FIVE CASES OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE. By Rebecca E.
Leaming, B.S.,'
University of Pennsylvania. Josephine. She was tall and very dark, with that wild sort of beauty so frequently seen in the daughters of sunny Italy who help to make A fire, unusual in its intensity, lit her brown eyes? our city's slums. unusual, even for one of her race. Her face was a narrow oval, her features classically perfect, her skin a fine transparent brown through which burned an enchanting glow; her hair, coal black and shining with a luster that 110 hair oil could impart, was drawn back from a low, smooth forehead. Her slender figure had a willowy grace destined to break the heart of any woman not so blessed. Her speech was marked by the characteristic touch of the musical Italian, but in its quality lay a vindictive tone which contrasted violently with her whole appearance. She wanted a job.
She was fifteen and in the fourth grade class She could not get out of school until she was sixteen because she was "under grade." The teacher had talked of sending her to the Trade School, but she wanted to work. Her family needed the money. A discussion brought out the fact that at the McCall School.
the
family
have
did not need the money "very much" but that she must clothes for Easter and her father would not give her
some new
the money and as she could not steal it she guessed she would have get work. She wanted work right away. She would not work in a cigar factory because she knew a girl who got the "con" working in one of those places, but she would go anywhere else that she could get a job. to
A suspicion crept into the Counselor's mind that it might be well to try Josephine on the Witmer cylinders and a few other tests. When the subject was approached, however, an explosion followed. She would not play games for anybody. She was tired of talking to
people, always women and more women, always asking her questions questions and questions and making her do things. She was tired of going around from one place to the other, always talking to people and talking to people. She would not answer any questions that anyone might ask her. Never, never again. At this point her emotions overcame her and she arose and began pacing the floor like a caged animal, throwing her head from side to side and almost and
* These studies in Vocational Guidance were prepared by Miss Learning while acting as Junior Counselor in the Junior Employment Service, White Williams Foundation, Philadelphia.
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THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
246
shrieking an incessant stream of vehement Italian. After a few minutes she came over arid glaring close into the face of the Counselor said, "I am going right down to the river and throw myself in and drown myself. I am tired of all this questioning and talking and talking." This assertion was repeated several times until she saw that the Counselor had no intention of throwing herself at Josephine's feet and begging her not to do anything rash. Her passions finally seemed to burn themselves out and she came over and sat down again apparently ready to talk business. How much of the scene was caused by an unstable, nervous equilibrium and possibly an unsettled mind and how much was the result of a temperamental, passionate, excitable nature, a birthright from her people? This question hovered in the mind of the Counselor for many days. Josephine now meant business and apparently the river was forgotten along with her resentment at always talking to women and A consultation with the attendance superteacher, the principal of the school and with the head of the Girls' Trade School and a plan was evolved. A week later found Josephine at an establishment where they made and
women.
visor in her
district,
women
with her
children's clothes and where, when she had learned some machine operating, she would be allowed to supplement her lessons at the school by practical work in the shop.
Things seemed to be going very well. A report came from the Trade School that Josephine was learning operating better than any girl they had ever had there. Word came from the shop that she sewing on buttons that they had ever empiece work and where most of the girls made ployed. from $7 to $10 a week on half time, Josephine was carrying away $15, $16 or $17 every week for her half-days of work. The first blow fell when the Trade School telephoned to let us know that Josephine had been expelled. Reason? She had worked herself into a rage at a correction given by one of the teachers and had "smashed" two of their best machines in her fury. No, she A story had been around the would not be given another trial. school for several weeks that she was stealing small things from the other girls and that she was rifling the pockets of their coats in the cloak-room. Nothing had been proven but suspicion was pretty well-grounded and this item, along with her last performance, made it necessary to bar her entirely and forever from the school. An interview with Josephine produced nothing. She remained sullenly silent at the mere mention of the Trade School and no explanation or clue could be obtained. was
the
quickest girl The work
at
was
FIVE CASES OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE.
247
Arrangements were made for Josephine to accept another position at machine operating on full time. The story was repeated? for a time she did very well and then one day her employer came into my office to tell me that Josephine was in the House of Detention. The story ran thus: For some time supplies had been disappearing from the store room and they had been unable to trace them. Then the pockets of the girls' wraps in the cloak room had been cleaned out. Every little article had been removed?powder boxes, handkerchiefs, pocketbooks, everything. Several girls had fallen under suspicion but they had been carefully watched and the stealing had Then suspicion had fallen on Josephine and another girl, gone on. A trap was laid for them and they were younger and smaller. caught red handed. Confronted with the charge, Josephine brazenly denied any implication in the stealing. A prolonged interview got 011 the nerves of the younger girl and she broke down and begged Josephine to admit that they had stolen and to return the things that they had taken. Josephine, with her eyes flashing, flew at the informer and tore her hair, scratched and pinched her, finally succeeding in throwing her on the floor before any of the amazed bystanders could interfere. So Josephine was taken to the House of Detention, where it was learned that her name had been written on their records once
couple of years back she had spent some time there on complaint of her parents that she was beyond their control. The chief grievance was that she would arise in the wee small hours of the morning, drape herself in a kimona and a red shawl, slip quietly out of the house and parade up and down the middle of the street, chanting some sort of wild song which no one recognized. No persuasion nor threats could keep her from her nocturanl excursions. This, coupled with the fact that no discipline on the part of her family could reach her, had led them to try a session at the House of Detention as a possible remedy. Her nightly wanderings ceased after her stay in the House of Detention, but her conduct had not improved. Her family reported that she was becoming very immoral; that she went around with some of the worst men in the neighborhood and that she was teaching immoral ideas to her smaller brothers and sisters, and any younger children that she could get to listen to her. The people in the neighborhood all said that she was crazy before.
