rime. What
effect could such a performance have upon them and their friends save to
inculcate a belief that they were licensed to commit as many burglaries
as they chose? They had a practical demonstration that the law was "no
good" and the system a failure. If they could beat a case in which they
had already pleaded guilty, what could they not do where the evidence
was less obvious? They were henceforth immune. Who shall say how many
embryonic law-breakers took courage at the story and started upon an
experimental attempt at crime?

The news of such an acquittal must instantly have been carried to the
Tombs, where every other guilty prisoner took heart and prepared anew
his defence. Those about to plead guilty and throw themselves upon
the mercy of the court abandoned their honest purpose and devised some
perjury instead. Criminals almost persuaded that honesty was the best
policy changed their minds. The barometer of crime swung its needle from
"stormy" to "fair."

But apart from the law-breakers consider the effect of such a
miscarriage of justice upon a young, honest and zealous officer. First,
all his good work, his bravery, his conscientious effort at safeguarding
the sleeping public had been disregarded, tossed aside with a sneer,
and had gone for naught. The jury had stamped his story as a lie and
stigmatized him, by their action, as a perjurer. They had chosen two
professional criminals as better men. His whole conduct of the case
instead of being commended as meritorious had resulted in a solemn
public declaration that he was not worthy of credence and that he had
attempted wilfully to railroad to State's prison two innocent men. In
other words, that he ought to be there himself. What was the use of
trying to do good work any longer? He might just as well loiter in
an area on a barrel and smoke a furtive cigar when he ought to be
"on post." Perhaps he might better "stand in" with those who would
inevitably be preferred to him by a jury of their peers.

What must have been the effect on the court officers, the witnesses, the
defendants out on bail, the complainants, the spectators? That the whole
business was nonsense and rot! That the jury system was ridiculous. That
the jurymen were either crooks or fools. That the only people who were
not insulted and sneered at were the lawbreakers themselves. That if two
such rogues were to be set free all the other jailbirds might as well
be let go. That an honest man