Road, and although he had recently married,
was voluntarily laying off two days in the week in order that a
fellow-engineer, who had a family to support, might have a show during
the hard times. I motioned to my bailiff, and a minute later Jim was
seated beside me on the bench, listening to the evidence in the robbery
case. I well knew what was passing through his mind, for it was only ten
months before that he had stood before the same bar, charged with crime,
and it was then that he had promised me, whom he had never seen before,
that if I would give him "another chance" he would turn over a new leaf
and eschew crime and the society of criminals forever.

This resolution followed a brief talk in my chambers after his trial.
His record was not in his favor, and his picture hung in the rogues'
gallery. His brother was then serving time, and he had two sisters
dependent upon him for support. After I had briefly pointed out to him
the folly of such a life as he was then leading, he quietly remarked:
"No one ever talked to me that way before; my father is dead and my
mother is dead, and I haven't a friend in this town." "Well," I replied,
"you probably don't deserve one, the way you have lived, but if you will
cut out liquor and go to work" (he had not worked for four months) "and
take care of your sisters, you will have friends." He finally agreed
that he would do this. "Now," I said, "if you don't keep your promise to
me, you will get me into trouble with the officers." He said: "I will
show you I can make good." He could not get a bondsman, and I let him go
after he had signed his own bond.

He went to work at a dollar a day at the first place he struck, and his
wages have been raised four times. One day I had a letter from his
sister saying that he had met with an accident. As soon as I adjourned
court, I went to the hospital to see him. He said to me: "I will never
take chloroform again." I asked, "Why not, Jim?" and he replied: "During
this operation, while I was under the influence of chloroform, it seemed
to me as if I was going from one saloon to another, and they tell me I
didn't do a thing except holler for beer. You bet I will never touch
chloroform again." After five weeks in the hospital, Jim, thanks to his
fine constitution, pulled through, but the first day he went out on the
street he was "picked up" by a vigilant "plain-clothes" man on suspicion
of being implicated in a robbery, and spent several hours i