the european community would not have taken such liberties; community gossip would have restrained her.

on the other hand the woman never lost her ideal of a home, and the co?peration of the charity organization enabled her to endure. the removal of the man was a positive benefit. further, the irish catholic church came into the case at a certain point and played the part of a religious community. its intervention gave aid, status, and recognition, particularly to the girls. (the polish catholic church in america always exacts payment, and in general polish organizations here interest themselves only in those members who are worth while; the derelicts it leaves to american institutions.)

another saving element in the situation is that mary was treated as a member of a family, not as a 160transgressor against the state. she stole repeatedly and forged checks, but she was never taken into court for it. it was fortunately “overlooked”, as parents overlook such defections. mary was not betrayed sexually; she did not seem to be so disposed. perhaps she was lucky in this. certainly she was fortunate in her marriage, and through it became stabilized and an element of strength in the larger family. her sister tillie has a better chance than mary had. but at the same time a review of the whole case leaves the feeling that mary’s future was never secure from the date of her birth to the date of her marriage. there were not sufficient formative influences to assure a social organization of her wishes.

the efforts of the federal government during the war to control the behavior of girls who were either wild already or went wild during the excitement resulted in many cases in the attempt to stabilize the girl by improvising good family and community influences for her. the work was in charge of the girls’ protective bureau. the methods used were in the main similar to those of a juvenile court. families of good standing made it a part of patriotism to take girls into their homes and made extraordinary efforts to influence them. the workers of the bureau acted both as parents and as community. the result was often very good. where the girl was not bad but had, for example, run away from a country home to see a boy from her neighborhood, she was eventually returned home without demoralization. but the records show in general that the influence of an extemporized family and community is not usually sufficient to give a new scheme of life to a difficult girl. she does not belong really to the new family and community, 161as in the case of the girl born there. she is placed under discipline. she is not a daughter of the family, to be married like a daughter of a family. she has not a life-long train of memories, making her a part of the situation. she usually appreciates her new security for a time, but presently the desire for new experience, recognition and response return and if possible she runs away. case no. 84 is typical of the result when a girl of bad habits is placed with a family of good standing which is sentimental about her, patronizes her, treats her half as servant, half as family-member, excludes her as far as possible from the world and exhorts her. on the other hand this girl was not very bad. she needed simply a situation in which she could live, with some response and recognition.

84. marie morse, age 16, who first came to our notice on june 15th when one of our protective officers found her at 11 p.m. in front of the northwestern station in the company of two sailors.

marie had then been living with her father for three weeks. it was found that he, in his effort to be what he considered good to her, had given her her own way until she did nothing but “run the streets” from morning until late at night and quite refused to obey him....

marie claims that her mother “picked up with men” in riverview, so she could do likewise. the mother does not deny having once spoken to a man she did not know, but explains it by saying that marie was teasing for a ride in forest park and she could not afford to give it to her, so a gentleman volunteered to give them both two rides. marie stated that her mother had a colored woman living with them, and that she (marie) was forced to sleep with this colored woman. the mother does not deny this, but said that her church teaches her that color makes no difference, and that marie 162only slept once with this woman, and that was when marie chose to do so....

visited mr. morse. he showed visitor every corner of their rooms, which were in good order and clean. he does all the work of the home. marie refuses to do anything, even very personal things. mr. morse’s young married niece (aged 26) came in to cook his sunday dinner for him. she stated, when mr. morse left the room, that marie had absolutely no moral standard at all and when she and other relatives would advise her, she would say “that’s nothing—mother does it.” she states that marie has told them absolutely dreadful things and thinks nothing of it; thinks it is all right to “pick up” with and go with any man....

found a place for marie with mrs. r. m. harriman, winnetka. marie will care for two children, under three years of age, will receive $3.00 a week, room and board. she will have her own bathroom and very pleasant surroundings. mrs. harriman is a woman of quality who will be able to give marie personal and home standards.

mr. harriman ’phoned. wants to know a little about marie, as they already like her but she seems so lonesome; wanted to go to movie and they told her that there were none out there. marie asked to let her “beau”, a chauffeur, know where she is and mr. harriman told her that his daughter of seventeen is not yet old enough to entertain, so he surely would not let marie have men call on her. marie said she was a roman catholic, and as the catholic church is but three blocks from the house, he told marie he expected her to go every sunday. there is a splendid girl working next door and he had marie meet her, as he knows she will not let marie do anything she should not do. mrs. harriman will be very glad to see visitor if she will ’phone first. mrs. harriman took marie out on monday and bought her some good sensible clothes.

marie goes to church with julia, the catholic maid next door. they often spend the evenings in one another’s yards. this is marie’s only friend and mrs. harriman 163states that she is often quite lonesome. they are interesting her in books and she has nearly finished one. they felt this would keep her mind off her old friends. mrs. harriman states that she often keeps her busy unnecessarily “rubbing up the silver or dusting books” just so she won’t become so lonesome and sit looking off into space as she did do much during her first week there.

mrs. harriman states that her duties are not heavy. all the washing, including marie’s, is sent to the laundry and mrs. harriman uses the vacuum cleaner herself on the rugs once a week. when marie was told to put her laundry in, it was found that she had none—wore no underwear but skirt and corset cover. they were too large, so mrs. harriman showed marie how to fix them and let her do this evenings. mrs. harriman told how marie’s eyes beamed when she heard mr. harriman talk of a drive they had to great lakes, and later in the evening she asked mrs. harriman about it.

marie wanted to bring a chauffeur friend up to the house, but they forbade it telling her she was too young to have company. mrs. harriman feels that when her daughter returns from her summer visit with relatives and marie sees how she is expected to do, marie will be better satisfied with the program they have mapped out for her....

mrs. harriman took visitor in the house to talk with marie. the girl certainly looks well. she is somewhat stouter and tanned and her cheeks are rosy. she has improved immensely—looks well kept, neat, clean and happy. she showed visitor her room and bath, which are very nice, bright and sunny, well ventilated, clean, and the furniture and carpet were good pieces and in good condition. she stated that mrs. harriman was going to put nice curtains and pictures up for her. marie said that julia, the girl next door, did not have nearly so nice or large a room and no bath at all. she showed visitor the dresses she was given and said the yellow one which she wears on sunday “looks fine when it is fresh.” marie expects to finish reading “pollyanna” 164tonight, and mr. harriman already has another book for her. she liked “pollyanna” very much. mr. harriman also told her there were books of travel there which would teach her as much as if she went three years longer to school, and marie seems anxious to begin reading them....

august 12, went to winnetka. mrs. harriman says they sent marie to the kings’ to ride to lake geneva. mrs. harriman explained that there are times when friends go on trips with them and when they cannot therefore take marie as they do not have room enough.

started out with marie. we walked down to the bank. on the way marie stated that she had now worked three weeks and that she had no money except the $1.25 balance paid by mrs. johnson this morning and 30 cents. expressed surprise that she had not at least $5.00 saved. told her we would deposit this $1.00 in the bank, that hereafter she would deposit $2.00 each week and buy one thrift stamp, and the remaining 75 cents was more than enough to spend. visitor signed bank slip so that marie cannot draw without visitor’s signature. marie was going to buy thrift stamp and visitor explained that she could wait for that until next week as we were going to the doctor down in chicago and she would need lunch money. explained also that she should not expect the harrimans to continue to give her carfare and r. r. fare, etc., that while they did so through kindness, they were under no obligation to do so.... told her she was no longer a child now and must mold her own character and plan for her future, to support herself, to buy her own clothing, to save something for times of illness or possible accident.

reached chicago. went to childs for luncheon. gave marie bill of fare and advised her to choose good, plain, nutritious food according to what she could afford to spend. she chose well, her luncheon costing her 30 cents. when visitor ordered her own dessert, she ordered ice cream for marie and paid for same. marie while on the street passed two catholic sisters and remarked to visitor that they were 165from st. patrick’s, where she went to school when living with her mother....

at county building and explained case. after examination, dr. stanton stated that it is not possible to know if marie has had improper relations recently on account of [seduction seven years ago]. she questioned marie very closely and marie stated that all the sailors and soldiers had asked her to have intercourse with them, but that she positively had not done it.

took marie to the northwestern station. while going over, marie said, “i wish i could see my friends.” told her we had her up there to get her away from the seemingly bad company she had been in; that she was not to come to chicago except with visitor and never, even with her father, to be out of mrs. harriman’s house after 11:30; that she was no longer a child and just must make up her mind to obey the plans of the g.p.b., or it would make it very hard for herself; that she was old enough now to substitute other forms of recreation for the kind she had been indulging in. she could read, write, sew, or rest after her work. told her visitor would probably call once each month....

mr. harriman in office. saturday mrs. harriman gave marie a pair of shoes. monday morning, august 19th, she paid her. marie cleared her room, etc., and at one o’clock told mrs. harriman she was going to the bank. mrs. harriman told her she was much pleased. marie left and has not been seen or heard of since.

mr. harriman ’phoned. said marie told maid next door some time last week that when things had quieted down a little she was going back to her mother, or to her father’s relatives, in hammond. [marie went to her mother, but both disappeared and were never located.][94]

in the following case of far-going demoralization the influences are also improvised. the girl’s mother was bad and taught her to be bad. an interesting 166feature in the document is the complete transformation of the girl under the influence of the physician. she had been dirty and disorderly and became clean, orderly, and interested in work. it frequently happens that some particular influence, perhaps the effect of another personality, defines the situation to the demoralized girl, brings a conversion, and she begins to reorganize her life spontaneously. but in this case the life of the girl was so totally unorganized that it is impossible to regard this transformation as anything more than a phase of security between two periods of new experience. quiescent and orderly periods are in fact the rule in such cases and social workers learn to estimate the length of their duration. the physician himself does not hope that any permanent change of character has been effected. we may suspect also that helen is mentally inferior, of the moron type, but even so we must speculate as to her character if she had been situated from the beginning like little calline in document no. 36. a clean and protected moron is not far from corresponding to the ideal woman of the victorian age.