A
the
to their children. The last news of Josephine which the bureau received was that she was at the House of Detention awaiting a thorough medical, psychological and psychiatric examination and the completion of all and
a menace
the necessary formalities incumbent upon
tution.
putting her
in
an
insti-
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
248
Frank. What
attractive little chap he was!
Fair-haired, blue-eyed, with an a cherub! like skinned, expression pink-and-white Surely an employer would welcome an addition like that to his office if for no other reason than that he would add materially to the artistic effect. Conversation with him brought out the fact that the cherubic expression really hid some very clever thoughts?he had his own ideas about things and he had a convincing way of making his listener believe in him. He had what has been designated by some clever souls as "personality plus." He was fifteen, and he wanted a job as an office boy, so he was sent to one of the best firms in the citj7-, at that time in need of a "nice, clean-cut American boy." It was an engineering concern where they took a great interest in their boys; urged them to go to night school; gave them special training in the office and shop, and altogether tried to develop any boy who had anything in him at all, encouraging him to make something of himself in every possible What rosy pictures the Counselors drew of the possibilities way. Frank! before lying of two weeks the report of Frank was that he was end the At inclined to be lazy and that when sent out on errands he usually remained out the rest of the day. They hoped, however, to break an
him of these bad habits because he was such an attractive little fellow. At the end of a month, Frank came back to the office. He had been fired. Why? Oh, because they wanted him to go to night school when he was sixteen and he had said that he did not want That seemed rather thin, and a telephone call revealed some startling items of news. Frank had been fired not because of his to go.
unwillingness to go to night school the following month, when he sixteen, but because he had demoralized the whole officeboy force. He had worked out a regular system by which he managed to get every boy to shoot craps with him at least once during the day down in the sub-basement and some times he managed to would be
get three or four into the game at once. He had been discovered several times and a severe, though evidently ineffectual, reprimand had been administered by the head of his department. It had been further discovered that when he did not return from errands he was out in search of a crap game, which he usually managed to locate. The Counselor talked earnestly and at length with Frank about
future, purposely omitting any reference to the evils of crap, as such, because he would then have discounted the whole interview as the ravings of an old maid "who didn't know nothin' nohow." For the first time the Counselor thought that there was a shiftiness in his
FIVE CASES OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE.
249
Was it really Frank's eyes which she had not observed before. or had the recent impression of him made it seem to be there? Was it true that he did not really look one squarely in the eyes? It seemed that this was certainly the case this morning. But was it that he never did, or was it that he was embarrassed by the knowledge which the Counselor possessed of his misdemeanors? The interview
there,
indicate, however, that Frank deserved another trial and accordingly he was sent out to another good firm where he had excellent chances if he would show a disposition to avail himself of them. The report a couple of weeks later was that Frank's appearance Some of the men was indeed deceiving; he was just no good at all. in the office who were particularly interested in boys had taken a fancy to Frank, due in a large part to his attractive personality, and had tried to do something with him, but had failed to get any response from the boy whatever. He spent most of his time shooting crap with the boys in the office in out-of-the-way places, and when he could not find anybody in the office to shoot with him he would go He was lazy and it seemed impossible to out in search of a game. make any appeal which would strike home. The firm would have to discharge him at the end of the week, not only because he was no good, but also because he was having a very bad effect on the other boys. Eleven times the bureau placed Frank (he never had any trouble in securing a position for which he was sent out) and eleven times he came back with virtually the same report. He was just no good. There was nothing in him to appeal to. Nothing seemed to have the power of arousing him. Crap seemed to be his only idea in life. He was not vicious?he never, to the knowledge of anyone in the bureau, was accused of stealing or lying or of anything really malicious, but he was just no good. Eventually, the Counselor had to tell Frank that it would really be impossible to send him out again. His whole record was produced and laid before him. Every job that he had had and every reason why he had been discharged was carefully gone over. He did not seem to be greatly moved by the display of evidence against him. He accepted the ultimatum of the Counselor smilingly and without a word of complaint and with his usual cherubic expression and a polite "thank you" left the office, and thus passed out of the knowledge of the bureau. seemed to
Mary
Pearl.
She said that her name was Mary Pearl. Pressed for a family name, she clung tenaciously to "Pearl." Truly, here was a time
250
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
when
one might fairly question, "What is in a name?" Her squat figure, muddy yellow skin and coarse, black hair! Her deep guttural speech! Her hands with their short, stumpy fingers! Her small mis-mated, closely-set, Oriental eyes, her flat nose and full looselipped mouth! All of these made a prophecy for her future which
would have shamed the best medium or fortune-teller in the business. She was fourteen and she had come to the Employment Bureau for
job. She had been excused from school because "she didn't get along and then, too, she was too large for the other girls in the third grade elass." She did not want a job in a factory or mill, She wanted a nice, easy job in an because that wasn't refined. office where there was mahogany furniture and a nice, soft green rug a
the floor. The work must be easy, for she was very much afraid of her health and she could not do anything that was "hard on her." She cherished an overwhelming concern for her health as one of the
on
possessions in her life. When urged to expand in greater the subject of her illness she remarked that she was "just delicate" and had to be "careful" of herself. In spite of this fact, a subsequent physical examination revealed an unusually strong condearest
detail
on
stitution.
