The Delinquent Child and the Home
Appendix 5: Family paragraphs relating to the delinquency of 50 girls committed to the state training school at Geneva by the Juvenile Court of Cook County at Chicago, Illinois, during the years 1903 to 1908
Sophonisba P. Breckinridge and Edith Abbott
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A series of brief paragraphs relating to delinquent girls, similar to those that have been given in Appendix IV for delinquent boys, are presented in the following pages. These paragraphs attempt to summarize all the facts gathered which relate to the home circumstances of 50 delinquent girls, and the alleged offenses that brought them before the juvenile court. The stories are told briefly, but it is hoped in sufficient detail to bring clearly to light the conditions from which this tragic procession of young girls have come. It was pointed out in Chapter II that 80 per cent of the 2440 young girls who passed before the juvenile court during this first decade of the court's history were brought to court because of immorality; that large numbers of them, many of tender years, had been taken from the vilest haunts of vice, from low rooming houses and houses of prostitution. It has also been pointed out in several other chapters that in dealing with the delinquent girl, the juvenile court finds itself face to face with the problem of degradation. No one can study the conditions from which these so-called delinquent children have come without facing much that is painful and revolting, and in the "paragraphs" that follow appear many hideous facts. No attempt has been made to exclude painful or shocking circumstances, because it is believed that in trying to solve this problem of saving the young girls who now go to ruin every year, the community is groping blindly; and all light that can be shed on the dark places in which these sad children are sometimes found but in which they so often perish without our knowledge, will lead towards their swift cleansing.
During the summer months spent at the State Training School at Geneva, an investigator, who became friendlv with these 314
(315) girls, obtained from 254 of them the stories of their first wrongdoing. Of these 254 girls, 101 alleged that they were at first the victims of force or fraud, but many of them confessed that later they continued voluntarily to lead irregular lives. This included also the girls who said they first yielded when they had been made drunk or after they had been drugged; it included also the 46 unspeakably horrible cases in which the girls were victimized by members of their own family,[1] by those who were their guardians, or by older relatives who should have been responsible for their welfare. In 74 cases, the girl's yielding to temptation was incidental to some form of recreation,- unregulated childish play, unsupervised and unchaperoned dances, visits to a "show," late walks in public parks. In 52 cases the girl had been paid a paltry sum of money or given "gum and candy" as an inducement to consent to this heart-breaking ruin of her life when she was virtually only a child at play. In 27 cases affection was given as the excuse. The large number of girls who alleged force or fraud as an explanation might seem incredible except for the fact that in the great majority of these cases their statements were confirmed by the records of the institution and the court.
Painful as many of these stories are, we have felt that we had no right to omit any essential fact because it seemed too ugly to face; for we should be indeed recreant if we failed to uncover in so far as lies in our power the wrong conditions of which these children are the victims; as the community would in turn be recreant if it failed to take to heart the waste of young life which is here set forth.
As the stories are largely stories of degraded conditions, and degradation means drunkenness, immorality, lack of cleanliness, irregularity of life, and low neighborhood associations, it is impossible to find principles of selection on the basis of which these paragraphs might be grouped. They are at once too complex and too similar,-and they are therefore presented in sequence and not, as in the case of the boys' histories, in classified groups.
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1. An American family with seven children. The father was twenty-eight and the mother sixteen at the time of their marriage. The father is a bricklayer who can earn $30 a week when he works; but he is a shiftless drunkard, idle most of the time, and even when working contributes nothing to the support of the children. The mother died twelve years ago when the last child was born, and the children now live with the grandmother, who is a good, hardworking woman employed as a janitress. She has always been fond of the children and tried to take good care of them. One of the sisters is a domestic servant and works faithfully. This girl left school at the age of fifteen when she was in the seventh grade to work in a department store. At first she always brought her wages home to her grandmother, but she was evidently wrongly influenced by a bad girl, who persuaded her to leave home and go to live in a cheap rooming-house. The grandmother had her arrested there when she was sixteen years old and brought into court. She was found to have been immoral and was sent to Geneva, where she remained nearly two years. She is now living with her grandmother again and doing well.
2. A German family with four children, of whom this girl is the youngest. The mother died when the child was born, but the home was not broken up until eight years ago when the father died. The father drank and was not good to the children. They were not sent to school and were neglected in every way. This girl began to work out as a domestic servant when she was only twelve, and at sixteen, when she was brought into court, she could neither read nor write. The probation officer thought her mentally deficient, and the Geneva investigator thought that she was not normally bright. She was first brought into court when she was fifteen after spending the night in one of the parks with a young man. She acknowledged that she had been immoral, and she was put on probation. Within a year, however, she was arrested at half-past one to the morning, talking to some men, evidently for the purpose of immoral solicitation. She was held temporarily at the court on the charge of being disorderly and this time was sent to Geneva, where she has been for a year and a half.
3. A Danish family with two daughters and one son. The home is now broken up, and the father's whereabouts are unknown. The mother became insane and after she was sent to an institution the father lived with the three children in a rear cellar apartment. They all slept in one bed, with a drunken man lodger on a couch in the same room. The three children were brought into court as dependents when this girl, who was the second child, was twelve years old, and the court paroled them to their father. This girl had already been criminally assaulted by a neighbor. At the age of sixteen she was brought into court again as a delinquent, "running the streets, insulting people, and generally disturbing the peace." She was put on probation, but several months later it was discovered that she was immoral, and she was sent to Geneva, where she has been for a year and a half. An older sister was first taken care of by a good-hearted neighbor and married early, but committed suicide soon after. The brother has been put in a dependent institution.