85. june 12, 1918. helen langley. age 19. very childlike in appearance and this impression is exaggerated by her yellow bobbed hair, short skirts, etc. although she has been observed continually in places and always with men, in scarcely any case has the same sailor or civilian been seen with her more than two or three times. she has no fear of the protective officers, with whom she is always free in her attitude—runs to greet them, offers them candy, etc. it has been impossible to have any serious conversation with her, as she is irresponsible and heedless.

visited her brother mr. edward hunt and his wife. they stated that helen was born at north chicago, september 16717th, 1899. she was irregular in her attendance at school, did not pass the 4th grade and stopped going altogether when she was 12 or 13 years old. she has never been known to read a book or magazine, not even the “funny” page in the paper, and the brother believes she is unable to write anything beyond her signature. although the family were known as swedish lutheran, helen had no religious training and did not attend church or sunday school. according to the brother she was depraved from the time she was 12 years old when she began to “go crazy over the boys”, to attend dance halls and to go out on motor trips with unknown men. when 14 years old she was attacked by a neighbor in a field near her home and since that time her life has been a series of immoral relations with sailors and civilians. edward hunt believes these tendencies are inherited from his mother, who gave birth to an illegitimate child before her marriage and whose immorality afterwards broke up the family repeatedly and turned his father into a drunkard and an idler.... from the time helen was a child her mother encouraged her in every sort of immorality and helped her in deceiving her father or boldly defying him. mrs. edward nelson stated that helen to her knowledge has brought on several abortions with the assistance of her mother....

on march 23rd, after a three weeks’ acquaintance, helen married george langley, a sailor rated as a first class fireman.... she was four months pregnant at the time. she told her relatives and friends that she was marrying langley in order to secure the allotment and insurance. she and her husband lived for three weeks with mr. and mrs. ed. hunt and then took a room with mrs. de lacey, 147 sheridan road. shortly after her marriage helen appealed to the red cross and was given $14.00 to pay her rent. this money she spent for a pink sweater and a silk skirt....

visited mrs. anna langley. talked with her and her son, bill. the whole family has been crushed over george’s marriage. their chief concern seems to be the allotment 168and insurance, which george transferred from his mother to helen. they want, if possible, to prevent her from receiving the first payment, which is due july 1st. on one occasion helen tried to represent herself at the post office as mrs. anna langley in order to secure the allotment. george langley is under treatment at the naval station for disease contracted from his wife. for this reason and because of her continued loose behavior he is trying to secure a divorce before he is sent to sea early in july. mrs. langley and her son stated that helen has been brought before the police several times to their knowledge and spent one night in the county jail last january. bill is willing to make a sworn statement giving the names of two waukegan men who have admitted to him they have contracted disease from helen....

visited chaplain moore. he sent for george langley, who stated that he had been in love with helen from the moment he saw her, and had begged her repeatedly to marry him, which she refused to do although she was having immoral relations with him. langley knew that she was diseased and was going about with other men, but felt certain that she would behave if she married him. he has tried to live with her, but she was lazy, dirty and disorderly, went out every night with other men, returning at two or three in the morning. he stated that mr. hart, with whom they lived in north chicago, is willing to testify that she brought sailors to her room many times in the absence of her husband....

telephoned miss judson, superintendent of the lake bluff orphanage. she stated that a baby boy, about one week old, was found in the woods by some school children on october 27th, 1916, and brought to the orphanage. the child was tagged “baby langley” and was in a most advanced stage of syphilis. it was attended by dr. brown, city physician. miss judson took all the care of the baby herself, as it required constant attention and was so diseased that she would not endanger the nurses. the baby died on january 1st, 1917.

169visited helen. she told about the birth of her baby in october, 1916, and of how she disposed of it in the lake forest woods. she stated that she has never worked regularly, but has had several factory positions and has done housework for mrs. watrous of waukegan, mrs. gerley of waukegan and for mrs. christianson of north chicago. she stated that she has succeeded eight or ten times in bringing about miscarriage with the use of an instrument which was bought by her mother at pearce’s drug store and which her sister-in-law taught her to use....

observed helen at the circus in company with a sailor. she went afterwards to an ice cream parlor and a chop suey restaurant, was followed to north chicago and was observed in the woods at midnight.

consulted judge pearsons of the county and juvenile courts and assistant states attorney welch. they agreed that it was imperative to detain helen at once and decided that an arrest should be made on a charge of disorderly conduct. the examination will be made immediately so that she can be placed under medical treatment for the three weeks awaiting her trial. in the meantime her age can be verified and a decision made as to whether she will be tried on the grounds of feeble-mindedness or delinquency....

interviewed mr. hart, with whom helen had rooms with her husband for about two months. mr. hart says helen is a “worthless character”; says he is “in wrong” with the neighbors for having her there. showed me room and bath occupied by helen. both rooms contained a lot of dirty clothes. he said she had not washed while she was there. trunk filled with rumpled clothes, stained and soiled rags, etc., bedding which was new when she came, was soiled and filthy.

visited county jail. asked to see helen. was told by mr. griffin, the sheriff, that helen was removed by dr. brown, county physician, on june 21. mr. griffin said that helen is not in the county hospital. he would make no further statement and advised that we go to dr. brown for information.

170interviewed dr. brown in his office. he offered to accompany visitor to place in which helen is kept on condition that the address shall not be made known to any one in waukegan. he said that he expected helen to be cured and in condition to be discharged in a very short time as several slides according to his own analysis have proved negative....

drove with dr. brown to county hospital. helen is under care in one of the tuberculosis cottages. the tuberculosis nurse, miss gean crawford, was willing to assume the care on condition that helen’s disease should not be known to the other nurses. helen has gained several pounds and looks like a new person, is content and happy, sleeps most of the day and said she feels rested for the first time for years. she takes all the care of her own cottage, has become very tidy in her habits, enjoys washing her dishes, etc., and keeping things in order. helen said that her plan when she is discharged is to find a good place where she can do housework. she intends to have nothing further to do with men, particularly sailors. she loves to do sewing and handwork and showed the most astonishing amount of embroidery which she has done for one of the nurses. she asked for news of her family and said that she has begged to see her mother, but the doctor and nurse have convinced her that it is best to have no visitors. she is out of doors most of the day, but sees nothing of the other patients.

helen is now employed in the kitchen at the county hospital, lives in the servants’ quarters and is to be paid $25.00 a month. she has proved so quick, willing and efficient that dr. brown would like to employ her permanently, but he realizes that it will be impossible to hold her after she knows that she is well. he would like to keep her at least through august, as she is a great help with the canning. as long as she continues to be content he will not send the final specimen to the state laboratory.

visited dr. brown. he refused absolutely to permit helen to be visited by any of the protective workers. said 171she is doing excellent work, is very content, and begs to remain at the hospital. although dr. brown is unwilling to undertake the responsibility of court parole, he would like to retain her as a permanent employee, on condition that there is no interference from the protective bureau or the courts.

after talking over the matter with the state’s attorney and dr. g. g. taylor of the state board of health, it was decided that no better plan can be made for helen than to allow her to remain in the hospital with the hope that dr. brown will change his policy as to visits from the protective bureau.[95]

the penitentiary and reformatory, to which offenders are condemned by courts of law, have, as is well known, never been generally successful in reorganizing the attitudes of their inmates on a social basis. they represent the legal concept of crime and punishment and the theological concept of sin and atonement. where society is not able to organize the wishes of one of its members in a social way it may exterminate him or banish him to a society of the bad, which corresponds to the theological purgatory from which there is a chance to return to a society of the good. the punishment is supposed to atone for the offense and effect the reformation.

the following case was handled by a particularly well equipped reformatory for girls above the juvenile court age. its staff at the time was large and scientifically trained. it was probably more completely equipped for the psychological study of its inmates than any other institution whatever, and its records are more complete than any i have seen elsewhere. but an institution dealing with a large number of girls 172sentenced by the law courts, many of them hardened and rebellious, has quite as much as it can do barely to maintain order. the situation is the same as in the penitentiaries for men. the present case is not typical; the girl is far from being as demoralized as the average girl in the same institution. i cite it here to indicate what are the attitudes of a girl in this situation, how accessible a girl may be to influences and how unprepared an institution of this type is to employ any organizing influences.

esther had no previous bad record. she may or may not have had some sex experiences; that is not unusual with girls of this class. it was not shown that she was sexually diseased. probably she was not but was frightened into thinking so by a doctor who wanted $100.00. her offense was slight and casual. it might have been passed over with a reprimand, or, as in the juvenile court, with a period of probation; but she was nineteen—above the juvenile court age. the institution recognized, in the statement given first below, that it would not be for her welfare to hold her there, and placed her out on parole.

86. statement from the laboratory of bedford hills reformatory for women:

esther lorenz was committed to the institution march 23, 1914, from special sessions, n. y.

offense: petit larceny. she was born in prag, bohemia, and educated in bohemian and german. she has a father and sister living in the old country and an aunt in new jersey to whom she came three years and a half ago. this aunt and her family are poor and very foreign and unprogressive. esther worked for them faithfully and gained little knowledge of english or training of any sort while with them. she left them several times and took positions as waitress in private 173families, still helping them out from her meager earnings. her last position was as waitress in a small restaurant in new york where she met lilian marx. she had been there eight months when the restaurant went out of business and the girls were thrown out of work.

it was soon after this that the girls stole from macy’s store several articles, two pairs of 59–cent stockings, a belt and some cheap manicure articles, apparently on the impulse of the moment, because they saw another girl doing it so easily. in jail they were warned by the other girls not to tell the truth about anything and they were too frightened to think what to tell. esther’s story was in the main true, but lilian made up in obedience to the other girl’s suggestion a conflicting tale. the probation officer felt that she was not getting the truth, and as the two girls were so young and so without protection, she advised their commitment to the institution in order that the institution might investigate their case more thoroughly.

investigation in the case of esther revealed nothing further against the girl than the one offense for which she was arrested. we have found her to be intelligent, conscientious, and, far beyond other girls, sensitive to fine distinctions of right and wrong. it was the opinion of the laboratory that she might get more harm from association with the girls than good from a long term in the reformatory and that it would be well to parole her as soon as she had had some training and a suitable position was in view....

she will not write to her aunt because ... the aunt said she did not know any such girl. will not write to her father because she does not want him to know anything about the matter. she had heard that we sometimes send girls back to their own country, and she would be glad to go except that she would have to make some excuse to her father for being sent back. when i asked her if she would tell him the truth she said: “tell him that i was sent home for stealing a pair of stockings?” it seems to strike her as quite ridiculous.

174[the following letters (except the last) were written by esther to her friend lilian and show her general attitudes. the letters were written mainly in bohemian during the seven months she was on parole, and were translated for the institution by a bohemian woman whose rendering is similar to the few letters written in english by esther. i have adapted the translations only slightly. about half the letters are printed here.]

october 1, 1914. my dearest friend: i received your letter with which i was very happy. i am glad to hear that you have a nice place. dear friend, i apologize not to answer you right away. i have lots of work. i have two people and little baby girl. i have so much work; i haven’t got even time to wash my face.... in the morning i get up at 5 o’clock and i wash porch, then i make breakfast. i had eight to the table and i was the 9th one, so you can immagine what work i had. so then i had to wash dishes, then wash diapers for the baby. i got to clean two ducks and i got to make eight beds as whole first floor and i had to set the table and cooking all alone. no one helps me and everything got to be ready 1 o’clock, so you can imagine how i was dancing in the kitchen. that’s the way it goes, every night i go upstairs half past ten or eleven. when i come up i’m like dead; soon as i lay down i sleep. so imagine how i look worse every day. i have $14 month and she promises me more next month—that what she says. i like to know if i see them [money]. she is very snike [snake?]—every evening when she goes to bed she take me around the neck and kiss me but who knows for what she do that. i work very hard, dear sweetheart, you ask me to come to see you but how can i do that; i haven’t got no shoes and no money, i am very poor. if you can you come over on saturday evening and sleep with me. i got big bed. on sunday we can look for [an italian friend, not a bad character] and we go in a place where we can have a good time and lots of kissing. we going to look for some nice man but something better, not only working man; we 175shouldn’t have to go to work. i am angry with my aunt, she don’t want to take my lawyer, so they may go on my back [“take the air”] i take him myself when i have that money, don’t you think. she told on me that i have different name and that i am catholic not a jew, so now miss r. will be angry with me that i told her lies but she and miss t. and all the rest may go on my back. i don’t worry now they know. how we fool, them. innocent. friend, aint they fools, aint they fools! she [probation officer] is a good girl. sunday school. [term applied derisively by the girls of the officials, the institution and of themselves.] my dearest friend, i wrote to t. and the letter come back. he isn’t there any more and may be he is in phila. wouldn’t be that nice if he knows we are paroled; he be happy, don’t you think so? dear friend, all the time i couldn’t come to see you before i have new shoes; and then we go to dance together; they would not know where we were going. if you can, come over. this is such a little country—one house half an hour from the next. every night when i go to bed i am thinking how i used to have and how i have it now, but when my relatives wouldn’t help me out, god knows what he got to do. your lady ask you how i like my place, so say i couldn’t have any better place. my nose is always bleeding; i dont know what to do. my lady told me she send for doctor but i don’t want any. so, dear friend, dont be mad at me i didn’t answer right away. for that i wrote you such a letter that is worth something. and write, esther. and sleep sweet. and sweet dreams. love to you from your dear friend.

