Page:Autobiography of Mother Jones (1925).djvu/57

52 a single little child that asks me to stay and fight his battle for bread."

The judge said, "Did you call me a scab?"

"I certainly did, judge."

He said, "How came you to call me a scab?"

"When you had me arrested I was only talking about the constitution, speaking to a lot of men about life and liberty and a chance for happiness; to men who had been robbed for years by their masters, who had been made industrial slaves. I was thinking of the immortal Lincoln. And it occurred to me that I had read in the papers that when Lincoln made the appointment of Federal judge to this bench, he did not designate senior or junior. You and your father bore the same initials. Your father was away when the appointment came. You took the appointment. Wasn't that scabbing on your father, judge?"

"I never heard that before," said he.

A chap came tiptoeing up to me and whispered, "Madam, don't say 'judge' or 'sir' to the court. Say 'Your Honor.'"

"Who is the court?" I whispered back.

"His honor, on the bench," he said, looking shocked.

"Are you referring to the old chap behind the justice counter? Well, I can't call him 'your honor' until I know how honorable he is. You know I took an oath to tell the truth when I took the witness stand."