"Mary Pearl" showed only too plainly that fate had not cast her for a role played on velvet carpet in a mahogany furnished office. After arguing for the best part of the morning with the Counselor she was finally inveigled into consenting to try some "nice, easy work" which consisted of pasting labels on pill bottles in a wholesale drug house. This coup was accomplished by pointing out to her the great difficulty of office work and the tremendous strain which it imposed upon the health. Apparently much impressed by this last fact, she consented to report for work the next day. One
good
look at
At the end of two' weeks the establishment where she was that she was still with them?that she was very slow in her work and inclined to be very messy and dirty, but that she would be kept because they were extremely hard-up for workers
employed reported
at that
particular
time.
Not many days after this Mary came back to the bureau for another job. She said that she was tired of her work, that she was tired of the place, and that it was "hard on her health." She said that she had learned the labelling business very well. She felt that she had passed from the class of unskilled labor to that of She had no objection to trying another job of the skilled labor.
now
same
try
sort?this time
a new
place.
labelling candy
boxes.
So off she set
again
to
FIVE CASES OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE.
251
Ten times in the following three months Mary wearied of her and returned to the bureau for another, and ten times she was job sent out! Three times a discriminating employment manager considered her too great a risk even in a time of labor shortage, but seven And seven times she came back to the times she landed a job. Each time she reported that she "too hard on her health."
bureau. that it
was
tired of the
place
and
was
for a period of several months, Mary dropped out of sight of the more sanguine-minded individuals in the bureau gave her credit for getting a job and, greater honor still, for holding it. But one fine day Mary turned up again with the customary request for "some nice, easy work which would not be hard on her."
Then,
and
some
"grand worker" at that out the fact that she had been at home through the period of her disappearance. She had decided to stay home and keep house for the family while her health recuper-
Labelling, trade.
if
because she
possible,
Careful
was a
questioning brought
ated from the effects of her period of working. This bit of information gave the Counselor an inspiration. An appeal was made to a social organization and some careful and patient work brought interesting facts to view. The father and mother were "queer" and of the children even got along in school. Their real name was "Porib" but Mary thought that was ugly and had chosen for her industrial name "Pearl," a name which she thought was "just beautiful." The family were in a fair way financially and Mary's none
small
earnings
the other.
did not make
great
a
amount of difference one way
persuaded to stay at home and help an older sister care for the home and family. A poor solution? Possibly, but it kept her out of industry; it kept her from adding to the labor turnover of an indefinite number of establishments and kept her from causing unnecessary trouble in a field where she could never, to the end of time, hold her own. or
Finally, Mary
was
Jake. Poor Jake was certainly disgusting! No other term can express his appearance. His hands were grimy, stubby-fingered and puffy. His face was greasy-looking, dirty and covered with ugly red pimples. His clothes were filthy, not with mud-stains or dusty dirt, but with the filth which accumulated over a long period of utter neglect. One could smell Jake when he was not even visible. In the waiting-room outside he created such an aroma that the stenographer was driven to seek refuge from it in the inner office. Jake was nearly sixteen, but his nearness did not alter the fact
that he had to have
a
working certificate.
He said that he had
252
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
worked at several
To confirm this statement, his cerdiscovered that he had, indeed, The record showed that he had had nine certificates, many jobs. but that he had never stayed in any one job more than a week. Most of the positions consisted of doing odd jobs around shoe factories,
tificate card
was
jobs already. produced and it
was
and Jake felt a great desire to try work in a shoe factory once more. As an employment prospect, Jake was a great risk, but he was sent to
one
of the shoe factories listed
as
needing boys.
Two
days later,
the employment department called up to ask if we knew what had The story ran that he had called and asked for become of Jake. employment. They were in need of a boy to push a truck around in the factory and they hired him. He had said that he lived in the extreme southern part of the city (true enough) and that he would have to borxow ten cents to get home but that he would report for The ten cents had been given him and he work in the morning. had departed and never returned. Several letters to Jake, asking him to report at the bureau were but he turned up one day a couple of months later and asked for another job in a shoe factory. When questioned as to why he had not returned to the former place he said that his father knew
unavailing,
that place and when he had told his father that he had a The his father had said that he could not work there.
job there, place was
not "union."
With great another
factory
misgivings the Counselor sent Jake out again to they needed a boy to pile up shoe boxes. Jake out the necessary "promise of employment," re-
where
had them make
turned to the bureau and took out his papers, then went back to the establishment and told them that he lived way down town and that he could not get home if they did not give him ten cents. He said that he would report for work early in the morning. That was the last they saw of Jake. In a few days, Jake returned to the bureau He wvis informed that as he to ask us to find another job for him. had promised to work for both the firms to which he had been sent and then had not kept his promise the bureau oould not send him out
again.
of the next
By not living boy from the
up to his
promises, he injured the chances might seek employment with
bureau who
either of these firms. Several months
later, while going through one of the large shoe in the factories city with its employment manager, the Counselor heard of Jake once more. The manager was telling of some of the tricks which prospective employees put over on him and ..among other things, he mentioned a fellow who had been in recently and who had asked for
a
job, accepted what
was
offered,
said that he
FIVE CASES OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE.
253
lived in the southern part of the city and did not have carfare to get home. He had taken ten cents which was offered him and that as they knew. He had never come back. earmarks certain and asked if the manager The Counselor recognized The of the man name the remembered boy. replied that he thought was
the last of him
his first Jacob
name was
as
far
Jake,
So Jake
Kriegel.
yes, now he
still
was
remembered, looking for a job in
where he could borrow ten cents and
his a
name was
shoe
factory
never return.