my dearest friend: ... i see that you didn’t forget me. true friend. when you want me to answer you always right away, every letter, just the same i expect from you that you should answer my letter like a true friend. don’t you think i have a right? friend, dear, what i’m going anyway to do if i have to suffer always so much with my sickness? i suffer so much, you know. dear girlie, nobody wouldn’t lend you any money. i was asking people and they promised 176me and later they say again that they havn’t got money themselves. so you see how it is, how the people are false.

doctor told me that if i let go that further that i wouldn’t have never any children, and you know when we get married we would like to have children, but where i should take $100 when i haven’t got them and for the trial too they ask $100, so answer me if i haven’t got [am not] right. i like to help us out but what can i do without any money. i wrote to the lawyer if he can make trial for you and he answer me that he like to talk to me about—he couldn’t make any answer—he said that he wrote letter to bedford, that they should let us free, that we was working hard enough, that we are long enough in places, and so miss t. wrote me that i should wait and miss r. wrote me a letter too, that’s going to be everything all right, and my lady she received a letter from miss r. that she come to see me next month and i think that i be free. the lawyer wrote letter to him and they are afraid from him, ha, ha. [frightened into this, course]. the lawyer spoke to judge and judge he said that we never be free, so lawyer he wrote to me that soon as possible i should come to n. y., and i should tell him why we want the trial and i tell him that we’re not guilty, that we does that from foolishness [thoughtlessness] and we was nervous, and going to tell that we were invited to the wedding and so that happened; that we was like out of mind, that we didn’t realize what we were doing. don’t say that we are guilty, otherwise we wouldn’t come out and that would be a shame. we be put in a newspaper when our trial come on and we shouldn’t say “guilty”, but if you wouldn’t listen to me, say anything you like. still i beg on you don’t say on me. if they ask you, say that you don’t know. do you understand me? listen friend, make yourself stuck up [act proud]. don’t act like a baby—that way you never come out. what should i do next week; i am supposed to come to n. y. and i havn’t got fare for train; that cost $8. i come there and like to see you but i wouldn’t have much 177time. the lawyer he going to keep me about one hour and about 4 o’clock i’m through with my work and then till i get to the station and then take two hours till i get to n. y. and that be about 7; and i want to be back about ten if be possible. i don’t want my lady she should catch on for she never would let me go there. don’t say anything to your lady that i come to n. y. because you’re be such a one you never can keep quiet, do you understand me? i’m sometimes so angry at you that i would tear you to pieces cause you never keep your mouth shut. you got too big mouth. i think when you got a sweetheart that your big enough to have more sense. once in a while you have not got your sense.... sometimes i have a right to tell you that, so don’t be angry on me and write me right away, and tell you head you should have a good time, but not yet. wouldn’t you be glad to see me. its six months since we didn’t see one the other. maybe we wouldn’t know one the other. i let you know when i come.

november, 1914. dear friend: i received your letter and i was very glad to hear from you. i am glad that you don’t forget me. i will forgive you this time, but don’t do that again. i going to lose my patience. you know what that means. i don’t have to wait very long for a letter. dear friend, i am going to moving pictures every wednesday and every time when i going out i see the nice young mens. how they love them, the girls, and we can’t help that. i met one nice man and he want to go with me for a good time but i realize maybe he some kind of detective, so i told him. “what do you want, i can’t understand you.” “oh, you know what i mean,” [he said]. i told him, “you big slob, you leave me alone,” and he left me. he was very nice, and he was a blond. that was a joke. dear friend, if you could come with me to moving pictures, there we would meet nice mens. wouldn’t that be nice? i have my hands so hard like a man from hard work, so you can immagine how hard i am working. so the rest of it i am going to write to you next time. i am writing for a call for a lawyer and he 178get one too. my uncle he pay the lawyer so that going to be for sure.

with such a italians [as t.] we wouldn’t go any more. the lawyer want us to have a witness and i told him we had [the italian] and now i must tell him we havn’t got any. that’s going to be hard again. i wrote to the frenchmans and the letter comes back. what can i do and i got to give an answer to the lawyer right away. good-by. lots of kisses. your friend.

dear friend: forgive me that i didn’t answer your right away. dear friend i have such a cranky lady. if i stay here another two months with her i think i go crazy. i was very sick the other sunday. we had 8 people and so you can immagine what work i had. only if you would see me you would get frightened how i look; i am only bone and skin and pale in face. you would say that i go by and by in grave. everybody ask me what’s matter with me but you know i can’t tell everybody i come from bedford. you know when i had these 8 people to table and i have to wait on table and after they was through i get such a cramp like i had in the tombs. my lady she was so mad at me that i leave the dishes and i went to lay down. friend you wouldn’t know what it is when we have our home again. when anything hurts you we can get help—but this way we are like dogs—don’t you think i’m right? if you can only see this and how i worry about both of us how we should come free. friend, i didn’t understand your letter. you want i should write to miss r. or you do it?

friend, dear, i am sending you a letter. be so kind—send it from brooklyn or new york. you know he [doctor] ask me where i live, so i told him i am a dressmaker from newark but when the letter going to be sent from brooklyn or new york, but don’t let you lady see that because that doctor is only for bad sickness [venereal], only for women which are sick from men; otherwise you bring me in a trouble more than i am. he’s known all over. so soon 179as you get the letter, mail it right away. don’t let the letter lay no place they shouldnt see it. if my lady should know this, so i know its only your fault. my lady told me that you show every letter you get from me to your people and they write one another, so if you be true to me you do what i ask you. he’s the doctor what going to cure me. dear friend forgive me that i write such a short letter. i’m very tired. answer right away will you and then i write to you one long letter and i come to see you soon as possible. with happiness and kisses from your true friend. esther.

[note by parole officer: when esther was asked to translate the original of the foregoing letter ... she omitted the sentence with the word “doctor” in it.... when she had finished the letter i asked her if she had not omitted a sentence, pointing out. she read it again and said: “oh, yes, he is the doctor what’s going to make me well, that is, my head well.” i reminded her that she had previously said he was the doctor she was keeping company with and also a doctor for women’s sickness. she was evidently quite confused but insisted that she meant all women’s sickness, and that he treated women only, not men.]

dearest friend: i am letting you know i received your letter. i was very happy with it. dear friend i write to t. where is the lawyer. he went there and told him that he met us on the street, so see how t. is false; so lawyer ask my uncle where did we pick up the two boys, so uncle ask me how is it with the boys—where we met them, so i have trouble yet again.... when t. come to you so you tell him that he meets us on the street but we are not street girls; give him good but tell him we are innocent. ha, ha, dear m., miss r. was here yesterday and ask me about trial, i didn’t know what to say, she had so much to say [knew so much that esther was surprised]. friend why did you tell your lady that we going to have trial. i didn’t tell mine nothing. you’ve got to say everything out before there’s any start. you know she going to let it out to bedford. miss r. told me your lady wrote to bedford—that she write there every 180month, so realize how stupid you are. excuse me that i scold you like that but i can’t help. i am very excited and angry that you must tell everything you know. i asked miss r. if i can go and see you and she told me “no.” so i ask her if you can come see me and she told me she ask your lady if she let you go. i told miss r. that i am willing to give you money for train if you havn’t got it. you should come to see me soon as possible and then we going to talk over....

december 1914. dear friend: i must say that i like it here, because miss r. asked me if i like it here. if not she will give me another place, but i would lose my good references and that would make it very bad, as they might say i do not know how to work—or then i could perhaps not come out in the trial.

tell me what to do. the lawyer always wants money, and i have none now. my uncle gave me some or told him he would give him later, but you know my uncle promised to give it to him right away, if he himself had money, but he poor fellow is in debt yet on account of his business that he had.... i cry every day and pray to god he should help me.

i also went with one young fellow to have a good time and earned $2 and what is that? for that i bought stockings and what i needed and the $2. were gone. i am now the same as you are, everything tires me. i would rather not see myself.

let me know my dear what i must buy for you for christmas or else i might buy something what you do not like.

[note by parole officer: esther herself translated this ... passage as follows: “i was in town for a good time and i see the young man with the $2.” she then explained: “i don’t mean that as it sounds; it means that before in new york i met a young man when i was getting off the car. i lost the heel from my shoe and slipped and this young man picked me up and gave me $2. which i dropped out of my pocket-book.” then translates: “i was in town and i spent 181$2. for stockings and other things which i needed.” explained: “i havn’t meant that i got $2. from the man the way you have taken it up.”]

my dearest friend: i received your letter with happiness. i read letter about five times and i going to read it again. i laugh so much. you wrote, i were only fooling them. ha, dear i think you know me already, how i know to fix things up. i want to make them jealous, ha, ha. i go to laugh so much, so much. if you want to marry one of the officers, you know what they are, they are ever the other [army] men. they can’t marry only a poor girl. if they want to marry they got to have a girl with lots of money 20,000 kronen, and they got to put the money down for guarantee. if happens something to your sweetheart officer, then you get the money back. do you understand me, sunday school? but dear we havn’t got the mens yet, we have to wait for them. if we going to get mens like that, cause we not rich. what your boys says? did you give them the letter to read. ha. ha we fooled them. all right, my sweetheart, we going to go always together. you have a right just scold him enough, italian t. such a italians! he didn’t have to say that he meet us on the street. listen friend, if my uncle ask you if that t. is my sweetheart, then tell him the truth. otherwise he wouldn’t help me out. he could be very mad. tell that these are merely some acquaintance. don’t forget. friend come to me, i am not allowed to go to see you. you come over and we going to have good time together. here its lots of nice young men. listen dear, my lady ask me if i’m going to school and where i’m going when i go out and i told her that i go to visit girls which i knows from school, but i’m going to moving pictures and i have three nice young mens, that’s always so, ha? they said, say kid, how much do you want, one dollar? then when he feels like to have something—and want to go some place, then i tell him $1.00 that is too cheap. i have no time, maybe next time, so i fool the boys there.

