The Unadjusted Girl, With Cases and Standpoint for Behavior AnalysisThomas, William Isaac
Science
The Unadjusted Girl, With Cases and Standpoint for Behavior Analysis
Thomas, William Isaac
Female juvenile delinquents -- Case studies; Young women
I advertised in the papers and found my wife. My first question was
about the children and she replied she did not know where they were.
Upon further questioning she answered that she had brought the
children with her from Philadelphia but as she could do nothing with
them in her way she simply left them in the street.
After great efforts made through my lawyer, I succeeded in obtaining
the release of my children from the Gerry Society, after paying for
their two months’ keep there....
Since this unhappy occurrence, my wife has many times wrecked our
home, selling the household goods while I was at work and leaving me
alone with the children. Whenever she feels like satisfying her
cravings, or whenever she cannot afford to buy herself enough pretty
clothes and hats, she deserts me. One time she was gone 9 months and
never saw the children during this period....
I tried to make up with her every time and give her another chance.
But her cordiality lasted only until she again took a craving for
some rag, when she would again leave home. She was even mean enough
once to leave me with a five months’ old baby who needed nursing and
the only way out seemed to be the river for me and the baby....
I assure you that everything I have written is the truth. If you do
not believe me, you may convince yourself at the Desertion Bureau
where my case has been recorded several times.[41]
40. ... She was one of the thousands of girls who are drawn to the
great city from small towns. She perished because of her thirst for
adventure.... While stopping at the Hotel Buckingham she went out
one evening and never returned. A chauffeur told the police that he
met the girl on the evening of her death and that she had been on a
tour of the cafés and cabarets with him and that at 2 o’clock in the
morning Miss Dixon became ill. She was taken to the Harlem Hospital,
where her case was diagnosed as morphine poisoning....
She came of a fine Virginia family and was educated at a fashionable
boarding school. Four years ago she was married to a Yale graduate.
[A friend] who had known her all her life said, “She had just gone
mad with love of pleasure, though at heart she was a thoroughbred
and exceedingly fine. She decided to make her own living and took a
small part in a couple of shows. The discipline and routine were too
much for her and she gave it up and went back to [her husband] from
time to time. But always the lure of New York seemed to hold her in
a spell.”[42]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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