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 hanged his

mind, and says I could tell you. So I’m not snitchin’, am I ? ”

“An experience like that,” the Judge said by way of comment, “goes to show that my theory is correct, that all we need is an influence for good to counteract the influence for bad of the gang. For Texas is a well-known newsboy, and had Eli not been a member of our gang, coming to Court where he could tell his experiences in the presence of one hundred and fifty other boys, and be praised, why, then, Eli would have wanted to please Texas. As it is, he wants to please me and the Court gang; and Texas does, too.”

Another instance of faith in the Court: The Judge had been trying a case all day. It was a grown-up case, difficult and slow, and when the adjournment came late, at six o’clock, the Judge was tired. As the court room cleared, however, he saw a child in a back seat. “ He was so small,” the Judge says, “that I thought someone must have gone off and forgotten him, and I told ‘Uncle John’ Murrey (the bailiff) to find out whose child it was. But when Uncle John spoke to him, the little fellow got up, and I saw he was almost ten years old. I called him up to the bench, and he came, and when he reached me he dropped his head on my shoulder and began to sob.

Judge, he said, I’m Clifford, and my