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4. An American family with three children, of whom this girl is the eldest. The mother died when the girl was five years old, and the father kept the children with him but moved about for nearly eight years from one boarding-house to another, and the children, of course, had no home care. He has only one arm and is now employed as a "tower man" on the railroad, but he has always had difficulty finding work. When this girl was thirteen the father remarried, and the stepmother's mother and sister came to live with the family. The stepmother has since had two children of her own, and as her mother and sister continued to live with her, there has been a complicated family group. The stepmother's relations with this girl have always been very unpleasant, and the probation officer thinks that the stepmother has been extremely harsh and severe with her and that she easily got into bad company. When she was seventeen she was arrested for stealing $10 from her father; the court put her on probation for six months. At the end of this time she ran away from home and began a low rooming-house life. She was then brought to court and sent to Geneva, where she remained two years and a half. She was released about a year ago and was married, but began an Immoral life again and her husband left her.
5. A German family in which there were three sets of children, seven altogether. The girl's own mother, who was the father's second wife, died when the girl was four years old, and the father married a third time. The father was a common laborer with regular work and the home seems to have been comfortable enough, but there was probably a good deal of friction. An older half-sister had a disagreement with her second stepmother, left home, and "went wrong." This girl worked first as a clerk in a dry goods store. Her father and stepmother attribute her downfall to bad associates whom she met at a skating rink in a pleasure park, which they think a very bad place for young people. When she was fifteen years old, she was picked up on the street at two o'clock in the morning and brought into court as incorrigible. She was first put on probation for a number of months, but would not stay at home, was immoral, and was finally brought into court again on the same charge and sent to Geneva, where she has been for only a few months.6. This girl belonged to a family of four children with a Norwegian father and a Danish mother. The father died seventeen years ago, and the mother then married a Danish man. They have always had a fairly comfortable home. The mother was always very kind to the girl; the stepfather, however, was very severe with her and scolded her a great deal. She worked for a time in a shoe-string factory and always brought her money home. She then went to work in a restaurant as a waitress, and the mother thinks the girls she met there led her astray. She was extremely pretty and attracted much attention. Her father became so hard on her that she finally left home and said she was going to live with friends. When she was sixteen, her mother brought her into court on the charge of keeping bad company. The girl was put on probation, but after one month she was found in a saloon with two men, and there is evidence to show that she was leading an immoral life in a low hotel. When the case was tried, several men were in court to pay her fine or
(318) bail if any should be asked. She was committed to Geneva, where she remained a little over two years. She was paroled to live with a family who were very good to her and sent her to high school for two years. She is now marred and seems to be getting on very well.
7. A German-American family with six children. The home is now broken up. The mother, who was always in delicate health, died of tuberculosis. The father, who had been married before, was an old soldier and had a small pension which he spent entirely on himself. He seldom worked or contributed anything to the support of the family but stayed in a soldiers' home from time to time, and the family was helped irregularly by a charitable society. The home was never comfortable and at one time the family lived in a house so dilapidated that they paid no rent for it. When this girl was sixteen years old, she was turned away from her home by her father, who said she was wild and profane and spent her time in bad company. She was brought into court, found to be immoral, and sent to Geneva, where she has been for three years.
8. A Russian-Jewish family with four children. The father, a junk-dealer, is able to support his family. The girl's mother is dead, and the girl did not get on well with her stepmother. She did housework for a time, and then at the age of sixteen married a man who took her at once to a house of prostitution. When her parents traced her there, the keeper attempted to transfer her to another house, but while en route she escaped. The man was sent to the penitentiary. The girl went home, but the stepmother and the entire family were so unkind to her that she came into court and asked that she be sent to Geneva. After her return she got in with bad company and married a worthless man. Her health was broken, and she died when her first child was born.
9. Nothing is known about the father of this girl, but the reports are that he was a colored man. The mother is German and says she was thirty-five and the father thirty-one when they were married. They had five children. The home is very poor and dirty, and the neighbors complain about the family and say they use vile language and are disreputable. The mother does washing at home, one sister is a laundress, and two other sisters do only unskilled factory work, earning very low wages. The family have been helped at different times by a charitable society. This girl was regarded as subnormal and she did not get beyond the second grade in school. The mother complained that she had to be watched constantly to keep her away from "bad company." When she was eleven years old, she was brought into court charged with stealing a silk shawl worth $75. She was sent to Geneva, where she has been for five years. The mother wants the girl to come home so that she can work and bring in her wages. She says the girl has caused her a great deal of trouble and she now wants her to help.
10. An American family with three children, of whom this girl is the youngest. After her birth the mother became an invalid, contracted the morphine habit, and finally died of tuberculosis when the girl was ten years old. The mother's people are said to be a "bad lot." and one of her brothers is in the penitentiary. After the mother's death the
(319) father remarried, and there has always been a good deal of ill feeling between the girl and her stepmother. The stepmother has been outwardly kind but has no affection for the girl and does not want her at home. The father is a machinist, earning good wages, and the stepmother keeps boarders and occasionally rents rooms. The girl was originally brought into court as a dependent when she was ten years old during the mother's illness, and was sent to a home for dependent girls, but ran away and came home again. At the age of twelve she was brought into court as a delinquent for immorality; she was sleeping in barns and was said to be quite incorrigible. She was then sent to an institution for delinquent girls. At the age of thirteen she stole some money from her stepmother and ran away from home. The father notified the police, and they found her in the middle of the night on some doorsteps in South Chicago. She was in very bad physical condition. The father said that he could do nothing with her, and she was sent to Geneva, where she has been for over three years.
