talked like one of them.

It wasn't long before the boys were convinced that the judge was their
friend. He understood them, and his heart was in the right place, as
they put it. Accordingly, they went out and brought in the other
members of the gang. In his talk with the gang, the judge was as kind
and frank as he had been when talking with the three boys the day
before. He told the boys how the old man made his living by raising
pigeons, and he asked them whether they thought it was square for them
to steal his pigeons. They agreed that it was not.

Then he told the gang how the old man and the police had caught the
three boys stealing the pigeons, and he asked them whether they
thought it would help matters to send the boys to prison. As this
remedy did not appeal to the gang the judge asked what should be done.
After some discussion, the members of the gang agreed that the best
thing to do was to give the judge their word of honor that they would
never molest the pigeon loft again. Thus it was that the old man's
rights were protected and at the same time the boys were saved from
the disgrace of a prison sentence.

The above is but one among hundreds of instances in which Judge Ben B.
Lindsey of Denver has shown that he is indeed the boy's friend. Since
he is the boy's friend, all boys are interested in his life.

Since he was born in Tennessee in 1869, it is not difficult for us to
figure that he is now in the prime of life. As he looks back over his
boyhood days he admits that he can recall little else than hardship.
His father, who had been an officer in the Confederate army, died when
Ben was about eighteen years of age. Before the war the Lindseys had
been in comfortable circumstances, but so great were the ravages of
war that at its close the family had lost everything. Ben, therefore,
was born in poverty. So severe were the hardships in the South that
the Lindseys came north and finally settled in Denver, Colorado. When
Ben was twelve, the family was so poor that the lad could not go to
school. Forced to work while yet so young, he had to pick up any odd
jobs that came his way. For a time he was messenger boy, and then he
managed a newspaper route. Since he was once a newsboy, is it any
wonder that he understood newsboys? It is also interesting to know
that he afterward became a judge in the same city in which he used to
peddle newspapers.

Though Ben could not attend day school, he did go to night school