to us usually come one man with eggs. he brings me 182eggs wednesday, in the afternoon and saturday. always when he comes we kiss each other, but he isn’t rich; that’s nothing for us but when you can get a kiss from a man, its nice, isn’t it? ha, ha. i have always a good time with him. i wish you can be here with me, then you see what fun we can have ... sunday school.

dear friend: just now i was at the p. o. and i get letter from you, so i am very happy again. dear friend, would you think that t. has a factory? you think if he is such a rich man he would not write like that. his handwriting is like when a cat scratches. t. he don’t write to me, so i don’t write to him either. so i wrote him today and i told him he would go to see you. dear, we was in newspapers. my lawyer, he put us in and [it said] there we was innocent, that we forgot to pay it. ha, ha, so we are innocent, don’t you think so. that was nice newspaper. i got to laugh so much at that. i were laughing so much that i got stomach ache from it. so t. when he comes to see you, tell him enough and tell him about cheap watch what you have and pocket-book they say we took.... and don’t forget to bring me my sweethearts picture and then i am going to put in—and i am going to show that picture to my lady to make her jealous. don’t forget to get receipt from the ring what i put in the pawn shop. friend, i want you to pay for the ring. i like you should pay if you can do it for me. i going to send it to you but your sister should not know anything about it. don’t tell her nor my uncle either. you know what i should get from him. t. is nice, isn’t he? i wrote to the lawyer and he answered me such a nice letter and he isn’t married yet; he is only young yet. maybe i going to make love to him. ha, ha, friend, i got new sweetheart again. ha, that egg man i don’t like him no more. i don’t kiss him any more because he is only egg man. i want something better, don’t you think, friend?... i go home to see uncle and to see the lawyer. i must see him how he looks.

january 1915. my dearest friend: your letter and present 183i received. i was so happy that we are so good friends always. my dear, how do you like that present what i sent you. you want to know something new. today i am twenty years old, my birthday. when you going to have your birthday, dear,—i have big trouble about your dress; i didn’t know what to do i should help you out with it. you know that time i put different name, now i couldn’t remember what kind name i put and after while i remember i put a name reich. so they answer i should send first $4.40 so tomorrow i go to city. so dear i helping you out much as i can.... i send you receipt from that dress you should believe how much i paid. so darling right away tomorrow i take $4. from my lady’s pocket bag and when you send me $4 i going to put them back....

dear friend: ... i going to have a trial this month or start of next month, so don’t say anything about the hat, only about the stockings and about the belt. you must go through to see that you know how to speak in the court. let your sister speak. i don’t want to work for servant always. that going to cost $125. i have two lawyers; one ask $78, so if you come out would you pay half of it or don’t you want to be with me on the trial? so let me know darling, i got to work too, but so much i take time to write to you. i am always so happy when i get letter from you. i got to go, for my letters to get them; to us don’t come no letter-carrier; i got to go on the post-office. i usually go on the evening and no one think of me and you forgotten me too because you got fellow and you don’t want me to know something about it. i have one too in philadelphia. my lady told me she would not have taken me out from the institution but she saw i was innocent; so she took, me. here is nice blond man....

dear friend: just today i opened letter which made me very happy. i always can hardly wait till i can fool them. dear friend tell me what i can do. i just received letter from my lawyer that i have to go to n. y. and he send me bill for $100. when i receive that i din’t know where i am; 184i thought i faint when i saw the bill. listen dear tell me where i can get the money. on 30th i have to have it. they going to start the trial. my lawyer he told it going to be bad, that we got to say the truth, but don’t say anything about the pocket-book and the little things.... but only the money, what i do about it. my uncle said he hadn’t any and no one to borrow from. i can’t fool any jew, ha, ha. i’m all broke down. i am afraid when the day come when i come between those young mens [lawyers] how i going to stand there, i wouldn’t have no money to pay, so i think the day come to take my life. now answer me what you going to do. i going to wait for your letter. address, franz joseph, c. k. o. f. wein, kaiser palace.

dear friend: ... i know something new, if you want to do that. i think you should dress yourself nice and put a veil on your face, nobody should know you, and go to the store where we took the things—that was on 2nd february 1914. that was on thursday and this time is on a thursday again and 2nd of february. if i were in your place i would buy one hat for spring and ask for a receipt and then i would buy two pair stockings and belt—and i pay you for it and the stockings and the hat would be yours. and you should keep the receipt and when its our trial you could show the receipt of your lawyer and your sister and me too and those receipts it is going to say second of february, second month, thursday. that’s the way we going to burn our people. you need hat and i need 59 cents pair stockings. soon as you send me the receipts, my lady she have a machine, so i going to change it from 1915 to 1914, and then we going to win. we wouldn’t have to be ashamed about it. you know she didn’t see me when i took the belt, so we can say well we have receipts for the stockings and maybe they did not see us to take one belt and hat; and this i going to tell to the lawyer that i thought i paid already and i put that in my pocket-book and he’s going to think that’s how it is. friend, do that and you going to see how we come out. i was awfully afraid when i received letter from lawyer 185and he say it would be very hard with us but i think [the foregoing story] be very good. with that we come out very nice. i can make another excuse. i can tell that we bought that [altogether] and when we get the receipts i was so nervous from those detectives when they catch us that i couldn’t remember right away what we does with these receipts and i could put the receipts in my cuff of coat.... and i going to put the tickets in my cuff in the toilet—you know how we put our handkerchiefs in—and i going to forget the coat and maybe they going to examine the coat and find the tickets. we can play then innocent. so think over darling. i would do that if i only can have a chance to go to n. y., like you. you get card from me but its only for fun.

p. s. was it 4 o’clock in afternoon or 2 o’clock when we were in the store—thursday, 2nd feb., and we locked up at 5 o’clock.

dear friend:... i received letters from my sister and they were so happy; they want me to come home soon as i get that letter. but you know how can i go. i haven’t got the money and i am not free and i don’t want to ask them about money and now its the war; they need the money themselves. my sweetheart is not killed yet, so i going to take him when i get home. he always asks about me if i’m angry at him. i rather take him than american; they only want to have girl got to have money. the poor girl they don’t want her and those which are not rich they are nothing worth. don’t you think so friend, i am right? don’t be angry friend. love and kisses.

february, 1915: dear friend: scuse me that i didn’t write so long to you. i was so nervous and mad that i didn’t know what to do—when i can’t help you with the money. friend i have something new to tell you, so now look out. tonight lady sent me to p. o. for letters and one letter was there from miss r., so you know what i does? i breathed on the letter so long till i opened it her letter. i get so frightened i didn’t know where i am or what i am 186doing. miss r. writes that if i am not ... satisfied on parole it would be better to take me back to the institution.... please send me the money $4. i took them from my lady so i should pay your dress. otherwise i couldn’t pay them right away and you wouldn’t have your dress, and i had only $1. and when i think on you so you know what heart i have, and i took the money out and now i’m ready. when you send them i put them back where they was. you know what miss r. have another girl for my lady but she don’t know how to cook and she is 28. she come from the institution. she was ther 14 months. she be more satisfied than me. see friend, miss r. i would give her a kick if i can—don’t you think angel. so my angel maybe we wouldn’t see one another any more. back again to the institution.

... dear we going to have another girl upstairs with us. if you could come to us that would be nice and we would enjoy it much better. last night i was to school and when i returned home on the train i saw very nice young fellows. they make lots of fun with me—such nice gentlemen. they went from some kind of parade and when i went down from the train they took their hats off and next wednesday i am going to see them again. dear friend.... i need the money i have only a nickel and that got to be enough for one week.—so you can imagine how i got to save and i need new hat—so i would like to buy me a hat for my money. you look very nice in that hat, ha, ha. friend, if we could only help us to run away to the west. i ask my lady at the school—she comes from california. she tell me if i have carfare, i should go there. dear, if we can be only free then we know how to use the world. i’m not so any more like what i was in the institution—i’m now such a devil that you wouldn’t believe it. that man promised to lend me money but if he wouldn’t lend it i don’t know what i am going to do. i have not got even for the doctor and you know what it is with me? friend, i would like to have picture from my sweetheart, but send me [back] 187the money, i going to send you money some other time for him because i only wanted to make my lady jealous. she thinks we are only so-so. sunday school. friend, you write to t.? i don’t, i don’t care. wait, i going to fix myself up and i going to wait for him and then i going to wipe my nose and then i going away from him. friend, i am so happy now that we are going to go west. we are going to take other girls with us. we go like soldiers—hurrah, hurrah, like soldiers to the war. friend, if you answer me right away i going to answer too. when you don’t answer on four letters so i don’t think you care for me. goodnight, sunday school. let the bed-bugs bite you? friend you have fellow in the bed. you go with him to sleep? in the night when bite me some i kill him so blood runs. write right away.

... i am crying so much—i have such a hard work. everything hurts me; i am all broke down. if i can only come free i wouldn’t mind to have not even a shirt. i would give everything if we can be free. friend, if you only know how i feel bad but don’t say anything to your lady. you know what miss r. wrote, that i always ask you to come over. you must told something to your lady or you wrote something to miss r. now i don’t care any more if no one comes to see me. forgive me if i write such a letter. i don’t know what to say—i want to go to bed, its 10 o’clock. i want you to get the letter right away monday. answer me right away what you think if you want to be with me. if you like your sister better, so stick to her and i go my way and worry about myself and save my money for trip to go home and i never will return. i stay with my sweetheart. when you go there friend, if you give me every month a dollar for your dress, like a friend. answer right away.

[march, 1915] ... my lady told me everything be much better next winter. i going to have a nice warm room. this winter i had awfully cold room. i went to bed with my cloths. she didn’t give me no blankets, so i sleep in my 188clothes and i used to take hot iron with me to warm up the bed, so bad i have here. friend, i got to go to school every wednesday but next wednesday i wouldn’t go, i go to the dance. i have white dress under the black skirt and long coat and she going to think that i go to school. i leave my skirt and my books in my friends house and i go to the dance, ha, ha, ha. come with me ha, ha, i have there lots of nice young boys and the man who brings me the eggs and lots of other nice young man, so i going to have nice time. dear, i went sunday out and i went to the girl, her sister have a boarding house there where nice 3 young mans, and all ask me to go with them to the dance, so i going to have big fun. i be very glad if you can come with me, but don’t tell on me that i’m going to the dance. my lady she don’t know anything about it. she think i am innocent girl, no 1. i am, don’t you think friend? when i think i have three years, i start to cry, i don’t know what to do. but when i think of nice mens, i start to jump in the kitchen and singing. [writes the song she sings.] only if you see me you would burst from laughing.... i ask my garbage man if he can lend me money, he said he help me with much as he can....

so friend have a good time and maybe on tuesday i be back to the institution. this year i get new trial, so don’t worry and don’t cry. you know we have one god and he see everything. he must punish miss r. sometime. she is old enough but she couldn’t get married. nobody wants her who is rich and poor man she don’t want.... i like to have the money by tuesday. i should be sure that nothing is missing from her. so take care of yourself. i going to eat beans for supper, ha, ha, but i going to be all right. now i be so bad that everyone is afraid of me. i don’t care if they put me in the disciplinary in the cellar—i going to have there friends—you know what kind—red ones, bed bugs, and roaches and mouses. ha, ha, i’m going to have good time, i won’t cry. you friend, when you send the money don’t say nothing to your lady and send them so 189that my lady wouldn’t know nothing about it, my lady. i suppose miss r. wrote that i receive dress from pawn shop. see, don’t tell on me—when i be in the institution. tell that your j. that he put them [dress] there, that it shouldn’t get lost. otherwise they would laugh at us that we did not have any money and we had to put our dress in pawn shop—that be a shame.

miss r. wrote that they wouldn’t let me go to you—and if i ask again she would give me a good scolding, so write to the old fortune-teller. so good-bye friend, have a good time. don’t forget to answer me right away. don’t say to no one what happen—write right away. you know in the institution maybe they wouldn’t give me your letter. good night and good-bye forever. i think if i come to the institution i take my life there.

