The Unadjusted Girl, With Cases and Standpoint for Behavior AnalysisThomas, William Isaac
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The Unadjusted Girl, With Cases and Standpoint for Behavior Analysis
Thomas, William Isaac
Female juvenile delinquents -- Case studies; Young women
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 Mary. 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 wife toward him unusually fine. Despite all that had
happened she was rather gentle and almost pathetic in her statement of
the case....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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