Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/683

 LE PLAY METHOD OF SOCIAL OBSERVATION 667

This first means of investigation is especially suitable to the study of the physical constitution of the workingman and his family ; of their daily habits, their religious and moral opinions, as well as of their characters ; of the general state of the country, of the house and its surroundings. Besides being attentive, without letting it appear, to all that he sees and hears, the observer ought perpetually to register by himself all the answers made to his questions, all the assertions which he receives while in the family. In a word, every time that direct observation is possible, it is necessary to have recourse to it.

6. The questioning of the workingman and his companion. The questioning ought to be conducted in the order indicated by the method ; it is not necessary, however, to be bound to it too rigorously. The workingman will be naturally led to enlarge upon certain subjects ; he will love to recall the memories of his youth and to tell the history of his family. One must be careful not to interrupt him, lest he let escape some information which it is useful to collect. Besides, questions too multiplied will fatigue him, if they do not excite in him disgust or mis- trust, while recalling to his mind at every instant the inquest to which he is submitting. It is better to listen than to question, especially in the sufficiently frequent cases where a difference in the dialect or in the habitual language renders difficult on both sides the interpretation of questions and answers.

It is only by long, minute questioning, precise, and detailed, that one gathers the diverse elements of the computations whence result the budget of receipts, the budget of expenses, and the accounts which are annexed thereto. It is in the same way that one secures information concerning the organization and the constitution of the family ; concerning its morals, its beliefs, its ideas, its hopes, its disappointments, its troubles, its joys, its affections, and its hates ; concerning its labors and its wages ; concerning its resources of every kind, its furniture, its clothes; concerning its recreations; concerning the principal elements of its life ; concerning the reasons which it believes it has for regarding the future with serenity, or for seeing in it nothing