[june, 1915. from esther to parole officer, miss r.]

... i am letting you know i am back in the same place—institution. i’m letting you know why and i wrote you letter about my head and i like to get rid of that. doctor told me that he [saw] no other help, that i got to have an operate on my nose. if not then i get a inflamation thro my nose. so i wrote that to my friend, that one what we was together locked up, but i didn’t tell her that i got this sickness, but i wrote to her in english that i got disease, but i didn’t know that she gave the letter to her lady and they sent them to the institution. so they read that i getting disease that i stole $4 and one young man gave me $2, so they make me very dirty, but i’m not afraid of them—you know that, when they start with such a story, so i know that i’m in heaven. they only want have me back. i should stay here the three years, so they come and get me on sunday, afternoon. so how i was, i went. they didn’t give me only chance to put on my dress, shoes and hat and put me in a auto and so that was we took the train to the institution and there they start to ask me questions, why they took me back and when i come down here. i got to let them examine myself and when she examine me, she said 190everything is all right. you know what a disease is—so explain to her about my head and my nose. so she said if girl say she have a disease, they take it that its girl bad from a man, but i didn’t know that a girl get sickness from a man. the lady doctor told me about how the girl get sick.... but where is the right? and on account of the $4, that this way: that girl is a croation and i’m a czech, and we used to write, and sometimes we didn’t understand the letters from each other. and so about the $2. once in n. y. i went down from car, i lost heel from shoe, i dropped the hand bag, and so real man come out and pick up my bag [and gave me $2.00].

[letter to superintendent of institution from parole officer; june 4, 1915, after esther had been returned to the institution]:

... it is very difficult to tell from the letters [of esther] whether or not she has actually broken her parole. the worst she has done, according to her own statement, is (1) to borrow $4 from employer’s purse to pay for a dress with fullest intention of returning it (and employer is sure she would have missed it had it not been returned); (2) opened a letter addressed to employer from writer; (3) went to picture shows sometimes when she was supposed to be in class; (4) flirted with men on train; (5) wrote t. t. whom she knew before coming to the institution; (6) kissed the egg man; (7) probably had sexual relations with a man in philadelphia for $2 (esther denies this).

her letters refer also to plans to go to a dance secretly and to go to new york secretly. there is nothing in the letters to indicate that she ever put her plan about coming to new york into effect. esther denies emphatically that she has been to new york and her employer thinks it very unlikely that she could go without her knowledge. they show also she thought she was diseased and had been to a doctor about it before she came to the institution. she still worries about it whether or not there is any cause. (first blood test was s—— g——.)

191subject’s attitude expressed in these letters is far more serious to my mind than anything she has done, but it is a question whether it is anything for which she should be blamed or punished. she is unquestionably abnormally sensitive, suspicious and secretive and these traits have been unfortunately emphasized by her arrest and commitment here. she evidently suffers bitterly and constantly because she is on parole to the institution and that resentment poisons everything she does and thinks. she must have been under a frightful strain during these months while she was working with the lawyer to win her freedom, with the constant pressure he put on her for money and to come to new york to see him. then too the conflict of what may be merely normal and natural sex interests and her fear of breaking her parole by expressing these in any way has probably been bad for her and has emphasized these sex interests. i think all of the references in the letters to “nice young mens” who smiled at her and tipped their hats to her on the train, to the nice young mens she sees at picture shows, to the men who invited her to a dance, may be explained as a boastful desire to appear bad and to be having attention and a good time, arising from a regretful realization of how much she is missing in these lines. possibly she was just beginning to have a taste of “gay life” before she came to us and the institution may have done much to whet her curiosity. she seems to ridicule the idea of being considered “innocent and good”—“sunday school girls”—and asks co-defendant to send her the picture of her (esther’s) bohemian sweetheart (she has always claimed to be engaged to a man now fighting in the austrian army) so she can show her employer she has a sweetheart, “make her employer jealous” as she puts it.

certainly if she had not been determined to keep her parole, with such a demand on her for money from the lawyer and such an interest in men, she would have solicited long before this. i think it is to her credit that she has worked so steadily and satisfactorily and has tried to keep, as she understood it, the letter at least of her parole.

192i feel, however, that if the interest we have taken in her in giving her an early parole under such good conditions and her employer’s never failing efforts to understand and help her have not won her confidence, we can scarcely hope to break down her attitude of misunderstanding and suspicion of us, which breeds deceit in her so readily. after what has happened she will probably be more antagonistic than before; the strain on her of keeping parole might easily become too great at any time. it would seem to be a very great risk both for us and for esther to have her out on parole again, particularly in another state.

i hope you will be able to make her see, even if you decide she has not actually broken her parole, that she has not even understood its spirit when she tried to buy her freedom through a lawyer and deceived us and her employers as to her real intentions.

i think much of subject’s suspiciousness and deceitfulness is racial and there is small chance of her adjusting to american customs. i remember that you considered deporting her in the first place and while i still think it would be very bad for subject to have the stigma of deportation added to that of arrest, i do feel that her own country is the best place for her and that she will be far more apt to live a straight, normal life there with the restraints of her family and their standards to help her than she will here. do you think it may be possible to send her back on her own money when conditions of war permit?

from certain standpoints this girl seems to be almost ideal human material. the institution called her “intelligent, conscientious, and, far beyond our girls, sensitive to fine distinctions of right and wrong.” all her wishes are strong and social. she craves pleasure, association with “nice young mens”, dancing, pretty clothes, but is an industrious worker. her letters to lilian are overflowing with the desire for 193response—both to give it and to receive it. in a letter after her return to the institution, not printed here, she refers to the child of her former employer: “oh, i was glad to hear about max. how often i think about the times he used to pull my hair, and that was a great joke. yes, i often think and talk about him. give him my love and see if any of my flowers are up. if so, put one on him for me.” and she is always thinking of improving her position in the world. “we are,” she says, “going to look for some nice man, but something better, not only working men.” she is ashamed of her relation to the egg man, “because he is only egg man.” she does not want it known that she pawned a dress. in her reference to austrian army officers and a sweetheart in bohemia, she wishes to claim before her mistress that she has some social standing. during the whole of her parole she is working on the problem of her life. she is working alone, and she leaves no stone unturned. she is in a village, not allowed to visit new york. she plans her campaign for a new trial by letter, working through a stupid friend who unintentionally betrays her. her lawyer is exploiting her, her doctor also; her italian friend is not loyal, her uncle promises help but is poor. she even appeals to the garbage man. like many who have sought to reconstruct a broken life, she plans to go west.

and she is very able. she has a mind adapted to the law, and she could write scenarios. note how she plans in one letter to have something “up her sleeve” for the trial—to have her friend buy duplicates of the articles stolen on the anniversary of the theft, to change the date of the receipt from “1914” to “1915” on her employer’s typewriter, to put the receipt in the 194cuff of her wrap and leave it in the toilet room of the court to be found. this would be indeed a dramatic vindication. she is thoroughly cunning and she lies a great deal. but she is in a fight with organized society. she feels that there is a disproportion between her offense and her punishment, and that she is being wronged and defrauded of life. cunning is one of the forms which intelligence takes in a fight. and in general people become cunning when they are oppressed or do not participate on an equal footing in their society. esther is a jew, and the “racial” cunning of the jew has the same origin as the particular cunning in this case—exclusion from recognition and participation. any successful scheme of education, re?ducation or reformation must recognize the wishes expressed by esther and will involve an active participation of the subject in the plan. esther was not bad enough to be committed to the institution to which she was assigned, but once there we note her complete psychic isolation from the officials and from the family in which she was placed. she was directed toward no interesting and creative work, and was not included in any form of society in which she completely participated and in which she could have recognition and the gratification of the other wishes. and this is characteristic both of the penitentiary and of the older type of reformatory for adults and for children.

but some years ago the juvenile courts were established. it had become apparent that numbers of disorderly children, mainly from broken homes, were being brought into the criminal courts for escapades and sexual offenses, placed in jails with hardened criminals and thereby having the possibility of the formation 195of a normal scheme of life destroyed once and forever. certain women were the first to protest and to act, and the result was the formation of a court for children which dispensed with lawyers and legal technicalities, and treated the child as far as possible as an unruly member of a family, not as a criminal. the first of these courts was established in chicago, and in 1908 provision was made for the study of the child by endowing a psychological and medical clinic,—a practice which has been followed by other juvenile courts. during the past decade some of these courts have reached a high degree of elaboration and perfection. their service has been very great in checking the beginnings of demoralization. the court is wiser than the parents of the children and incidentally does much to influence home life. these courts have also focused attention on the general questions and methods of reform and have begun to influence both penal institutions and general education. there are many successful formulations of influence developed by women of insight and personality connected with the juvenile courts in numerous localities. an important review of these conditions has recently been made by miriam van waters.[96] but perhaps the highest perfection of procedure has been reached in the juvenile court of los angeles where dr. van waters is herself the referee.