Katherine. She
pinched pinched
pathetically unattractive.
Her face was narrow and color. Her whole body looked sallow and of an unwholesome and unhealthy. Her strabismic eyes, not effectually hidden was
behind steel-rimmed spectacles, had that quality (or location) which disturbs the beholder's semicircular canals about to the point of nausea. She had an evil look?not that of a criminal plotting some bold and shocking crime, but rather that of the fox, sly, crafty, spiteShe was the sort whom society brands and then dooms to a cruel isolation. She was just out of school, having sat through 6B grade, and Where in the busy, efficient world of now she was seeking a job.
ful, suspicious and revengeful. as queer
The only work which she could was there a place for her? do would have to be of the most elementary and mechanical kind. How could one tell the poor thing that she would be very lucky indeed to find work of any sort. She would have a bad time
industry possibly
getting by the watchful eye of her prospective employer, Or his employment manager, but once employed her troubles had only begun. How was she to hold her own against girls of normal mentality and much better physical equipment? Irony of fate! Seldom had the office had a more particular and discriminating applicant. She did not think that she would like this sort of work and she was afraid that sort of work was not lady-like and another sort She
anything!
she would like
By
was
really
to be
dint of
a
mill-work and she wouldn't go in a mill for a job in an office. She thought that
wanted
private secretary. great deal of skilful and strategic maneuvering, the a
Counselor injected the idea that private secretaries
were
highly
fact, all office workers had to be trained? people, that, From this a one did not just walk in and start performing duties. which the Counselor labelled to made transition was "manufacplaces turing establishments." A little discussion on the importance of in
trained
industry,
syllable, and the prospective "private willing to try a position in a "manufacturing estab-
in words of
secretary" lishment."
was
one
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
254 She made.
was sent to an
establishment where small
Her
candy
boxes
were
particular job gather up the lids as they were shot down a chute from the machines which made them, and fit lids on the tops of the boxes which were arranged in rows by other girls on a table at her hand. Surely a simple enough process for anyone was to
to
learn, but Katherine brief, she was fired at the
did not flourish at her new trade. To be end of three weeks. Her employer reported
that she did not seem able to keep her hands clean, and consequently she was always soiling and spoiling the boxes on which she worked.
Furthermore, crush
one
Back she last
she
of the
place!
careless in putting on the lids and would often boxes in a clumsy attempt to get a lid on. to the office for another job. Did she like her
was
tiny
came
was so clean and neat and the Did she get to know any of them very well? them and they left her pretty much alone,
Yes, indeed, everything
girls were all very nice. No, she didn't mix with
but she liked to watch them and to hear them talk. She would like to go to another place just like the first. She would try to keep her hands clean and she would try to be more careful and not crush the
boxes, but she really didn't know how that happened. Her hand just seemed to slip and she really couldn't tell when it was going to happen. She did try to be careful. No opening at the same kind of work was available and the Counselor furthermore questioned her ability to really do better at this work. Consequently a new place was secured. This time Katherine's job was to fold tissue paper into packages. At this work she did well enough to keep herself from getting fired for quite a while and the office was resting easy about her when one day she favored us with another visit. She was looking for work again. How had it happened? Well, she had met a friend of hers on the street one day and the friend had told her that she could make twenty dollars a week at a large wholesale drug house putting stoppers in bottles and she had left her other job and had then applied for a position at the drug house. At first they had said that they had no openings, but told her to report back there the next week. She had done this and was employed. She never asked about wages, for she supposed that, her friend knew. When she got her pay envelope the first week she got $7.50 and she never went back. Now she wanted job and she wanted more money than $7.50, she did. Wasn't she a trained worker now? She had been working on and off for another
nearly
four months.
Another
position
was
secured for her which
was
left because she
didn't "like the way the forelady looked at her." Still another was tried and while she was working at this job she met her forelady in
FIVE CASES OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE.
255
establishment number two who had asked Katherine to come back. So Katherine had left her position without ceremony and returned to number two. Only to find, however, that "that forelady really wasn't as nice as she seemed because she 'got a pick' on Katherine" and Katherine said she just couldn't stay there any longer. And so it went, one position after another, and Katherine never settled in any for longer than a few weeks. One day she came in and said that her mother's sister lived on a farm up state and she wanted Katherine to come and make her home with her and help her look after the house. As the children at home were already numerous (and growing more so all the time), the
family had decided that it would be a good thing for her to go. She was leaving the following Monday and was very much pleased about it. The last news which the bureau had of Katherine she was happily headed for "down
on the farm." Poor Katherine! She was a most friendly and affectionate soul. Every time that she came to the office the Counselor had hard work avoiding her embraces and kisses at the beginning and at the close of each interview. And voluble! She could talk for hours, the most
rambling bunch of nothingness that ever a Her funny fox-like face was not a true indication to the nature within except the suspicion which it showed. She was very suspicious of anything proposed and she was fond of excusing her own inability by saying that it was because someone had "a pick" on her. But she was not revengeful, crafty or sly. Perhaps these attributes require an intelligence more complicated and of a higher level than Katherine had at her command. How she came out on the farm we never heard, but it was indeed a good thing for her when she gave up trying to hold her own in the
inane,
incoherent and
human mortal uttered.
busy, survival-of-the-fittest
battle of the modern industrial world.
