The Unadjusted Girl, With Cases and Standpoint for Behavior Analysis

by William Isaac Thomas

Nine months ago she attended a Knights of Columbus banquet with a girl friend, where she was introduced to a man who began to call upon her shortly afterward and they became intimate. She was invited to his mother’s home, together with a great many other friends, who were evidently people of wealth, she says. His mother did not know that she was a working girl, because he furnished her with clothing. She further states that his mother never knew that her son had had immoral relations or that he even expected to marry her. She is sure that the mother would not allow the marriage because Ellen is a Catholic. She says his mother owns a garage which her son manages. He often took her for long rides in the machine to road houses and recently had intercourse with her twice during such trips. On the first such occasion he promised to marry her, bought her a small diamond ring for which he paid $98, and the other day when he proposed a trip to New York, he said he

had secured a marriage license. Said they would be married here in New York City and return to Albany to live. When they arrived with their friends, another girl and a man, she states she asked him where they were to be married and he said: “No, we’re young yet and don’t have to be; let’s have a good time first.” She said that scared her and she got out of the car near the park on Second Avenue. She hid in the bushes and finally came out, looked around, but did not see them anywhere. She accosted a policeman and said to him, “Arrest me; do anything you like, but I have got to have a place to go to.” She said he laughed at her and said she was crazy and wanted to know what was the matter. So she told him a little of her story. He said he would look after her when off his beat, but in the meantime she should stay in a Catholic Church nearby, which she says she did. When the officer came off his beat he came and took her to the police station. She says she would not marry the man now if he could be found and if he were willing. She feels that he has disgraced her before all her friends and consequently she does not want to see any of them.

Her great ambition was to be a trained nurse. She has applied at different hospitals and every one has refused her because she has not enough education. She says that she will do anything or give up anything to realize this ambition. She would be very happy if she could even become a child’s nurse and would be willing to live on a very small salary while she is training. She prefers to stay in New York as there is less probability of her seeing the man again.... Religion means a great deal to her and would like to see a priest in a day or two.[^[79]]

73. I was born at Marietta, Ohio, December 22, 1902. My father at that time was making pretty good money. He was an oil man. He was discouraged over a loss and was working on a farm. We moved to one farm and lived there two years when the house burned with but little saved. From there we moved on to another farm and lived there about two years. At a failure of crops we moved again to Tennessee.... I worked about three months on a railroad grade, doing men and boys’ work. I made $2.50 a day working 10 hours. I was dumping the cars, laying track, carrying water—just anything they needed some one to do, just anything to fill in. There was about 20 of us girls. I saved about $90 out of my wages during those three months beside paying my board at home and buying my clothes. Father borrowed this $90 when we got to Morgantown, saying his money was all gone and saying that he would have to have some money to keep the family until the household goods came. [I had planned to use my money to pay my school expenses, but father said he couldn’t afford to send me to school, so I went to work in a restaurant, but father wanted me to work in a private family and I went to the home of Mrs. Jernigan.]

