The Spirit of Youth and the City StreetsAddams, Jane
General
The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets
Addams, Jane
Child rearing; Urban youth
Still another boy made the readjustment for himself in spite of the
great physical suffering involved. He had lost both legs at the age of
seven, "flipping cars." When he went to work at fourteen with two good
cork legs, which he vainly imagined disguised his disability, his
employer kindly placed him where he might sit throughout the entire
day, and his task was to keep tally on the boxes constantly hoisted
from the warehouse into cars. The boy found this work so dull that he
insisted upon working in the yards, where the cars were being loaded
and switched. He would come home at night utterly exhausted, more from
the extreme nervous tension involved in avoiding accidents than from
the tremendous exertion, and although he would weep bitterly from
sheer fatigue, nothing could induce him to go back to the duller and
safer job. Fortunately he belonged to a less passionate race than the
poor little Italian girl in the Hull-House neighborhood who recently
battered her head against the wall so long and so vigorously that she
had to be taken to a hospital because of her serious injuries. So
nearly as dull "grown-ups" could understand, it had been an hysterical
revolt against factory work by day and "no fun in the evening."
America perhaps more than any other country in the world can
demonstrate what applied science has accomplished for industry; it has
not only made possible the utilization of all sorts of unpromising raw
material, but it has tremendously increased the invention and
elaboration of machinery. The time must come, however, if indeed the
moment has not already arrived, when applied science will have done
all that it can do for the development of machinery. It may be that
machines cannot be speeded up any further without putting unwarranted
strain upon the nervous system of the worker; it may be that further
elaboration will so sacrifice the workman who feeds the machine that
industrial advance will lie not in the direction of improvement in
machinery, but in the recovery and education of the workman. This
refusal to apply "the art of life" to industry continually drives out
of it many promising young people. Some of them, impelled by a
creative impulse which will not be denied, avoid industry altogether
and demand that their ambitious parents give them lessons in "china
painting" and "art work," which clutters the overcrowded parlor of the
more prosperous workingman's home with useless decorated plates, and
handpainted "drapes," whereas the plates upon the table and the rugs
upon the floor used daily by thousands of weary housewives are totally
untouched by the beauty and variety which this ill-directed art
instinct might have given them had it been incorporated into industry.
I could cite many instances of high-spirited young people who suffer a
veritable martyrdom in order to satisfy their artistic impulse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account