Leaming, B.S.,'
University of Pennsylvania. Josephine. She was tall and very dark, with that wild sort of beauty so frequently seen in the daughters of sunny Italy who help to make A fire, unusual in its intensity, lit her brown eyes? our city's slums. unusual, even for one of her race. Her face was a narrow oval, her features classically perfect, her skin a fine transparent brown through which burned an enchanting glow; her hair, coal black and shining with a luster that 110 hair oil could impart, was drawn back from a low, smooth forehead. Her slender figure had a willowy grace destined to break the heart of any woman not so blessed. Her speech was marked by the characteristic touch of the musical Italian, but in its quality lay a vindictive tone which contrasted violently with her whole appearance. She wanted a job.
She was fifteen and in the fourth grade class She could not get out of school until she was sixteen because she was "under grade." The teacher had talked of sending her to the Trade School, but she wanted to work. Her family needed the money. A discussion brought out the fact that at the McCall School.
the
family
have
did not need the money "very much" but that she must clothes for Easter and her father would not give her
some new
the money and as she could not steal it she guessed she would have get work. She wanted work right away. She would not work in a cigar factory because she knew a girl who got the "con" working in one of those places, but she would go anywhere else that she could get a job. to
A suspicion crept into the Counselor's mind that it might be well to try Josephine on the Witmer cylinders and a few other tests. When the subject was approached, however, an explosion followed. She would not play games for anybody. She was tired of talking to
people, always women and more women, always asking her questions questions and questions and making her do things. She was tired of going around from one place to the other, always talking to people and talking to people. She would not answer any questions that anyone might ask her. Never, never again. At this point her emotions overcame her and she arose and began pacing the floor like a caged animal, throwing her head from side to side and almost and
* These studies in Vocational Guidance were prepared by Miss Learning while acting as Junior Counselor in the Junior Employment Service, White Williams Foundation, Philadelphia.
(245)
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
246
shrieking an incessant stream of vehement Italian. After a few minutes she came over arid glaring close into the face of the Counselor said, "I am going right down to the river and throw myself in and drown myself. I am tired of all this questioning and talking and talking." This assertion was repeated several times until she saw that the Counselor had no intention of throwing herself at Josephine's feet and begging her not to do anything rash. Her passions finally seemed to burn themselves out and she came over and sat down again apparently ready to talk business. How much of the scene was caused by an unstable, nervous equilibrium and possibly an unsettled mind and how much was the result of a temperamental, passionate, excitable nature, a birthright from her people? This question hovered in the mind of the Counselor for many days. Josephine now meant business and apparently the river was forgotten along with her resentment at always talking to women and A consultation with the attendance superteacher, the principal of the school and with the head of the Girls' Trade School and a plan was evolved. A week later found Josephine at an establishment where they made and
women.
visor in her
district,
women
with her
children's clothes and where, when she had learned some machine operating, she would be allowed to supplement her lessons at the school by practical work in the shop.
Things seemed to be going very well. A report came from the Trade School that Josephine was learning operating better than any girl they had ever had there. Word came from the shop that she sewing on buttons that they had ever empiece work and where most of the girls made ployed. from $7 to $10 a week on half time, Josephine was carrying away $15, $16 or $17 every week for her half-days of work. The first blow fell when the Trade School telephoned to let us know that Josephine had been expelled. Reason? She had worked herself into a rage at a correction given by one of the teachers and had "smashed" two of their best machines in her fury. No, she A story had been around the would not be given another trial. school for several weeks that she was stealing small things from the other girls and that she was rifling the pockets of their coats in the cloak-room. Nothing had been proven but suspicion was pretty well-grounded and this item, along with her last performance, made it necessary to bar her entirely and forever from the school. An interview with Josephine produced nothing. She remained sullenly silent at the mere mention of the Trade School and no explanation or clue could be obtained. was
the
quickest girl The work
at
was
FIVE CASES OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE.
247
Arrangements were made for Josephine to accept another position at machine operating on full time. The story was repeated? for a time she did very well and then one day her employer came into my office to tell me that Josephine was in the House of Detention. The story ran thus: For some time supplies had been disappearing from the store room and they had been unable to trace them. Then the pockets of the girls' wraps in the cloak room had been cleaned out. Every little article had been removed?powder boxes, handkerchiefs, pocketbooks, everything. Several girls had fallen under suspicion but they had been carefully watched and the stealing had Then suspicion had fallen on Josephine and another girl, gone on. A trap was laid for them and they were younger and smaller. caught red handed. Confronted with the charge, Josephine brazenly denied any implication in the stealing. A prolonged interview got 011 the nerves of the younger girl and she broke down and begged Josephine to admit that they had stolen and to return the things that they had taken. Josephine, with her eyes flashing, flew at the informer and tore her hair, scratched and pinched her, finally succeeding in throwing her on the floor before any of the amazed bystanders could interfere. So Josephine was taken to the House of Detention, where it was learned that her name had been written on their records once
couple of years back she had spent some time there on complaint of her parents that she was beyond their control. The chief grievance was that she would arise in the wee small hours of the morning, drape herself in a kimona and a red shawl, slip quietly out of the house and parade up and down the middle of the street, chanting some sort of wild song which no one recognized. No persuasion nor threats could keep her from her nocturanl excursions. This, coupled with the fact that no discipline on the part of her family could reach her, had led them to try a session at the House of Detention as a possible remedy. Her nightly wanderings ceased after her stay in the House of Detention, but her conduct had not improved. Her family reported that she was becoming very immoral; that she went around with some of the worst men in the neighborhood and that she was teaching immoral ideas to her smaller brothers and sisters, and any younger children that she could get to listen to her. The people in the neighborhood all said that she was crazy before.