87. in the treatment of juvenile delinquency that comes before the court and involves change in status there should be an integration of the forces that seek to establish new social relationships.... some mechanism of passing the threshold from ward of the state to the threshold of normal 196citizenship should be devised with sufficient strength to endure over the period of crisis.

an attempt to meet the problem of socialization has recently been begun in behalf of the juvenile court of los angeles county. for the girl whose normal relation to the family group has been severed by reason of the permanently broken home, parents dead, imprisoned, incurably ill, or defective and the like—a girl whose behavior-difficulties make it impossible for her to be absorbed in the neighborhood group—there is usually no provision but the reformatory institution. a place of adjustment, a link between the court, the detention home and the community is an important phase of diagnosis and treatment. el retiro, a school for girls of los angeles county, is an experiment toward such solution.

the method of adjustment is as follows: preliminary tests and examinations are made in the detention home and a more or less homogeneous group of girls in their teens are selected for el retiro. an intensive program of work, study, play and expression has been provided. student government, that is to say, student participation in the conduct of affairs of group life, not a formal organization based on the least satisfactory elements of our government, the municipality and the police court, but rather a flexible, club-like organization of team work and community responsibility is maintained. after another period of observation at el retiro a conference is held concerning the girl. at this conference all available sources of information are brought together.

the referee of the court, the probation officer, physician, psychologist, superintendent of el retiro, the principal of the el retiro school, the recreation director (who later directs the program of the girl and directs the accomplishment of her project), and one of the girls chosen from the student-body to represent the student-body knowledge and opinion—all these persons with specialized information meet to form a many-angled diagnosis. traits of personality 197and the reaction to group life are stressed especially. in this field of research no opinion is more competent than that of the girl who represents the student-body point of view—a mine of information hardly touched as yet by social research. the objective of the conference is the formation of a project or activity-goal for the new student, a task suited to her strength and personality and for which she will be responsible and receive the reward of recognition. on the completion of this project, usually from eight to ten months, the girl is ready to leave el retiro; that is to say, she has succeeded in some phase of group life and important clues for the adjustment of her personality in the larger community outside have been formed.

since these results have been attained largely as the result of social relationships formed within the group at el retiro, and by the use of the project method and student government, the girl is likely to have developed both self-confidence and group loyalty. the next essential was to form some social relationship for the complete passage of the girl into the community.

a girls’ club was organized and a club house secured in the city for about eighteen girls and their field secretary. the girls pay their board and work in stores, industries, etc. the housework is done by one girl, who is paid by the others to act as home-maker. it is called the los angeles business girls’ club and is sponsored by the los angeles business women’s club not as a charity, but as an act of co?peration on the part of the business women with the younger and handicapped working girls of the city. not all the residents are wards of the court, the chief requirement being that girls be under twenty-one years of age and receiving the minimum wage. the club serves as meeting place for organization of young people, business girls, college girls, etc. thus any element of isolation, or unlikeness, is at an end for the girl who may be a ward of the court and she is brought into relationship with the normal forces of the community.

198the following four cases, selected because they serve to illustrate the integrating processes at work in a socialized court procedure, may be presented.

evelyn is one. she is an orphan of canadian extraction. placed by a children’s aid society in some six temporary homes, she readily drifted into delinquency. for two years for her it was a succession of institutions, tempered by probation, after she came under the court. then el retiro was established. her health was so delicate that she was sent there for observation for an?mia. there her central ability was discovered—leadership, and her chief interest the design and manufacture of clothing. on graduation she became president of the alumn? group of girls and went to live at the club house. she began earning $22.00 per week as designer and shortly plans to open a shop of her own. as president of the alumn? organization she has succeeded in doing what no probation officer has done—the voluntary reporting of each girl’s change of work, address, and new friends. if they are out of work through indifference or indolence, her fluent scorn and her own stylish costume act on them as a spur. her activity has two major outlets, leadership and craftsmanship.

margaret is another: she was the oldest in a large family headed by a dissolute factory operative and a quarrelsome, complaining mother. her home life was marked by coarseness and obscenity of language, and her personality by alternate melancholy and violence. at el retiro it became apparently probable that her behavior was the reaction made by her organism in seeking that which it really craved most, peace and security. she became an el retiro homemaker. a troublesome asthma yielded to treatment based on quiet and contentment. she is now an officer of the alumn? club and she has returned to her own home, which has largely become rehabilitated through her efforts. the club life apparently affords her all she needs of contact with the outside world.

geraldine is a girl of eighteen, wrecked on the moving 199picture industry. she was seduced by an under-director in attempting to sell a scenario, and was passed from hand to hand until her health broke. her experiences were unbelievably tragic and unbelievably common. her health, self-confidence, and charm were restored at el retiro. she took to nursing but the key to her interest in everything was affection. a professional man understood her real and genuine capacity and married her. she is an exceptional wife and mother. she too is a club member, proud of her school and eager to assist.

maggie was a rollicking, buxom girl of seventeen. her parents were dead and her living relatives of doubtful reputation. indeed all the female members of her family had “gone to the bad.” maggie’s own escapades were many. at el retiro she was rough, noisy, daring, fearless, impetuous, in short filled with the spirit of adventure. she did not graduate but was returned to the custody of the probation officer. while on probation she became pregnant. she refused to tell who was responsible but concocted a story of nameless attack. the court commented on her strength, her bravery, her resourcefulness, and gave her two weeks in which to find the man and bring him herself, unaided to court. surprised but not daunted the girl succeeded. the man proved to be a soldier with a temperament much like her own; on careful examination, physical, mental, and social he was proved to be a fit husband and was permitted to marry maggie. this social rehabilitation has restored her to club life, much to her delight. for several months she has been happy and successful.[97]

in the meantime another important step has been taken,—the attempt to forestall delinquency by working on the maladjusted, neurotic, predelinquent child, or to adjust the delinquent child without resort to the 200court and the consequent court record. in the larger cities departments of child study, children’s welfare committees, bureaus of children’s guidance, institutes for vocational guidance have been formed in the public schools or working in connection with the schools. in this work the object has been to work by cases, bringing the girl under the influence of the social worker, improving the home conditions and the attitudes of the parents, placing the girl in a better environment, moving her from one situation to another until one is found to which she responds, and developing in her some activity interests. the ideal is to co?rdinate the girl immediately with the large society in which she lives instead of building up a complete institutional community about her as in the case of el retiro.

the possibilities of this type of approach to the problem are illustrated by the following cases reported by doctor jessie taft of philadelphia.

88. ruth, fourteen, irish, pink-cheeked and blue-eyed, in her first year of high school, the picture of attractive, innocent girlhood, had been taken to the house of detention for stealing a diamond pin and taking money from a teacher’s desk. when her denials were finally broken down by proof, she confessed to a long history of petty thieving, hitherto unpunished and for the most part undiscovered....

ruth was an intensely egotistic person, desirous of social recognition, approval, personal success; but due to lack of training, unfavorable conditions and an impulsive, impatient make-up had never learned to work for her satisfactions or make her impression on society in constructive ways. she was quickly discouraged and resentful in the face of failure or hardship and at once turned to some pleasure experience as a compensation—something which could be obtained immediately and easily. she used boastful stories and even her own misdeeds to heighten the impression of her 201importance and superiority. this is a natural reaction in childhood, where immediate gratification is obtained through crying, tantrums, day dreams, purely subjective methods; but they are not appropriate to a developing organism and must be abandoned for an objective dealing with the facts of life. all of ruth’s normal cravings had been thwarted by her environment. she had lost her love object in the death of her mother. her family ideals had been shattered. her father had been exposed as unfaithful to her mother, and a weakling in the battle between the stepmother and ruth. he was a failure as a provider and did not pay his debts. ruth was forced to live in a home situation which had for her none of the elements of a home, nothing to be proud of, no loving approval and overlooking of faults, no faith, no support and assurance of safety. she was forced not only to give up her love object but to see it supplanted by an enemy, who also usurped her place and influence with the father. undoubtedly her sex ideals also met with shock. she became convinced that her father was interested in another woman before the death of the mother. father and stepmother quarreled and made up—separated and came together repeatedly. she saw marriage as a series of endless petty conflicts. both of them were churchgoers, given to religious interests. ruth’s disillusionment with life was complete. there was nothing genuine, no real satisfaction. the father and mother who constitute the bridges over which the emotional life of the child may cross to a more and more social development had blocked normal growth and thrown the child back upon subjective or anti-social satisfactions. one of the defense reactions to such a thwarting of fundamental needs is that taken by ruth—a cynical, suspicious, critical attitude toward everything and everybody. to want and never get satisfaction is too painful a state to keep up, so the individual criticizes every possible love object that he may make himself and others believe he wouldn’t have it if he could. the reason he has no love object is that none are worth having; thus 202he defends his inferiority. also he undermines any criticism from others by showing up the inferiority of the source. he is protected by having already discredited the other person. moreover, there is a sense of power and superiority in being able to criticize everything, so it offers a natural compensation for the inferiority from which the critical or cynical person suffers. not having admirable loving parents one must remember is a source of tremendous inferiority. a child of eight has no intelligent weapons with which to combat a hostile family situation. it has no chance against the egoism of the adults around it. all it can do is to react blindly in ways that offer some temporary solace. stealing from the stepmother is a way of satisfying the needs to fight with or injure or destroy the pain-giving stimulus. it gives the child a tremendous sense of power and victory. here is something which he can do secretly and effectively. it really hurts the hateful object and it supplies pleasure-giving stimuli, such as candy, which are otherwise denied....

ruth ... was so absorbed in the injuries done her by life that she thought of nothing but pleasure compensations. she would face nothing that demanded effort or any unpleasantness. she had a right to take things because life owed her reparation. she saw nothing in school or work, or the ordinary habits of daily hygiene but hardship to be avoided. she wanted nice clothes and felt she had a right to take them, but she saw no reason why she should take any care of them. if a garment was torn or dirty, get a new one. she thought she ought to be placed where there were servants so she would have no housework and no laundry to attend to. she had no loyalty to any one. she played one person against another and used everything to her own advantage as she saw it. as soon as an effort was made to give her insight she reacted to protect herself from the painful revelations by criticizing the worker and taking the attitude that there was a game going on between her and the worker in which each was trying to get ahead of the other. she could not believe in disinterested effort on her behalf.

203ruth was turned over to a child-placing agency with the foregoing interpretation of her behavior and suggestions for working on the problem, but with great doubt as to the outcome. she was to be given as much gratification of her pleasure wants as possible in order to reduce the struggle to satisfy them and leave some of her energy and interest free to be developed along other lines. she was to be placed with a really superior person whom she might finally come to respect as genuine and her best chance would be to find some one person, the worker or the foster mother, who had real faith in her possibilities.

the social worker who took her over was young and enthusiastic, undaunted by the impossible and full of faith in her own ability to get results. she transferred this faith to ruth. she never wavered in her belief that ruth could change her ways. she lived through stealing episodes, truancy periods, every kind of discouragement and finally found a home which did some of the things we had hoped for. ruth’s first experience in this home was a summer trip and a glorious good time. when she came back there was little housework and a doctor’s important business to help with after school. there was social prestige in this home. the mother was a good disciplinarian and insisted on the formation of certain daily habits of living, but she took ruth in as a member of the family and had, like the worker, supreme faith in her own ability to make ruth go to school every day, study her lessons and keep going in the path of righteousness.

ruth responded surprisingly and for six months all went well. then she began to be unhappy and ask to be removed, saying that she would make removal necessary if something were not done. finally she had her way. it seemed evident that this home, while successful in many ways, lacked the thoroughly admirable personality which we thought ruth needed. the woman was hard, set and self-centered. another home was found in which there proved to be serious marital conflicts in which ruth was forced to be a party. 204here the stealing broke out again. then a high school teacher became interested in the girl and invited her to her summer home for vacation. this was the great turning point in ruth’s life. here her desires for social superiority and pleasure were satisfied, and she was surrounded by real people for whom she felt at last the whole-souled genuine devotion and admiration which was essential for her socialization.

from that moment there has been no trouble with ruth. no more stealing, no more truancy, no shirking of lessons. she has gone to live with another teacher for whom she keeps house. six months have passed and there has been no complaint. to complete this treatment and make it permanent, ruth ought to be given insight into her own behavior and understand just what has happened to her. then she would be armed against the accident of circumstance.[98]

89. ... mary was an alert, boyish, attractive girl of eighteen ... at work in a department store after having reached first year in high school and reported to have been living with her weak, immoral mother, sharing the mother’s young paramour, a boy only a little older than herself....