11. A Polish family with six children, living in a very degraded home. Both parents are intemperate and neither can speak English. When this girl was only eleven, the father came home drunk and criminally assaulted her. A few months later she was brought into court as a dependent and sent to a home for dependent girls, but she was later released to go back to her old home. The father and mother beat her cruelly, and at the age of thirteen she came in terror to the police station for protection from her mother's abuse. She was sent to another institution for three months and again released to go back to her old home. When she was fourteen and went to work, her parents took all her wages and continued to beat and abuse her. She ran away from home and was then brought to court as an incorrigible delinquent. Her parents complained that she was keeping bad company and would not stay at home, and she was returned to the institution for two years. When she was sixteen she was in court again on the charge of trying to buy clothes with a forged check and was sent back to the same institution. At the age of seventeen she was found sleeping in hallways and was found to be very immoral. She was sent to Geneva, where she has been for several months.
12. A moral and industrious German family with seven children. The father was twenty-five and the mother twenty at the time of marriage, and they immigrated several years later. The father was a laborer in the building trades, earning about $12 a week. They seem to have had a good home. This girl began working in a factory when she was fourteen and seems to have been a good girl until she got out of work. While she was "hunting a new job," she got in the habit of going downtown to look for work and then going into department stores to get warm and rest. When she was sixteen, she was brought into court with several other girls who were in the habit of visiting department store waiting rooms and going to rooms with men for immoral purposes. She was sent to Geneva and after one year was paroled. She is now working as a bookkeeper and doing well.
13 . An Irish family with five children, of whom this girl is the eldest. Tile father was thirty-four arid the mother twenty-two at the time
(320) of their marriage. The father is a janitor, earning about $10 a week. He formerly drank and deserted the family three times, but he has now reformed and the family are reunited. They are, however, very poor and during the last two years they have applied to a relief society ten times for aid. The mother used to work away from home doing housework, and this girl stayed at home and took care of the house and the younger children. At the age of fifteen she left home and lived for two weeks with a friend whose parents kept a disreputable rooming house, frequented by railroad men. The mother said that she was good and industrious until she ran away from home. The girl claimed that she had never been immoral, but, as she had been associating with disreputable people, the court sent her to Geneva. She has been there only a short time, but seems to be doing well.
14. An Irish-American family with six children living in a very poor and dirty four-room apartment. The mother was only eighteen at the time of marriage. The father deserted the family five times and is now living in an old soldiers' home. His wife says he does this because he is lazy and that he could work if he would. The mother is a tailoress but earns only about $3.00 a week. Both parents are shiftless, begging people, who have constantly sought aid from all possible charitable sources and are on the records of nearly every relief society in Chicago. At one time they were evicted and all went to a home for dependents. This girl was in a soldiers' orphan home from the age of seven until she was sixteen. Soon after leaving she was brought to court by her mother as incorrigible and immoral and sent to Geneva, where she has been for about nine months. The mother complained that she stayed out late at night, associated with vicious and immoral persons, and was "going to destruction." Three other children are in the soldiers' home, and the older boys, who live with the mother, will not work. The mother complains bitterly about them, but she herself is a shiftless, quarrelsome woman who prefers begging to working.
15. A family of five children with a Canadian father and an American mother. The mother committed suicide, and this girl, who was then nine years old, kept house for the father and the younger children. They lived in a house that had belonged to the children's grandmother. The father was a day laborer, who worked irregularly, was a very shiftless man, and probably a drunkard. The children are scattered now, and none of them is doing very well. The two boys are both in institutions and one has been in court several times. One sister has been adopted. This girl was brought into court when she was fifteen years old by the grandmother and the father, who said she had been "beyond control" for two years and had become immoral. She was sent to Geneva, where she remained a year. Not long after her release she ran away and is now supposed to be an inmate of a house of prostitution.
16. This girl's father is German and her stepmother German-American. The father was twenty-one at the time he married this girl's mother. She has one stepbrother. The father is a gardener in summer and a janitor in winter. The girl's mother died when she was very Small and
(321) her relations with her stepmother have never been pleasant. The home has always been clean and neat. This girl went to live with her aunt for seven months, but the aunt brought her home, saying she could do nothing with her. The father and the stepmother brought her into court when she was twelve years old and in the third grade in school, saying that she stole from them, that she would not go to school, and was very immoral. They asked to have her sent away and the court sent her to Geneva where she has been for nearly three years. The father and the stepmother told the investigator that they did not think the girl was improving there and that there was little hope for her.
17. This girl is one of two daughters of Roumanian-Jewish parents who still live in Roumania. She came to this country to live with a sister, who was supposed to be a widow, but who, the girl says, was not a good woman. The girl had been in this country only a few months when a man followed her home from work, took her money, and assaulted her. The sister took all the girl's wages, and after a time the girl refused to live with her. When she was fifteen years old, the sister had her brought into court, claiming that she was leading an immoral life. She was under the care of the probation officer for only four days. The probation officer found that the girl did not intend to do right, and had her sent to Geneva, where she has been for nearly six months.