A
the
to their children. The last news of Josephine which the bureau received was that she was at the House of Detention awaiting a thorough medical, psychological and psychiatric examination and the completion of all and
a menace
the necessary formalities incumbent upon
tution.
putting her
in
an
insti-
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
248
Frank. What
attractive little chap he was!
Fair-haired, blue-eyed, with an a cherub! like skinned, expression pink-and-white Surely an employer would welcome an addition like that to his office if for no other reason than that he would add materially to the artistic effect. Conversation with him brought out the fact that the cherubic expression really hid some very clever thoughts?he had his own ideas about things and he had a convincing way of making his listener believe in him. He had what has been designated by some clever souls as "personality plus." He was fifteen, and he wanted a job as an office boy, so he was sent to one of the best firms in the citj7-, at that time in need of a "nice, clean-cut American boy." It was an engineering concern where they took a great interest in their boys; urged them to go to night school; gave them special training in the office and shop, and altogether tried to develop any boy who had anything in him at all, encouraging him to make something of himself in every possible What rosy pictures the Counselors drew of the possibilities way. Frank! before lying of two weeks the report of Frank was that he was end the At inclined to be lazy and that when sent out on errands he usually remained out the rest of the day. They hoped, however, to break an
him of these bad habits because he was such an attractive little fellow. At the end of a month, Frank came back to the office. He had been fired. Why? Oh, because they wanted him to go to night school when he was sixteen and he had said that he did not want That seemed rather thin, and a telephone call revealed some startling items of news. Frank had been fired not because of his to go.
unwillingness to go to night school the following month, when he sixteen, but because he had demoralized the whole officeboy force. He had worked out a regular system by which he managed to get every boy to shoot craps with him at least once during the day down in the sub-basement and some times he managed to would be
get three or four into the game at once. He had been discovered several times and a severe, though evidently ineffectual, reprimand had been administered by the head of his department. It had been further discovered that when he did not return from errands he was out in search of a crap game, which he usually managed to locate. The Counselor talked earnestly and at length with Frank about
future, purposely omitting any reference to the evils of crap, as such, because he would then have discounted the whole interview as the ravings of an old maid "who didn't know nothin' nohow." For the first time the Counselor thought that there was a shiftiness in his
FIVE CASES OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE.
249
Was it really Frank's eyes which she had not observed before. or had the recent impression of him made it seem to be there? Was it true that he did not really look one squarely in the eyes? It seemed that this was certainly the case this morning. But was it that he never did, or was it that he was embarrassed by the knowledge which the Counselor possessed of his misdemeanors? The interview
there,
indicate, however, that Frank deserved another trial and accordingly he was sent out to another good firm where he had excellent chances if he would show a disposition to avail himself of them. The report a couple of weeks later was that Frank's appearance Some of the men was indeed deceiving; he was just no good at all. in the office who were particularly interested in boys had taken a fancy to Frank, due in a large part to his attractive personality, and had tried to do something with him, but had failed to get any response from the boy whatever. He spent most of his time shooting crap with the boys in the office in out-of-the-way places, and when he could not find anybody in the office to shoot with him he would go He was lazy and it seemed impossible to out in search of a game. make any appeal which would strike home. The firm would have to discharge him at the end of the week, not only because he was no good, but also because he was having a very bad effect on the other boys. Eleven times the bureau placed Frank (he never had any trouble in securing a position for which he was sent out) and eleven times he came back with virtually the same report. He was just no good. There was nothing in him to appeal to. Nothing seemed to have the power of arousing him. Crap seemed to be his only idea in life. He was not vicious?he never, to the knowledge of anyone in the bureau, was accused of stealing or lying or of anything really malicious, but he was just no good. Eventually, the Counselor had to tell Frank that it would really be impossible to send him out again. His whole record was produced and laid before him. Every job that he had had and every reason why he had been discharged was carefully gone over. He did not seem to be greatly moved by the display of evidence against him. He accepted the ultimatum of the Counselor smilingly and without a word of complaint and with his usual cherubic expression and a polite "thank you" left the office, and thus passed out of the knowledge of the bureau. seemed to
Mary
Pearl.
She said that her name was Mary Pearl. Pressed for a family name, she clung tenaciously to "Pearl." Truly, here was a time
250
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
when
one might fairly question, "What is in a name?" Her squat figure, muddy yellow skin and coarse, black hair! Her deep guttural speech! Her hands with their short, stumpy fingers! Her small mis-mated, closely-set, Oriental eyes, her flat nose and full looselipped mouth! All of these made a prophecy for her future which
would have shamed the best medium or fortune-teller in the business. She was fourteen and she had come to the Employment Bureau for
job. She had been excused from school because "she didn't get along and then, too, she was too large for the other girls in the third grade elass." She did not want a job in a factory or mill, She wanted a nice, easy job in an because that wasn't refined. office where there was mahogany furniture and a nice, soft green rug a
the floor. The work must be easy, for she was very much afraid of her health and she could not do anything that was "hard on her." She cherished an overwhelming concern for her health as one of the
on
possessions in her life. When urged to expand in greater the subject of her illness she remarked that she was "just delicate" and had to be "careful" of herself. In spite of this fact, a subsequent physical examination revealed an unusually strong condearest
detail
on
stitution.
