21. H. has a great chart that he uses to preach evolution to the curbstone audiences. He has learned a few scientific terms from one or two books he has read. He has no use for the modern scientists. He considers them heretic. He is a student of Darwin “and those old-timers.” When pinned down he is not able to discuss clearly what contributions the old-timers made or what they believed.
22. D. H. is a student of economics according to Karl Marx. He has no room in his thinking for any contribution of any other man. Indeed, he does not think that anyone has made any contribution since Marx. One of his stock phrases is “Now get this into your heads. I am making it simple so that you can understand it.”
23. B. is writing a novel. He has been working on it for several years. He also writes songs, popular songs. But he has never sold a song nor has he ever been able to interest a publisher in his novel. He calls the publishers a lot of grafters and claims that they are in league to keep the poor writers down.
24. L. is a soap-box orator. He has one hobby. He is a single-taxer. He is a great believer in Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson. To him there is only one problem, to find out who is exploiting the people, and there is only one remedy and that the single tax. He will entertain no argument against the single tax. Anyone who does not share his opinion is to be pitied.
The intellectuals are frequently egocentric. They are obsessed by some peculiar point of view. As egocentrics they are in conflict with the rest of the world. Their cry is often a lament and just as often a justification or defense.
A study of individual cases seems to indicate that there is a large proportion of inadequate personalities among homeless men. The following cases indicate the variety of ways in which personal defects lead to a migratory existence which lands them eventually at the bottom of the social scale.
25. D. is a man who could not get along at home. He was continually into difficulty with his father. He always had ideas and schemes that his father thought foolish and he was never permitted to carry any of them out. He still has the habit of working up schemes and programs. One week he will be writing a play. Again he will be inventing some mechanical device. He has tried several different courses in mechanical engineering but has not completed any of them.
26. F. has an idea that he can become a singer but he refuses to spend his time in the rigid and arduous training that would be required. He buys cheap books on voice culture. When he gets money enough ahead to take lessons he forgets his musical ambition and drinks or gambles.
27. L. was the “simple Simon” in his home town. During the war he was rejected for military service so he decided to go to the city to work. Here he earned fair money, more than at home. The people at home used to tease him but at first he got by fairly well in Minneapolis. Later he went to Detroit because the fellows where he worked in Minneapolis used “to run him.” They used to tease him in Detroit and he left two jobs there on that account. He is the type of person that invites teasing. He puts himself in the way of it but resents it if it reaches a certain extent. With the slack season in industry in 1921-22 he had a hard time to get along but he would not return home.
28. H. is a man who thinks that he is getting the worst of every deal he has with others. He says that at home he was imposed on by his people so he left. He is always on the lookout for plots directed against him. If he is working along with others on a job and a bad piece of work falls his way he concludes that it happened purposely. However, he is ready to gloat over favors. His best efforts are made to ingratiate himself with others. Whenever he leaves a place, he does so with bitterness in his heart. He usually keeps his grudge to himself.