18. This girl is the daughter of a colored father and a white mother. At marriage the father was twenty-two and the mother seventeen. The father, a janitor, who sleeps at his place of work, has been arrested several times for stealing. The mother, a German, died of epilepsy. Several children died in infancy; four are now living. The home and the neighborhood conditions were always bad. This girl, who is not normally bright, was not sent regularly to school, and during her mother's life was entirely without care. She was brought into court at the age of fourteen as incorrigible and put on probation for six months. Finally at the age of seventeen, she was brought into court on the charge of immorality and stealing. She was sent to Geneva, where she has been for eight months.
19. A Russian-Jewish family with fourteen children, six of whom died in infancy. The father was seventeen and the mother sixteen at the time of marriage. The father, who was a cloakmaker, died three years ago of tuberculosis. He was immoral and cruel to his wife and deserted the family several times. The family has received a great deal of help from a charitable society. This girl left school while in the fifth or sixth grade to work in a laundry; she always "gave in" her wages. Her father was very unkind to her, and she finally left home because of his ill-treatment. At the age of seventeen she was brought into court by her mother, who claimed that she was staying out late at night and frequenting saloons. She said that she had been betrayed by a man who had promised to marry her. She was sent to Geneva and had remained there about two years when she was allowed to go home on parole. But she soon returned to an immoral life and finally became so ill that she returned to Geneva voluntarily. This time she has been in the institution about a year and will return home within a few days.
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20. A German-American family with seven children. The father was twenty-one and the mother seventeen when they were married. The father, who was a carpenter, was killed in an accident and left only a small amount of insurance for the support of the family. The mother was obliged to work very hard and kept a restaurant at one time, but she says the girls would not help her and she had to give it up. A charitable society helped them for a while but now the two sods are able to support the family. These two girls worked downtown in department stores, and the mother believes that this demoralized them. One of the girls was brought into court when she was seventeen for leaving home and living in bad places. She was unquestionably immoral and was sent to Geneva. On her release she worked for a time in a department store but stole there and was returned to Geneva at the age of eighteen. She remained at Geneva about two years and has just been released. The other girl was brought into court by her mother when she was only thirteen. The mother complained that the girl was incorrigible, ran away from home, and stayed with immoral colored people. She was sent to an institution for delinquent girls, then released, and returned when fourteen. Six months ago, at the age of seventeen, she was also sent to Geneva.
21. This girl is one of a family of five children with a Norwegian father and an American mother. Both parents were twenty-three at the time of their marriage. The father was a salesman earning good wages, but he drank heavily and would not support the family. He finally deserted them ten years ago, and the home was broken up. The mother thought it best to put four of the children in institutions until some of them were old enough to work. The three girls were sent to a home for dependent girls, where they stayed several years, and one boy was sent to a home for dependent boys. The mother has always worked hard; she peddled "notions" for years but now she does scrubbing and cleaning. This girl worked out from the time she was twelve years old until she was sixteen, although she had completed only the second grade in school; she did not like housework and changed places frequently. She gave all the money she earned to her mother, who bought the girl such clothes as she thought best. The girl was first brought into court at the age of sixteen on the charge of immorality, which she admitted. She was put on probation and was sent for a time to a sanitarium. About six months later the mother said the girl had disappeared and asked to have a search made for her. She was found by an officer in a house of prostitution and was brought into court and sent at once to Geneva, where she has been for a year. A brother of the girl has recently been in the House of Correction for drunkenness.
22. An American family with seven children, who came to Chicago from one of the southern states. The father was twenty-two and the mother twenty at the time of their marriage. The father died of melancholia. The mother believes that this girl has been the victim of adolescent insanity. Neither the mother nor any one of the children seems to have a good physical constitution. The mother formerly kept a grocery store, but the family are in better circumstances now. The brothers are
(323) pressmen in printing offices, and two of the children are married and living at home. This girl completed the eighth grade in the grammar school and attended a business college for a year. At the age of sixteen she became incorrigible, frequented saloons and dram shops, and when brought into court admitted her immorality. She was committed to Geneva where she remained fourteen months. She has now left Geneva and is married.
23. A German family with six children, one of whom is married. The parents were married when the father was twenty-nine and the mother twenty-four. The father, who has been dead six years, was a hod carrier. He drank heavily and always worked irregularly, earning small wages. The mother was a washwoman and earned from $5.00 to $6.00 a week until the children got old enough to work. One brother has been in the Chicago Parental School twice. This girl went to work at the age of twelve as "general help." As she was very incompetent, she of course had very hard places and changed them often. Later she went downtown to work as a cash girl in a department store, and the mother says this was "her ruin" because she associated with girls who taught her to be immoral. The mother says that the father had always been cruel to the girl before he died, and that the girl had a violent temper like his. The mother says she was afraid of the girl. When she was sixteen years old, the girl was brought into court by a police officer on the charge of keeping bad company and associating with immoral girls. She was put on probation but was brought in again six months later on the charge of staying away from home for three days and nights and returning in an intoxicated condition. She admitted that she had stayed at a low hotel in bad company, and was committed to Geneva. She was released after two years, and is now married and seems to be happy and industrious.