"Mary Pearl" showed only too plainly that fate had not cast her for a role played on velvet carpet in a mahogany furnished office. After arguing for the best part of the morning with the Counselor she was finally inveigled into consenting to try some "nice, easy work" which consisted of pasting labels on pill bottles in a wholesale drug house. This coup was accomplished by pointing out to her the great difficulty of office work and the tremendous strain which it imposed upon the health. Apparently much impressed by this last fact, she consented to report for work the next day. One
good
look at
At the end of two' weeks the establishment where she was that she was still with them?that she was very slow in her work and inclined to be very messy and dirty, but that she would be kept because they were extremely hard-up for workers
employed reported
at that
particular
time.
Not many days after this Mary came back to the bureau for another job. She said that she was tired of her work, that she was tired of the place, and that it was "hard on her health." She said that she had learned the labelling business very well. She felt that she had passed from the class of unskilled labor to that of She had no objection to trying another job of the skilled labor.
now
same
try
sort?this time
a new
place.
labelling candy
boxes.
So off she set
again
to
FIVE CASES OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE.
251
Ten times in the following three months Mary wearied of her and returned to the bureau for another, and ten times she was job sent out! Three times a discriminating employment manager considered her too great a risk even in a time of labor shortage, but seven And seven times she came back to the times she landed a job. Each time she reported that she "too hard on her health."
bureau. that it
was
tired of the
place
and
was
for a period of several months, Mary dropped out of sight of the more sanguine-minded individuals in the bureau gave her credit for getting a job and, greater honor still, for holding it. But one fine day Mary turned up again with the customary request for "some nice, easy work which would not be hard on her."
Then,
and
some
"grand worker" at that out the fact that she had been at home through the period of her disappearance. She had decided to stay home and keep house for the family while her health recuper-
Labelling, trade.
if
because she
possible,
Careful
was a
questioning brought
ated from the effects of her period of working. This bit of information gave the Counselor an inspiration. An appeal was made to a social organization and some careful and patient work brought interesting facts to view. The father and mother were "queer" and of the children even got along in school. Their real name was "Porib" but Mary thought that was ugly and had chosen for her industrial name "Pearl," a name which she thought was "just beautiful." The family were in a fair way financially and Mary's none
small
earnings
the other.
did not make
great
a
amount of difference one way
persuaded to stay at home and help an older sister care for the home and family. A poor solution? Possibly, but it kept her out of industry; it kept her from adding to the labor turnover of an indefinite number of establishments and kept her from causing unnecessary trouble in a field where she could never, to the end of time, hold her own. or
Finally, Mary
was
Jake. Poor Jake was certainly disgusting! No other term can express his appearance. His hands were grimy, stubby-fingered and puffy. His face was greasy-looking, dirty and covered with ugly red pimples. His clothes were filthy, not with mud-stains or dusty dirt, but with the filth which accumulated over a long period of utter neglect. One could smell Jake when he was not even visible. In the waiting-room outside he created such an aroma that the stenographer was driven to seek refuge from it in the inner office. Jake was nearly sixteen, but his nearness did not alter the fact
that he had to have
a
working certificate.
He said that he had
252
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
worked at several
To confirm this statement, his cerdiscovered that he had, indeed, The record showed that he had had nine certificates, many jobs. but that he had never stayed in any one job more than a week. Most of the positions consisted of doing odd jobs around shoe factories,
tificate card
was
jobs already. produced and it
was
and Jake felt a great desire to try work in a shoe factory once more. As an employment prospect, Jake was a great risk, but he was sent to
one
of the shoe factories listed
as
needing boys.
Two
days later,
the employment department called up to ask if we knew what had The story ran that he had called and asked for become of Jake. employment. They were in need of a boy to push a truck around in the factory and they hired him. He had said that he lived in the extreme southern part of the city (true enough) and that he would have to borxow ten cents to get home but that he would report for The ten cents had been given him and he work in the morning. had departed and never returned. Several letters to Jake, asking him to report at the bureau were but he turned up one day a couple of months later and asked for another job in a shoe factory. When questioned as to why he had not returned to the former place he said that his father knew
unavailing,
that place and when he had told his father that he had a The his father had said that he could not work there.
job there, place was
not "union."
With great another
factory
misgivings the Counselor sent Jake out again to they needed a boy to pile up shoe boxes. Jake out the necessary "promise of employment," re-
where
had them make
turned to the bureau and took out his papers, then went back to the establishment and told them that he lived way down town and that he could not get home if they did not give him ten cents. He said that he would report for work early in the morning. That was the last they saw of Jake. In a few days, Jake returned to the bureau He wvis informed that as he to ask us to find another job for him. had promised to work for both the firms to which he had been sent and then had not kept his promise the bureau oould not send him out
again.
of the next
By not living boy from the
up to his
promises, he injured the chances might seek employment with
bureau who
either of these firms. Several months
later, while going through one of the large shoe in the factories city with its employment manager, the Counselor heard of Jake once more. The manager was telling of some of the tricks which prospective employees put over on him and ..among other things, he mentioned a fellow who had been in recently and who had asked for
a
job, accepted what
was
offered,
said that he
FIVE CASES OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE.
253
lived in the southern part of the city and did not have carfare to get home. He had taken ten cents which was offered him and that as they knew. He had never come back. earmarks certain and asked if the manager The Counselor recognized The of the man name the remembered boy. replied that he thought was
the last of him
his first Jacob
name was
as
far
Jake,
So Jake
Kriegel.
yes, now he
still
was
remembered, looking for a job in
where he could borrow ten cents and
his a
name was
shoe
factory
never return.
