TED. Oh!

CASE WORKER.  Someone giving the name of Theodore Brooks and this address applied for relief.

TED. Yes.

CASE WORKER.  Did you make that application?

TED. Yes.

CASE WORKER.  Why?

TED. [Squirming.] The usual reason—­I suppose.

[There is a pause in which one expects almost anything to happen.]

CASE WORKER. [With restraint.] Very well.  I must ask you a few questions. [Her antagonism is felt all through.]

TED. I’ll try to answer them. [Desperately.] I needed relief or I wouldn’t have applied for it.

CASE WORKER.  You feel you still need relief?

TED. I do.

CASE WORKER.  Well ...  Well, we’ll go ahead.  I have to fill my records.  Your name is Theodore Brooks.

[She sits at table to fill out blanks, TED stands.]

TED. That’s right.

CASE WORKER.  Age?

TED. Twenty-eight.

CASE WORKER.  Where born?

TED. New York City.

CASE WORKER.  When?

TED. Twenty-eight years ago.

CASE WORKER.  No, no, the date!

TED. March 20, 1907.

CASE WORKER.  Father’s name?

TED. Nathaniel Brooks.

CASE WORKER.  His birthplace?

TED. New York City.

CASE WORKER.  His ancestry?

TED. The Pilgrim fathers.

CASE WORKER.  Your mother’s name?

TED. Susan Cartwright, born in Philadelphia.  Her ancestors,
American Quakers.

CASE WORKER. [Writing fast.] Wait a minute.—­Both parents living?

TED. Both dead.

CASE WORKER.  Brothers and sisters?

TED. None.

CASE WORKER.  What other close kin?

TED. I have one uncle and two aunts.

CASE WORKER.  Do they live in New York City?

TED. It happens that none of them does.

CASE WORKER.  Then we don’t need them.

MARTIN.  Pardon me, but how far in kinship does the responsibility go?

CASE WORKER.  It depends.  We can’t force uncles and aunts to contribute, but we sometimes give them the opportunity to do so.  However, this doesn’t look like a kin folks case.  And now, young man, just what is your occupation?

TED. I haven’t any.  That’s my trouble.

CASE WORKER.  No occupation?  You’re not a minor.  For adults occupation must be stated.

TED. Very well, I am a collector.

CASE WORKER.  By what firms have you been employed?

TED. None.

CASE WORKER.  Then how can you be a collector?

TED. You said I must have an occupation.

CASE WORKER.  You are not helping me by lying and you may get yourself into trouble.

MARTIN.  Is it the first time you ever ran into a man, who needed relief, not because he had worked, but because he hadn’t?