the following case history was obtained: because of the mother’s promiscuity, mary’s paternity was uncertain. as a child in her mother’s home she had known only loose living, good-natured, easy-going neglect and poverty. illegitimate births were common in the family. there seems to have been complete lack of ordinary sex morality and social standards. the family lived a roving, hand-to-mouth existence. when mary was ten, the court removed her and gave her to a child-placing agency. she was tried out unsuccessfully in several homes and finally made a good adjustment in a country home where she had excellent school opportunities, finishing grammar school at the head of her class. she entered high school with a continuing interest in school, accompanied 205by an increasing interest in boys. her late hours, love for good times and her rebellion against restraint worried the foster parents so that they gave her up. she was accepted by a city institution where she was under strict supervision and was sent for the first time to a city school. she tried to enter the second year of high school with inadequate preparation, failing quite completely in every subject. accident entered at this point in the shape of a new matron at the institution. the girls were trying her out and in her effort to control the situation she threatened to expel the next girl guilty of insubordination. mary happened to be the victim. she was returned to the court and discharged to a married and apparently respectable sister. the sister, unequal to disciplining mary, allowed her to go to her mother, then living in a wretched little house in another town with a young man by whom she was pregnant. there was only one bedroom containing a bed and a cot. mary shared the cot with the younger brother, a boy of fifteen. for about a year this situation continued. mary broke away once only to return again. the mother finally went out to work with the new baby, leaving mary to keep house for her brother and the man. finally mary came to the city a second time and got a job. she wandered from one position to another and came in contact with a social agency just as she was about to give up and go home again because she saw no work ahead and was unable to support herself on what she was earning.

the social worker took the matter up as a vocational guidance problem and ... with the psychologist worked out the following picture of mary:

in earliest childhood she had known little or no restraint and had been familiar with the freest sex life and complete absence of ordinary social standards as regards sex. but there had been affection, easy-going, good-natured attitudes and a great deal of personal freedom. the loose living, the roving, unsettled existence had made it fairly easy for mary to accept and adjust to varying conditions so that foster-home 206placement to her was not the agonizing experience that it is to some children. moreover, she seems to have been from the first an objective, eager, alert, social youngster who most fortunately compensated for her family inferiorities by a complete going over into school life and active energetic expression in work and play....

the dismissal from her foster-home seems to have been caused by behavior which was natural enough on the part of a developing adolescent girl. she merely carried over too much of her superabundant energy into parties and good times with boys.... the dark side of her life here was her introduction to sex experience through the foster father. these experiences, shocking at first, were finally accepted as a matter of course and sank into the background of an existence in which objective interests—school, companions, good times, farm work, held first place. there seems never to have been any deep conflict nor any marked feeling of shame or inferiority. it was taken as part of the day’s work, something which went along with living in this foster-home which for the most part was desirable. she wanted to keep on with her school. she was afraid to tell the wife. she had none of the ordinary sex morality which most of us have absorbed from infancy on. the easiest way was to keep still and adjust. when mary was asked how she felt about sex, she replied characteristically and cheerfully: “well, the world is made that way, you just have to accept it. it isn’t any use to worry about it, you might as well take people as they are.”

although these years in mary’s life apparently left no scar, they did break down completely any sex inhibitions she might have had, aroused sex needs and accustomed her to the habit of sex expression. it meant that when she went to live with her mother, she experienced no particular shock and was illy prepared to offer resistance to the advances of her mother’s paramour who found her so much more attractive than her mother and with whom she was thoroughly infatuated....

207the really critical experience was the transfer to the city institution and the city high school. in neither situation was she at home and for the first time in her life she experienced failure and disgrace in her studies. she now had a genuine inferiority, a discouragement which undoubtedly reacted on her behavior at home. she grew indifferent and reckless, would not respond to scolding or appeal. the objective work and play expressions, as well as the customary sex life, were cut off. there was nothing left but breaking rules to get a good time. expulsion from the institution meant the final break with school and she thinks it was then that her ambition died. she had no technical training, she could get only underpaid, uninteresting jobs. where was she to find an outlet for her young energy? the sister, less intelligent than mary, had no influence and was only a source of irritation. then in her restless seeking for something more satisfactory, she went to her mother who was living in another city. there she was disturbed chiefly by the mother’s jealousy and feeling she was doing her wrong; also the presence of the younger brother. finally the glamour wore off and she began to see the man in his true character. he was lazy, unreliable, disloyal, weak. he had none of the straightforward, eager, active attitude which mary had toward life. gradually she turned against the kind of person he was and after many struggles, finally broke away.

it was at this point, when her courage was giving way once more, that she was found by the case worker.

it seemed to the psychological examiner that the problem here was not the so obviously indicated sex situation, but the blocking of mary’s work and play interests and the complete quenching of her egoistic ambitions. the psychometric tests showed her to be well up to average in intelligence. she was as interested in taking the test as the examiner was in giving it. her intellectual curiosity was a delight. in the course of the interview she brought out a slip of paper with two long words on it which she had been treasuring, 208waiting for an opportunity to look them up in a dictionary. she thought the examiner was a good substitute. throughout she exhibited a frank, straightforward attitude, an honest, unsentimental facing of facts, a complete freedom from cynicism or critical reactions. she put no blame on other people, used no evasive mechanisms. she had a certain pride and independence. when consoling herself for her lack of good clothes she remarked: “my clothes aren’t much but no man is paying for them, and at least i have a contented mind.” there seemed to be every basis for a satisfactory adjustment to life if the environmental opportunities could be provided so that her work and social interests would have a chance to develop and help to organize a more socialized sex expression.

the social worker was reassured and determined by this analysis of the problem. mary herself was allowed to go over every detail of the intelligence tests and was told that ability like hers had a right to a better training. she faced what lack of education would mean in underpaid, uninteresting work. her faith in her own power and ability was restored and her ambition revived. her former failure in high school was explained and she became convinced that it was not too late even now to achieve success in school work.

meantime the case worker built up the social background, finally raised scholarship money and mary went into the second year of the commercial course in a good high school.

there was never any attempt to deal with the sex side by repressive methods, never any interference with her social life, nor any form of restraint. when she wanted to go to visit her mother, the whole situation was talked out with her and she was given the worker’s attitude frankly and honestly but decision was left to her. she did not go. she has continued to associate with boys on an unusually free basis. she will go to see a boy friend at his home exactly as she would visit a girl. she could not be made to see why she should not accept a boy’s invitation to go to new york city for a sightseeing excursion. she was willing to stay 209home to please the worker but she was told she must decide on another basis. only accident in the shape of the boy’s illness prevented the escapade. everything she does is talked over with the worker with the utmost freedom. her standards are changing rapidly with her developing tastes and interests. she has made good in her school work consistently. she has been rash and unconventional in the extreme but has never, apparently, overstepped the boundaries of morality on the sex side. for a year and a half she has made steady progress and there is no indication that she will ever again become a delinquent.[99]

the most disheartening condition which we have to face in connection with the delinquent child is the demoralized home. it appears in one study (document no. 58, p. 100) that nine tenths of the girls and three fourths of the boys who reach the juvenile court come from bad homes. case no. 83 (p. 152) is an extended description of such a home and the following summary of some cases may be taken as representative.

90. a family of 13 children; father a drunkard who deserted them; mother scrubs and cleans; “a very poor, dirty, and crowded home.”

family “very degraded”; father, a drunkard, criminally abused two little daughters (who later became delinquent wards of the court) and then deserted the family to avoid prosecution. mother married again, but stepfather also drank and was so abusive that wife and children left him.

father, a man of bad habits, deserted; mother drank; she said girl had inherited unfortunate tendencies from father.

a family of fourteen children, six of whom died; father was immoral and cruel to his wife, and very unkind to his 210children; he deserted, leaving family to charity; the girl left home because of ill treatment and became immoral.

father, professional gambler, utterly irresponsible, deserted his family; one boy was always “wild” and one girl went to a house of prostitution.

father and mother, both shiftless, begging people who will not work; father periodically deserts family, who were all in home for the friendless at one time and who are often destitute and a public charge. father is now in old soldiers’ home and three of the children are in a soldiers’ orphans’ home.

a family of six children, one girl delinquent; home dirty and untidy with two beds in parlor; mother has a bad reputation, drinks habitually and always has the house full of men. father deserted at one time, and family has been helped by a charitable society constantly for two years.

a family of seven children; father, an habitual drunkard, supposed to be a fruit peddler but really a common tramp; deserts periodically but always comes back; very brutal to wife and children when he is at home, and responsible for demoralization of two older girls; family a county charge and on records of three relief societies.

a very degraded home; father drunken and immoral, abused girl’s mother shamefully before her death; criminally abused girl when she was only seven and then abandoned her. girl brought to court at the age of twelve on charge that she was “growing up in crime.”...

lillie, a german girl, seven years of age, whose father, now dead, is said to have been as near a brute as a human being could be, whose mother is insane, and whose sister is abnormal, was brought in as incorrigible and immoral.

vera, a seventeen-year-old girl, whose father’s address is unknown, and whose mother is insane, found employment as a barmaid in a concert hall, and afterwards became a prostitute.

rosie, a sixteen-year-old russian jewess, whose mother is in the hospital for the insane, and whose father abandoned her, was brought into court on the charge of immorality.

211annie, a fifteen-year-old girl, whose father was frozen to death and whose mother is of unsound mind, has two brothers who are imbeciles. she is herself feebleminded, and has been the mother of three illegitimate children—probably the children of her imbecile brothers.[100]

the gradual realization of this condition through the experience of the juvenile courts and the schools and also the desire to avoid any court procedure in connection with a child whose morals are endangered has led many teachers and social workers to the view that the child should be taken in charge by society as soon as it shows any tendency to disorganization and that the school should have this function and should gradually displace or incorporate the juvenile court, or such functions of the juvenile court as remained would be transferred to the court of domestic relations. eliot took this position as early as 1914,[101] and the conviction has been expressed frequently in various forms. the following is an extract from one of the most systematic proposals.

... each city, probably each county would require an extension or reorganization of its personnel to include a department of adjustment to which teachers, policemen and others could refer all children who seemed to present problems of health, of mental development, of behavior or of social adjustment. for good work this would require the services of doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, field investigators, recreational specialists....

the ideal would be to have the school act as a reserve parent, an unusually intelligent, responsible and resourceful parent, using whatever the community had to offer, making up whatever the community lacked....

212all neglected, dependent and delinquent children, whether of school age or not, would fall within the province of [the department of adjustment]. for these children we would have the authority of the school extend from infancy to adult life.... we should [thus] get entirely away from the conception of penalizing children for their offenses and from the stigma of courts and reform schools.... we should establish our thinking firmly on an educational basis. the fatal gradation of reform school, work-house, county jail and state prison would be broken.... wherever possible we would have dependent children sent to public schools. homes for “friendless” or “destitute” children belong with scarlet letters, stocks and debtors’ prisons....

with the clearing away of old names and associations should come better opportunity to meet the needs of girls before they reach an advanced stage of incorrigibility.

