29. M. is a good worker but a transient. He behaves well when sober but he becomes quarrelsome when drunk. If he is not discharged because of a drunken scene he usually quits voluntarily because he feels ashamed of himself. He argues a great deal when sober but he has the ability to control himself. His periods of drunkenness last from a week to ten days and are staged whenever his finances will permit. Not infrequently he is arrested while drunk. CRISES IN THE LIFE OF THE PERSON Crises in the life of the person, as family conflict, for example, the feeling of failure, disgrace or embarrassment, the fear of punishment for the commission of an offense may cause a man to desert home and community. With the severance of family and social ties the man or boy is all the more likely to drift aimlessly from place to place, and at last perhaps find himself permanently in the group of migratory and casual laborers. Conflict at home forces many men and boys into the group of homeless men. Not infrequently boys run away from home because of difficulties with their people. One youth says that his father tried to tell him “where to head in at,” and he “wouldn’t stand for it.” Another boy could not get along with his brothers who were older than he. They tried to “boss” him. Many men in Hobohemia manifest no inclination to wander but are as completely cut off from their home associations as are the migrants. These men of the “home guard” types may have had trouble with their parents or with their wives. 30. H. claims that he was married and that he held a job as traveling salesman. He maintained an apartment on the South Side where he left his wife while he was away on trips through the Southwest. His story is that his wife was untrue to him and he divorced her. This experience “broke him up” so that he quit his job and went West where he remained a year. Today he loafs on West Madison Street and blames his wife for his failure in life. The divorced wife’s story learned from other sources lays considerable of the responsibility at his feet. This much of his story is true: he was not in the tramp class before he married. The circumstances surrounding his home trouble were unfortunate and were partly due to the shortcomings of both. 31. G. lays the blame for his condition upon family trouble. He has not lived with his wife for nine years. They are not divorced because he and his wife are both Catholic and do not believe in it. He worked most of the time before their separation and claims that he owned his own home which is now in the possession of his wife. What his wife is doing now he does not know nor does he know anything about their child. He is content where he is; doing just enough work to pay expenses. Deaths in a family will sometimes turn a person out into the world and he may drift into the hobo and tramp group.