24. This girl's parents were Swedish. The father is a drunkard, has the cocaine habit, and has always been very brutal to his wife and children. He worked as a fireman when sober and was a good worker, but he never supported the family; they were helped by a relief society for a good many years. The mother committed suicide about eight years ago because she could no longer endure the misery of her life with her husband. Five years later this girl was brought into court by a probation officer as a dependent child and was taken away from her father because of his vulgarity and indecency, but was released under the care of a probation officer. She was later brought into court again on the charge of being out late at night, and was sent to a home for dependents from which she ran away twice. When thirteen years old she was brought into court as incorrigible, acknowledged she had been immoral and was sent to Geneva, where she has been for six months. Both of her brothers have been wards of the court; one is in the John Worthy School and one is in the Chicago Parental School. The home is entirely broken up, and the father sleeps around in sheds or barns.
25. A Russian-Jewish family with five children. The father was eighteen at marriage and the mother twenty-one. The father is a ladies' tailor, who once had the habit of moving and changing his name with each move; but he now owns his own business and seems to be getting on well. Neither father nor mother takes proper care of the children. This girl
(324) was allowed to sing and dance in five-cent theaters, and both proprietor and patrons had immoral relations with her constantly, giving her small sums of money in payment. At the age of eleven, the child became known as a common street walker and pickpocket. She was brought into court as incorrigible and immoral and sent to Geneva, where she has been for nearly a year. She is said to be a degenerate.
26. This girl was one of a family of four children, with an American father and a Dutch mother. The parents were married when the father was twenty-two and the mother seventeen. The home was not only poor and miserable but very degraded. The father was a steamfitter by trade, but he worked very little and was constantly drunk. He criminally assaulted this girl when she was only eleven years old, and also mistreated the younger sister. The mother discovered this and threatened to have her husband arrested, but he deserted to avoid prosecution. The children were then brought into court as dependents and sent to a home for dependent girls. The mother supported herself for a time by working as a practical nurse but later went to live with her mother. The children were returned to live in their grandmother's home also. The grandmother did washing, and the family were helped by a charitable society, but lived in a very miserable way. A few years ago the mother married again, but her second husband also drank and was very cruel to her and to her children, and she finally left him. This girl worked in two different department stores for very small wages; she also worked in a factory for two months. At the age of sixteen she was brought into court by her mother as incorrigible. She had run away and there was evidence that she had been immoral; she was sent to Geneva, where she has been for six months. A sister was brought into court the following year, also upon the charge of incorrigibility and immorality.
27. A Polish family with four children. The father was twenty-seven and the mother thirty-two at the time of marriage. The father has learned to speak a little English, but the mother speaks only Polish. The father has steady work as a janitor. The mother drinks constantly and the home is not only poor and dirty but degraded. Two of the younger children go to school, but work out of school hours in order to contribute a dollar a month each to the family support. One boy is now in the John Worthy School. This girl was taught to pick pockets when she was small and she became very immoral as she grew up. She lived for a time with a married man, and then led a low rooming-house life. She was first brought into court at the age of thirteen for picking pockets, and was sent to an institution for delinquent girls, but was kept there only two weeks. She was on probation for two years, but was brought into court three times during the first year on the same charge. At the age of fifteen she was again brought into court on the charge of helping another girl steal $4.00. She was sent to Geneva for fifteen months. At the age of seventeen she was brought in for immorality, was put on probation for three months, and then sent to Geneva again, where she has been for the last six months.
28. A German family with five children. Both father and mother were twenty-one at the time of their marriage. The father was a police
(325) man, but lost his position because of a row that occurred while he was making an arrest when he was probably drunk. He later deserted the family, but occasionally comes home in a drunken condition and is very cruel to his wife and children. The mother works hard in a tailor shop and is trying to support herself and the children and buy a home. She suffers from a blow on the head that her husband gave her in one of his visits. She is harsh with the children and has beaten them so much that they are in great fear of her: This girl was extremely irregular in her school attendance and only went through the second grade. She was put to work in a tailor shop when very young. The grandfather is miserly, and the mother cares more about buying her home than about anything else. She always took all that the girl earned, made her work very hard, and was cruel and exacting. When the girl was fifteen years old, she ran away and worked as an office girl in a cheap hotel. She became immoral and was brought into court and sent to Geneva, where she remained a little over a year. She has now been home for a year and a half and is doing well and giving her wages to her mother.
29. An American family with three children, living in a very low, immoral neighborhood and in a dirty home. The father, who was a teamster, assaulted this girl and was sent to the penitentiary for life. The mother is a wash and scrub woman but she works very little. She is very immoral and lies about in alleys drunk a good deal of the time. The family has always received charitable assistance and has never been self-supporting. At the age of fourteen this girl was brought into court as dependent on the charge that her mother was taking her to visit winerooms and low saloons. The girl was evidently being used for immoral purposes and was sent to Geneva, where she has been for about three years and a half.
30. An Irish-American family with six children. Both parents were eighteen at the time of marriage. The father has been a cattle butcher in the stockyards for twenty years and can earn good wages, but he will not work. He deserted the family at one time, and during the last two years he has done so little for them that they have been almost constantly dependent on the help given by a charitable society. Two brothers work in the "Yards," one has run away from home. The mother has a bad reputation, drinks habitually, keeps a dirty home, and always has her house full of disorderly men. This girl, when fifteen, was taken by her mother to an institution for delinquent girls, but after a month the mother took her out again and brought her home. She then ran away and was arrested in the company of two young men who were taking her to a house of prostitution. The men were sent to the House of Correction, and the girl, who admitted that she had already been immoral, was committed to Geneva with her mother's consent.