[arrangements should be made for] pooling the juvenile court’s probation officers, the truancy department’s numerous officers, the school nurses, the medical instructors, the special schools and reformatories, and all the rest of the specialists on the physical, mental and social troubles of school children into one department of adjustment.... only the most determined blindness could prevent [the school board member] from seeing how the school truant officer and the probation officer overlap.... he could surely see the waste of having the schools, on the one hand, build up a staff of doctors and nurses and the juvenile court on the other trying to duplicate this machinery—both sets to serve the same group of children.[102]

these writers argue also that the juvenile court does not afford so good an opportunity as the school for the study of the child and for record-making, that the stigma placed on the child by an appearance in court deprives him of the chance of future favorable recognition, 213that the court cannot prevent delinquency, that the child is frequently incorrigible before he reaches the court, that the courts have a very limited range as propaganda and general educational agencies, since they have no power over the child’s life before he comes actually before the bar of justice, that the power of the probation officer is relatively slight and casual, and that vocational placement should be connected with the school.

further than this, the depraved family conditions which i have emphasized are due not only to bad economic conditions but to the failure of community influence. you may have very good family life with bad economic conditions but you cannot have good family life without community influence. i have shown in chapter ii how strong was the influence of the community on the family. it is not too much to say that the community made the family good. human nature often appears at its worst in connection with pair marriages and small families. the records of the societies for the prevention of cruelty to children are filled with sickening details of the brutality of parents. an organic connection with a larger community is necessary to the maintenance of moral standards and fine sentiments. if we look, therefore, as we are forced to look, for a social agency whose influence may penetrate the family we find it in the school. the school is not a natural organization like the family, but an artificial organization capable of rapid changes and adjustments. in this respect it has almost the freedom of a scientific laboratory. it receives all children early and keeps them a relatively long time. its function is the setting and solving of problems and the communication of information. its representatives 214are far superior to the average parent in intelligence and understanding. if we invented any device to replace social influence lacking at other points it would be the school. it is probable that the school could be a sort of community forming the background of the family and the child and could supply the elements lacking in the home, at least to the degree of preventing in a large measure delinquency and crime, if it exercised all the influence it could conceivably exercise, and that it could, more than any other agency, socialize the family. from this standpoint the appearance of the visiting teacher in the school has the greatest importance.

the first visiting teachers began work in the year 1906–1907 in new york, boston and hartford, connecticut. in these cities, and later in other places, as has frequently happened in other educational experiments, the impulse came from outside the school system. private organizations—in boston, settlements and civic organizations; in new york, settlements and the public education association; in hartford, the director of the psychological laboratory—saw the need of providing a specially equipped worker to help the schools, and developed and privately maintained the work until the school board became convinced of its value and incorporated it as part of the school system. in other cities, like rochester and mt. vernon, new york, and cleveland, ohio, the work was introduced directly by the board of education. at present in all but four cities the work is part of the city public school system. the movement has grown until at present the work has been extended to twenty-nine cities in fifteen states. in some of these “school visitor” or a similar term is used instead of visiting teacher....

“through individuals to the group” is the approach of the visiting teacher, and as the result of her knowledge, derived from case work, new types of classes have been organized, 215school clubs, or other means to make the school fit the newly discovered need. study rooms have been opened, school recreation centers organized; parents’ clubs, courses in domestic training, special trade courses, school lunches and other extensions have been started as a result of the visiting teacher’s view of the neighborhood. in this way her work becomes of value to the school as a whole. she acts as a scout bringing back a more definite knowledge of the lacks in the neighborhood, educational, social and moral, and of newer demands on the school that have arisen because of changing social and industrial conditions. this relation accords with the ideas of modern educators who believe that the connection between the school and the community life cannot be too closely integrated.

on the other hand, the visiting teacher’s acquaintance with the families and the neighborhood brings about social results. through her work, various communities have been stimulated to provide scholarship funds, nurseries, community houses, homes for neglected children and other social activities. hidden danger spots are not infrequently brought to her attention by parents who have not known what to do about the situation or have been afraid to report to the proper agency or official. in this way the work assumes an additional preventive aspect, and results in such improvements as better policing and lighting of parks, better provision for playgrounds, closing of improper movies, etc., checking of traffic in drugs to minors and the removal of similar insidious conditions.

the visiting teacher’s position as a member of the school staff makes for certain advantages. she gets in touch with cases at an earlier stage than would an outsider. teachers and parents consult her about suspicious cases which they would not feel justified in referring to a social agency. as representative of the school, the visiting teacher is free from the suggestion of philanthropy, and of all visitors she has, perhaps, the most natural approach to the home, going as she does in the interests of the child. it is a very rare thing 216for a visiting teacher to experience an unpleasant reception. further, she is in a position to follow the child in school from year to year. where the home carries a serious handicap, she may anticipate the difficulties of the younger children, help them avoid the false starts made by the older brother or sister, and also assist the school to reinforce the children against the inroads of the family handicap....

the following case shows how, out of a bad family situation, real educational capital was made for a headstrong, irresponsible girl of fourteen who hated school and thought she wished to go to work to help her family. knowing the reaction of the home situation on the girl’s school life, the visiting teacher worked out a special plan with the family agency to which she had referred the family. she advised that the money required for the family budget be paid in the form of a weekly scholarship to the girl. the conditions stipulated were that she attend school regularly and keep a budget. she was transferred to a special class and given a special course providing an unusual amount of household training—the one school subject which seemed to her to serve any useful purpose. the personal interest of the domestic science teacher was enlisted in the girl’s home situation, and she not only advised about the budget but encouraged the girl to make the most of her scanty home furnishings. a tutor was provided to help with the academic subjects. through this weekly-payment plan the girl was made a partner in the family situation, and her sense of responsibility developed. her budget book served as the most effective arithmetic text book she had ever used. incidentally, she learned much about food values and purchasing.[103]

but while in the present condition of society there is no point at which the prevention of delinquency and the socialization of the family can be undertaken 217so successfully as in the school, the school itself has very grave defects of character, and the question of its adaptation to the welfare of the child involves at the same time the question of change and reform in the school itself. many educators will agree that if we attempt to measure the influence of the school with reference to its efficiency as a factor in personality development we are confronted at once with the following conditions:

1. the average school, like the old community, works on the assumption of uniformity of personality and presents the same materials and plans in the same order to all. the assumption is that children react in the same way to the same influences regardless of their personal traits or their social past, and that it is therefore possible to provoke identical behavior by identical means. “nature,” says doctor jennings, “has expended all her energy in making our little flock of children as diverse as she possibly can; in concealing within it unlimited possibilities which no one can define or predict. it sometimes seems as if we parents in our process of educating them were attempting to root out all of these diversities, to reduce our flock to a uniform mass.... the only way in which appreciable progress can be made in the attempt is by cutting off, stunting, preventing the development of the special and distinctive qualities of the individuals. unfortunately this can be done to a certain extent, but only by a process which may be rightly compared with the taking of human life.”[104]

2. the creative or plan-forming interest of the child is an expression of the phase of new experience which 218is based on curiosity and appears very early in the child. the child expresses his energy and secures his recognition, favorable or unfavorable, mainly along this line. response and security do not mean so much to him as yet. the fact that the school work is detached from activity and not related to the plan-forming and creative faculty explains its failure to interest the child. an investigator took five hundred children out of twenty factories in chicago and asked them this question: “if your father had a good job and you did not have to work, which would you rather do, go to school or work in a factory?” of the five hundred children, between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, 412 said they would rather work in a factory.[105]

in 1920 the white-williams counselors in the junior employment service of the board of public education interviewed 908 of the 10,674 children who came that year to the board of public education for general working certificates. forty-seven per cent of these did not want to go on with their school work. they gave as reasons: “i was ‘left down’”; “i didn’t like arithmetic”; “i was too tall for the other girls in the room”, etc. many of these difficulties might have been adjusted if some one could have made plans with the children while they were still in school.[106]

3. there is therefore a question whether as a device for plan-forming by presenting the right material and definitions at the right moment, the school is not inferior to the world at large, at least when its influences are protracted. the school presents indispensable 219information, a technic for handling problems, such as reading, writing, and ciphering, and presents the solution of the innumerable problems which are already solved and which it is unnecessary to solve again. but the school works injuriously on personality development and creative tendencies. by presenting the whole body of cultural values in a planless way, planless so far as schemes of personal development are concerned, it tends to thwart and delay the expression of the plan-making tendency of children until physiological maturity approaches and the energetic, plan-forming, creative period is passed. the lives of creative men show that they began their work early and did it by hook or by crook sometimes by evading the schools, often by being the worst pupils. the chemist ostwald in his interesting book “grosse m?nner” has pointed out that the precocity of such men as leibnitz and sir william thomson would have done them no good if the schools had been “better” in their time.

in measuring the influence of the school we must recognize two types of success in the adaptation of the individual to life, the one based on his assertion and realization of wide and original claims, the other on contentment with limited claims. if he is contented with claims which are more limited than his powers justify, his adaptation is success through relative failure. to the degree that the school treats children as identical it produces a maximum number of relative failures. to some extent the genius is regarded as a prodigy because so much spontaneity is repressed by the school.

4. clinicists and case workers who handle successfully difficult children taken from the schools report 220that the schools tend to accentuate rather than obviate the difficult features. some of them feel that where unsocial and neurotic tendencies have begun to appear through bad family conditions the school is an additional influence for evil to be overcome.

the school reaches practically every child and does its part in deepening or lessening the neurotic tendencies. at present we are safe in assuming that for the most part it deepens these tendencies. it drives the neurotic child into truancy, vagrancy, anarchy, invalidism and every form of delinquency or hardens its emotional reactions into permanent moods, and it does all of this without in the least being aware of it....

if our public schools really educated, if they understood that education involves a training of the instinctive and emotional life as well as of the intellect, if they saw that they cannot even develop intellect as long as they ignore desire, we should have an agency for adjusting the neurotic girl and boy second only to the home in its power. there is proof for this statement. enlightenment is coming into education in spots. there are visiting teachers who work on the problem children in a school and get wonderful results. there are experimental schools whose methods are based on an understanding of the new psychology as it applies to educational theory. these schools are able to deal with the able but neurotic child who cannot get along in the public school. those of us who work with difficult children are defeated constantly, not so much by the impossibility of the cases, as by the impossibility of finding any public school that understands or has time to act on its understanding. i am constantly trying to straighten out the children the public school can’t handle. our school is not primarily educational but is a place to observe and get acquainted with difficult, dependent, or destitute children whom the various children’s agencies of philadelphia are trying to place satisfactorily in homes. they are children who do not get along 221anywhere. nobody wants them because they are so hard to manage. the thing that constantly surprises us is how easy it is to manage their behavior. they are not set like adults and a little understanding, a little insight, and patience, a mere approach to real educational methods gives immediate results that are almost like magic.[107]

it is desirable that the school should eventually supersede the juvenile court and replace other welfare agencies concerned with the child, but in adapting itself to this task and to the task of general education it will be compelled to make provision for the development of the emotional and social life of the child as well as the informational, and in doing this it will inevitably approach the model of el retiro as described by doctor van waters.