who otherwise might be identified and in suitable cases brought back,
will continue to slip through our fingers.

With non-support in an incipient stage,[44] it is sometimes possible to
deal so suddenly and effectively that the man is shocked into a better
realization of his responsibilities.

A young Irish rigger, with a capable wife and two pretty babies,
lost his job after a quarrel with his boss rigger. He was a genial,
popular chap, always "the life of the party" in his circle; and his
companions encouraged him to feel that he was a much injured man.
They also helped him to fill his enforced leisure with too much
beer. When the family received a dispossess notice the wife's
patience was at an end, and acting on the advice of a society
engaged in family case work, she put the furniture in storage and
went to a shelter where she could leave her children in the daytime,
while she was at work, and have them with her at night. The man was
told to shift for himself until he could get together sufficient
money to re-establish the home. The arrangement continued for nearly
two months, during which the man lived in lodging houses, had an
attack of stomach trouble, and was altogether thoroughly miserable.
Every night he waited for a word with his wife on a corner that she
had to pass in coming from work. Finally, when it seemed to the
social worker and to the wife that his lesson had gone far enough,
the home was re-established, with only a small amount of help from
the society. During the five years since that time, no recurrence of
the trouble has come to the attention of the agency interested.

This experiment was realized to be a ticklish one, as a man less
sincerely attached to his home might have been turned into a vagabond by