31. A Russian-Jewish family with eight children. The home, which was in a very poor neighborhood, was dirty and vermin infested. The father is an expressman earning good wages, but both parents are avaricious and encouraged the girl in wrongdoing so long as she brought her earnings home. She worked in a candy factory for a while but her parents did not think she earned enough money and wanted her to get more. When she was brought into court at the age of fifteen, she had
(326) already become immoral, had rented a room for immoral purposes, and had before this frequented low hotels. She was first put on probation for six months, then brought into court again on the same charge and sent to Geneva. An older sister had been in court five years before for immorality and had been sent to Geneva. Both girls improved greatly at Geneva. The older one is married and doing well. This girl is still there.
32. A German family in which there are six children. The father was twenty-two and the mother twenty-six when they were married. The father is a janitor, drinks habitually and has a violent temper. The mother, who speaks English very poorly, does some washing at home. The home is clean, and except for the father's drinking, both parents seem thrifty and decent. This girl was first brought into court when she was fifteen years old on the charge of keeping company with older girls who were immoral. She was put on probation, but her father was very angry and told her to stay away from home. The father has always been "hard on the girl," the ;mother says, and she thinks his anger "made her worse." She used to go to see her mother when the father was away. Within a year she was brought into court again, this time on the charge of entering a house and stealing $2.25. The petition also stated that the girl had been staying away from home and there were evidences of her immorality. She was sent to Geneva, where she has been for eight months.
33. This girl is the daughter of a German father and an Irish mother. The father was twenty-one and the mother nineteen when they were married. The father runs a machine in a stone yard and works regularly, but he drinks a great deal and is very "cranky" and quarrelsome with his wife. They have had ten children, of whom one is dead and one is living with an aunt. This girl worked in a factory for seven months, labeling cans, then she picked strawberries for a while, and afterwards worked for a time in a bakery. When she was sixteen, she was brought into court as incorrigible; she had been away from home for several months and was said to be sleeping in unfinished basements and associating with vicious persons. She had been connected with a larceny offense before this. She was first put on probation, but nine months later she was brought into court again on the charge of immorality and was sent to Geneva, where she remained about two years and a half. She has been at home now for seven months and is doing well.
34. A Russian-Jewish family with six children. The father was eighteen and the mother nineteen at the time of marriage. They lived in a very poor neighborhood, but the home of six rooms was neat and clean. The father was a leather-polisher and could earn good wages, but he was a hard drinker and stayed away from home days at a time, leaving the family destitute. They were helped at different times by two relief societies. This girl never worked, but when small was allowed to sing in five-cent theaters. She was brought into court as a dependent at the age of six, and sent to a home for dependent girls because of her father's drunken habits. At the age of eleven, she was brought in by a probation officer as delinquent on a charge of immorality, and was sent to Geneva. She had become a common pickpocket, was very immoral, attended five-cent theaters and sang in them. The parents upheld the girl and said she was
(327) "all right." She has been in Geneva nearly a year, and has been one of the most troublesome girls there. An older sister was also brought into court on the charge of incorrigibility and associating with immoral and vicious persons, but she was put on probation.
35. A German-American family with four children. The father was twenty-three and the mother eighteen at the time of marriage. The mother died thirteen years ago when this girl was born, and the father then deserted the children. Two of them were adopted by relatives and two by strangers. This girl was taken to live with an aunt, whose husband criminally assaulted the child when she was only eleven years old. The uncle was sent to the penitentiary, and the girl was given to another aunt, who did not like her. The husband of this aunt was a laborer at the stockyards, the aunt took in washing, and the family was very poor. The girl went to work as a domestic servant when she was only twelve years old, and the aunt complained because she could not keep the places that were found for her. At the age of thirteen the girl was taken from a house of prostitution in bad physical condition. She was brought into court and sent to Geneva four years ago. She is now on parole and seems to be doing well.
36. This girl's parents were Bohemian. At marriage the father was twenty-four and the mother twenty-one. The father was a drunkard and so immoral that the mother left him and came to America with her two children. They lived in a rear basement apartment of two rooms, and the mother did washing. The father came over after seven years, but soon deserted his wife, stealing all that she had. The mother then got a divorce from him, married another Bohemian, and has since had another child, who died. When this girl was twelve years old, she was brought into court by a probation officer for stealing. Her mother said she had been deceiving her and stealing money from her, and had been staying out late at night. She was sent to an institution for delinquent girls, but after three months was released on probation. This girl left school when she was fourteen and had finished the fifth grade; she worked out for a few months as a domestic and then worked in a candy factory and in a cigar factory. Before she was fifteen she was brought into court again on the charge of incorrigibility. Her mother complained that she stole from her as well as from her employers. She was sent to Geneva.
37. A German family with three children. The father was eighteen and the mother nineteen when they were married; they immigrated seven years later. The mother has never learned to speak English. The father is a gasfitter, earning about $10 a week. The mother worked in a restaurant for a time, but it is no longer necessary. She was always very strict with this girl without understanding her. The father was also strict, but neither knew anything of her associates nor attempted to control her beyond the home. She lived for a time with a married sister, but finally ran away and lived with a woman who kept a house of prostitution. She was first brought into court by her parents at the age of fourteen and was sent to an institution for delinquent girls because the parents said they could not control her and wished her placed in an institution. When she was seventeen, her father brought her into court
(328) again, complaining that she would not work, kept very bad company, and was immoral and incorrigible. She was in wretched physical condition and this time was sent to Geneva, where she has been for nearly a year.
