regularly. As he was not robust, it was difficult, however, for the
lad after delivering messages all day to settle down to hard study in
a night school. But Ben liked books and was not afraid of hard work.

A little later he secured employment in a real-estate office. Here he
had some leisure time. Can you guess what he did with it? Did you know
that about the best way to learn whether or not a boy is destined to
become a great man is to find out what he does with his leisure hours?
Ben, now a young man, spent his time in studying law. To play games or
go to shows would have been much more interesting than studying great
law books, but he was determined to climb regardless of the cost.
Accordingly, at the age of twenty-four, he was made a "full-fledged"
lawyer.

In his practice of law there was nothing exceptional until at the age
of thirty-two he was made county judge. For weeks he discharged the
usual duties connected with his office until one evening a case came
before the court that changed his entire life. The story is as
follows:

"The hour was late; the calendar was long, and Judge Lindsey was
sitting overtime. Weary of the weary work, everybody was forcing the
machinery of the law to grind through at top speed the dull routine of
justice. All sorts of cases go before this court, grand and petty,
civil and criminal, complicated and simple. The petty larceny case was
plain; it could be disposed of in no time. A theft had been committed;
no doubt of that. Had the prisoner at the bar done it? The sleepy
policeman had his witnesses on hand and they swore out a case. There
was no doubt about it; hardly any denial. The law prescribed precisely
what was to be done to such 'cases,' and the bored judge ordered that
that thing be done. That was all. In the same breath with which he
pronounced sentence, the court called for the 'next case,' and the
shift was under way, when something happened, something out of the
ordinary.

"A cry! an old woman's shriek, rang out of the rear of the room. There
was nothing so very extraordinary about that. Our courts are held in
public; and every now and then somebody makes a disturbance such as
this old woman made when she rose now with that cry on her lips and,
tearing her hair and rending her garments, began to beat her head
against the wall. It was the duty of the bailiff to put the person
out, and that officer in this court moved to do his duty.

"But Judge Lindsey upheld the