Katherine. She
pinched pinched
pathetically unattractive.
Her face was narrow and color. Her whole body looked sallow and of an unwholesome and unhealthy. Her strabismic eyes, not effectually hidden was
behind steel-rimmed spectacles, had that quality (or location) which disturbs the beholder's semicircular canals about to the point of nausea. She had an evil look?not that of a criminal plotting some bold and shocking crime, but rather that of the fox, sly, crafty, spiteShe was the sort whom society brands and then dooms to a cruel isolation. She was just out of school, having sat through 6B grade, and Where in the busy, efficient world of now she was seeking a job.
ful, suspicious and revengeful. as queer
The only work which she could was there a place for her? do would have to be of the most elementary and mechanical kind. How could one tell the poor thing that she would be very lucky indeed to find work of any sort. She would have a bad time
industry possibly
getting by the watchful eye of her prospective employer, Or his employment manager, but once employed her troubles had only begun. How was she to hold her own against girls of normal mentality and much better physical equipment? Irony of fate! Seldom had the office had a more particular and discriminating applicant. She did not think that she would like this sort of work and she was afraid that sort of work was not lady-like and another sort She
anything!
she would like
By
was
really
to be
dint of
a
mill-work and she wouldn't go in a mill for a job in an office. She thought that
wanted
private secretary. great deal of skilful and strategic maneuvering, the a
Counselor injected the idea that private secretaries
were
highly
fact, all office workers had to be trained? people, that, From this a one did not just walk in and start performing duties. which the Counselor labelled to made transition was "manufacplaces turing establishments." A little discussion on the importance of in
trained
industry,
syllable, and the prospective "private willing to try a position in a "manufacturing estab-
in words of
secretary" lishment."
was
one
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
254 She made.
was sent to an
establishment where small
Her
candy
boxes
were
particular job gather up the lids as they were shot down a chute from the machines which made them, and fit lids on the tops of the boxes which were arranged in rows by other girls on a table at her hand. Surely a simple enough process for anyone was to
to
learn, but Katherine brief, she was fired at the
did not flourish at her new trade. To be end of three weeks. Her employer reported
that she did not seem able to keep her hands clean, and consequently she was always soiling and spoiling the boxes on which she worked.
Furthermore, crush
one
Back she last
she
of the
place!
careless in putting on the lids and would often boxes in a clumsy attempt to get a lid on. to the office for another job. Did she like her
was
tiny
came
was so clean and neat and the Did she get to know any of them very well? them and they left her pretty much alone,
Yes, indeed, everything
girls were all very nice. No, she didn't mix with
but she liked to watch them and to hear them talk. She would like to go to another place just like the first. She would try to keep her hands clean and she would try to be more careful and not crush the
boxes, but she really didn't know how that happened. Her hand just seemed to slip and she really couldn't tell when it was going to happen. She did try to be careful. No opening at the same kind of work was available and the Counselor furthermore questioned her ability to really do better at this work. Consequently a new place was secured. This time Katherine's job was to fold tissue paper into packages. At this work she did well enough to keep herself from getting fired for quite a while and the office was resting easy about her when one day she favored us with another visit. She was looking for work again. How had it happened? Well, she had met a friend of hers on the street one day and the friend had told her that she could make twenty dollars a week at a large wholesale drug house putting stoppers in bottles and she had left her other job and had then applied for a position at the drug house. At first they had said that they had no openings, but told her to report back there the next week. She had done this and was employed. She never asked about wages, for she supposed that, her friend knew. When she got her pay envelope the first week she got $7.50 and she never went back. Now she wanted job and she wanted more money than $7.50, she did. Wasn't she a trained worker now? She had been working on and off for another
nearly
four months.
Another
position
was
secured for her which
was
left because she
didn't "like the way the forelady looked at her." Still another was tried and while she was working at this job she met her forelady in
FIVE CASES OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE.
255
establishment number two who had asked Katherine to come back. So Katherine had left her position without ceremony and returned to number two. Only to find, however, that "that forelady really wasn't as nice as she seemed because she 'got a pick' on Katherine" and Katherine said she just couldn't stay there any longer. And so it went, one position after another, and Katherine never settled in any for longer than a few weeks. One day she came in and said that her mother's sister lived on a farm up state and she wanted Katherine to come and make her home with her and help her look after the house. As the children at home were already numerous (and growing more so all the time), the
family had decided that it would be a good thing for her to go. She was leaving the following Monday and was very much pleased about it. The last news which the bureau had of Katherine she was happily headed for "down
on the farm." Poor Katherine! She was a most friendly and affectionate soul. Every time that she came to the office the Counselor had hard work avoiding her embraces and kisses at the beginning and at the close of each interview. And voluble! She could talk for hours, the most
rambling bunch of nothingness that ever a Her funny fox-like face was not a true indication to the nature within except the suspicion which it showed. She was very suspicious of anything proposed and she was fond of excusing her own inability by saying that it was because someone had "a pick" on her. But she was not revengeful, crafty or sly. Perhaps these attributes require an intelligence more complicated and of a higher level than Katherine had at her command. How she came out on the farm we never heard, but it was indeed a good thing for her when she gave up trying to hold her own in the
inane,
incoherent and
human mortal uttered.
busy, survival-of-the-fittest
battle of the modern industrial world.