38. A Russian-Jewish family of six children. The father is dead and the mother has moved out of town. The father was a pawnbroker, and the family were wealthy at one time and lived in fashionable residence districts; they still are quite well to do. The four girls in the family were never allowed to attend the public schools but were sent away to private boarding-schools. The eldest girl is said to have been very wild and eloped when she was married. The two next younger girls are both in Geneva. The fourth daughter, who remains with the mother, is very peculiar. The parents seemed quite helpless in the bringing up of their children. The mother was very lenient with them when they first came from boarding-school and then suddenly became very strict and allowed them no privileges. The older of the two girls now at Geneva was immoral with a young man who was a member of the same social group. The family first knew of her delinquency when at the age of fifteen she became pregnant. After her child was born, the mother appeared in court and had her sent to Geneva, where she has been for over a year. The younger girl was brought into court at the age of fourteen for incorrigibility. She had begun to stay away from home for days at a time, was very wild, went to dance halls, was flagrantly immoral, and her parents had no control over her. She was put on probation, but returned to court two months later, and again four months later, and was finally sent to Geneva, where she has been for about six months. The two brothers have never been delinquent.
39. This girl was the only child of very respectable German parents. The father was twenty-six and the mother twenty when they were married. They are decent, industrious people, but the father is stingy and very domineering with his wife and daughter. He has never allowed the wife any voice in family affairs. The family lived in the rear of a good tenement which they own. The girl worked as a stenographer, but was allowed to keep almost nothing except carfare and lunch money. The father allowed her no amusements and very little money. When the girl was fifteen, she ran away from home. She was placed by her parents in an institution for delinquent girls, although she had never been immoral. The girl said the father had not spoken a kind word to her for five years. When she was seventeen, she forged her father's name to a post office money order for $300, went to the nearest large city and spent the money freely, going to theaters and having a good time. She was arrested and brought into the municipal court, but was released to a children's aid society. She went into domestic service, but within a few weeks stole from the family and guests of the house. She was then brought into the juvenile court, and sent to Geneva. She has run away from Geneva, and her whereabouts are unknown. The parents say she is unlucky rather than bad, but they are unwilling to take her back.
40. An American family with six children. The father was twenty and the mother twenty-three at the time of their marriage. The father
(329) seems to have been the black sheep in a decent family. He was a sign-painter but did not work and never supported his family. The mother was a low sort of woman who neglected her children in every way. She is said to have been a "common street walker" and there is one illegitimate child in the family. The mother died of cancer in the county hospital. The father deserted the children after the mother died and was generally worthless and irresponsible. While the mother was in the hospital, this child who was then fourteen was brought into court as incorrigible. She was released and put on probation to live with a married sister. The girl would not stay with the sister as the court directed, grew to be very immoral, and was finally sold on the levee. When fifteen years old, she was taken from a house of prostitution by the police and held temporarily in the county jail; she was brought into court charged with immorality and was sent to Geneva, where she has been a little less than six months. An older sister, who was married, left her husband and was a common prostitute for a time. The three brothers were at one time in a home for dependents. Two of them have gone to live with the father, who recently remarried and now lives in the country. One is in an institution for dependent boys.
41. This girl's mother and father were German. The mother, who is now dead, was the father's third wife, and after her death he married again. The father has had eighteen children. This girl had one sister who has "gone bad" and is not allowed to come home. The father is a "handy man" in a saloon, earning very low wages. The present wife had a store, and the father helped her in the store and lived with her for a year before they were married. This girl is not normally bright. She had immoral relations with the boys in the neighborhood and was considered a contaminating influence in school when she was quite small. At the age of twelve she was brought into court, acknowledged her immorality, and was sent to Geneva where she has been for two years.
42. A colored family in which both mother and father had been married before. The mother had six children from her former marriage; the father one. This girl is the oldest of three children of this marriage. The family came from the country about six years ago. The father is a foreman in a stable, and the mother goes out washing. The father is very severe with the children, beats them a great deal, and threatened to kill this girl because of her misbehavior. They have always been very much afraid of him. The home was clean but crowded; and the neighborhood was very disreputable. This girl left school when she was fifteen and in the seventh grade, and took a position at housework. Finally when she was sixteen, she was brought into court on the charge of stealing from her employer. She was put on probation, but in a short time she was again accused of stealing and of being immoral. At her father's request she was arrested and brought into court from a low rooming house, and was sent to Geneva, where she has been for nearly a year. She had been in several different immoral places and had been transferred from one to another, so that her parents traced her with difficulty.
43. This girl is the older of two children of American parents. The father was twenty-three and the mother twenty-one at the time of
(330) marriage. The father was an electrical engineer, but never worked and was evidently a worthless person. He deserted the family seven years ago, just before the birth of the second child, and has recently been in the penitentiary. After his desertion the mother received charitable assistance for two years and most of the time went out to work, leaving the children in charge of a neighbor, who did not treat them properly. The mother has a very unsavory reputation and now keeps a low-grade rooming house in a questionable neighborhood. She used to beat the children cruelly, and she wants to get rid of the younger child, whom she asks to have put into a home. She brought this girl into court at the age of nine, saying that she was incorrigible, stayed away from home, and was out late at night. The child has never finished the second grade but has been examined by the child-study department and is said not to be subnormal. When she was brought into court there was evidence of her immorality with the boys of the neighborhood; and the court sent her to Geneva, where she has been for almost two years.