Most of the management of the house was left for me to do, as the woman was away from home most of the time. She wanted to be going out all the time; she never stayed at home. Just so long as the work was taken care of she didn’t care. There were four children. I had to do all the work and take care of the children. She was gone most of the time. It was the 26th of January, 1919. For the last two or three weeks before that I noticed he was getting familiar. I didn’t seem to realize anything of it at the time. He treated me just like one of the family until the 26th. Mr. Jernigan was not able to go to Sunday School. He was sick so he told his wife and that was the excuse she made to the Sunday School superintendent and to his pupils. Before she went she asked me to see that he got his medicine because he might doze off and not take it on time, but to be sure he got it on time. He was sitting in the living room before the fire, in a big lounging chair when I brought his medicine to him first. I got him his medicine and I started to go away and he asked me why I was in such a big hurry for. I told him that if I was to get the work done and dinner ready on time as Mrs. Jernigan was going out that afternoon, and if I didn’t keep busy I wouldn’t get it accomplished. He says, “Oh, hang the work! You don’t have to be working all the time.” I told him that that was what I was there for and that that was what they were paying me for and it was not for him to detain me and cause Mrs. Jernigan inconvenience as well as myself. He says, “All right, you don’t like Daddy Joe any more.” That was what they called him, Daddy Joe. I tried to reason with him that I cared for him just as much as I ever did but that I must get my work done. He said I could at least sit down on the edge of his chair awhile and I thought I would as I would get away quicker rather than by arguing with him. He started to caress and make over me and I tried to get away, saying that that wouldn’t do that he was to go on asleep or amuse himself, that I must get my work done. But he refused to let me go. He kept making over me until he got my passions aroused and until he had no control over himself at all, and though a sick man, he picked me up and carried me upstairs and there he ruined me. I didn’t realize the harm he was doing me.... I didn’t feel that I wanted to work there any more. I was ashamed to meet the look of Mrs. Jernigan. It seemed that I couldn’t get interested in my work and in about a week I asked for about a couple of weeks’ vacation. I went to a friend of mine at Flemington. I stayed there the two weeks and a few days over, but I telephoned Mrs. Jernigan that if she could get some one for my place to do so, that I didn’t know exactly when I would be back, I was going to stay a few days longer. But when I got back she had not succeeded in getting any one. Mr. Jernigan came to see me where I was at the time and promised that he wouldn’t repeat his actions as before if I would go back. He said Mrs. Jernigan would think of me just as my parents, and I was just as anxious to conceal my wrong then as he. So I went back. I was there about two weeks and he didn’t keep his promise. I told my parents that I was going to leave there.

I started back in the restaurant life then again. I met a young man who seemed very interested in me. I was discouraged and disgusted with the way I was living and the restaurant life began to have its effect on me then, and I decided that I would accept his proposal and that we would get married. But one thing happened and then another until we had to postpone it and it was just a plan of his, I found out later. He had coaxed me into improper relationship with him once. Then he started running around town with other girls. When I asked him what he meant by that kind of action he said he had come to the conclusion that I was too young to know what it was to get married, that I had just better drop that idea altogether. I was discouraged and disgusted with myself that I could be led into anything so easily.... [I married a man who was very surly and associated with negro women, infected me with gonorrhoea, told the workers in the mine that I had infected him, and finally disappeared.]

I went home and my sister’s husband came to live with us and I seemed to know him better than I did before. He had just come back from the Army and he was the only comfort I had, so I talked with him. When a girl gets the blues she falls harder than ever. He had a fight with those at the mines who repeated the story that my husband told. It was about the first of March when we had a physical relation and at that time I was made pregnant.[^[80]]

74. In this case a girl of American parentage was a bright and attractive type. Her mother had been a prostitute for years and had provided a home in which the standards were so degrading that the courts had given the five other daughters to relatives six years previous. The girl in question was sent to live with a widowed uncle and his two daughters, who welcomed her to a home of many comforts and interests, but allowed at the same time much unsupervised recreational time. During afternoons of leisure she found many opportunities to spend hours in the company of a married man in the neighborhood, and a few years later at the age of 16 she gave birth to an illegitimate child.

Her father died when she was two years old. During the next few years the home life was deplorable. The family suffered much through poverty, and the mother was so neglectful of her children that the neighbors brought about her arrest. At an early age this girl had witnessed many immoral scenes, and she said that when she was only 8 years old she remembered seeing her mother in bed with a man. It was also reported that she had locked one of the daughters in a room with a man, receiving payment from him for this opportunity.

When this young girl went to live with her uncle and two older cousins in her tenth year, she found an excellent home. The family attended church regularly, and she took an active part in the services. It was noted that after she started an intimacy with the father of her child she failed to speak at the prayer meeting. At school she was considered one of the most promising girls in her class and much above the average in her school work. She reached the sophomore year and left because of her pregnancy. She was associated with a group of good friends and was much enjoyed by her cousins. They had little time to give her, as one attended college and the other held a responsible position in a business house. After school hours she had the afternoon to herself. She was not allowed to go out evenings except when chaperoned by older people. In appearance she was an attractive type, with fresh coloring and a childish, innocent expression. Her uncle stated that she had always been a good girl, was quiet and obedient, and had never showed any tendency to run after the boys. Her child was born at a private maternity home and was healthy and robust and greatly beloved by the mother, who declared that she would never give her up. Later the child was placed out with the mother and both did extremely well.