44. A family of Polish Jews with thirteen children. The father was twenty-one and the mother twenty at marriage. The father, who had been a lawyer in the old country, became a drunkard, and deserted the family six years ago. The mother has tried to take care of the children since then by washing and cleaning. They lived in a poor, dirty, crowded home and were forced to apply to a charitable society for aid. This girl worked for several years in different cheap department stores and was afterwards an artists model. She got into bad company and then became very immoral. At the age of sixteen she was brought into court for incorrigibility and was sent to Geneva nearly a year and a half ago and is still there.
45. A decent, industrious Swedish family with eight children, of whom this girl is the eldest. The parents were marred when the father was twenty-three and the mother twenty-one. Both parents have constantly suffered from ill health. The father was a fireman at one time, and they owned their own home and were "pretty well off." They lost the home under a mortgage while the father was ill, and not long afterwards he lost his job and they have had hard times ever since. He could get only unskilled work after this and earned very low wages, so that the mother had to go out washing and cleaning. When the mother was working away from home she had to leave the children alone. This girl left school at the age of fourteen, when in the sixth grade, and has worked ever since. She had several places as a domestic servant and then was a department-store clerk. She began to be very difficult to manage. She was not good to her mother and neglected her when she was ill. It was said she frequented skating-rinks where she met immoral people. When she was eighteen years old, she was brought into court as incorrigible and committed to Geneva. The mother says that the girl got into bad company while at work and that she had never been troublesome before. She has been at Geneva for nearly a year.
46. A German family with seven children. The father was twenty and the mother eighteen when they were married. Both parents were intemperate. The mother died seven years ago, probably as a result of excessive drinking, and the father, who has remarried, is so worthless
(331) and drunken and has such a violent temper, that the stepmother wants to divorce him. The present home is a comfortable one in a good neighborhood, but both house and furniture belong to the stepmother. The stepmother brought these two girls into court when the younger one was eleven and the older one thirteen. They were said to be incorrigible and to be guilty of continued immorality. They were both sent to Geneva, where they have been for three years. These girls have an older sister, who has the cocaine habit and is not a good girl; she does not live at home. An older brother is an ex-convict; a younger brother is a ward of the court and at one time was committed to the John Worthy School. The stepmother says that her children, two boys, are good, but that her present husband's children are all bad except for one fifteen-year-old boy.
47. A Canadian family with two children. The father was nineteen and the mother sixteen at the time of marriage. The father deserted the family and came to the United States, but the mother followed him with her two children. They were divorced later, and the father took the children and went to live with his brother. The mother supported herself, probably by leading an immoral life, but she is now remarried and has a comfortable home. The father drank and did not look after the children, and the relations between the aunt and this girl were very unpleasant. The girl became immoral and earned money in this way. She had had two illegal operations before she was brought into court. She was then seventeen years old and in the eighth grade at school. The special charge against her was that she had been found in disorderly company with a revolver on her person. She was known to associate with the lowest characters. She was committed to Geneva, and after she had been there two years she was released. She is now on parole and is believed to be doing well.
48. A German-Jewish family with seven children. The father was twenty-three and the mother twenty at the time of their marriage. The father is an habitual drunkard, and has never supported the family. He deserts periodically but always comes back and promises to do better. He is supposed to be a fruit peddler but is really a common tramp, very brutal to his wife and children when he is at home, and is guilty of criminally assaulting the two older daughters. The mother, who speaks English slightly, is a poor hardworking woman. She has always tried to support the children and still takes in washing. During a period of nearly twenty years the family has been helped at different times by the county and by three different relief societies. The older sister of this girl is very immoral, steals from the mother, and abuses the younger children. She was at one time in a refuge. This girl did well in school, but at the age of fifteen she was sent to sell matches on the street, and a man took her to a house of prostitution and kept her there two weeks. She was found by a policeman and was brought into court and sent to Geneva, where she has been for nearly eight months.
49. A Russian-Jewish family with five children. The father was thirty-eight and the mother nineteen at the time of marriage. They came to this country when this girl was ten years old. The mother has never learned to speak English. They have a very untidy hunk and have
(332) always lived in a very congested neighborhood where there are many cheap amusement places. The father, who is now an old man, this girl, and one of her sisters have worked in a tobacco factory. This girl, who completed only the third grade at school, was brought into court at the age of fifteen as incorrigible, because she was staying out very late at night, going to dance halls, and associating with vicious persons. She was a menace in the neighborhood because she was also leading other young girls astray. She was sent to Geneva. The parents did not seem to understand the misfortune that had befallen the girl and were not very much interested in what became of her. They merely said she was "all right." After about a year and a half at Geneva the girl was returned to her home. She has been working steadily and seems to be a "good girl."
50. A German family with five children. The father was twenty-six and the mother twenty-four when they were married, and they came to this country before the birth of this girl. The father, who was a stonecutter by trade and drank heavily, died nine years ago, and the mother has had a hard time taking care of the family. She used to go out washing and tried to support the family in this way. The children have not helped her as much as they should. One of the sons is like the father and drinks heavily and is so abusive when drunk that he is not allowed to stay at home. At the age of fifteen this girl could neither read nor write. Her mother brought her into court when she was fifteen, charging that she was incorrigible and spent her time loitering about the railroad tracks in bad company. She admitted that she had been immoral and was sent to Geneva, but after she had been there two years her mother asked to have her released because her wages were needed at home. The girl, however, has not worked well; she has had several places as a domestic servant and has tried factory work since her return, but shows an inclination to go back to her old habits. She gives her mother all her wages when she works.
