Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/174



Millions of dollars were involved. The door opened cautiously, and Morris poked his freckled face in, piping up that he wanted to see the Judge. The bailiff started to shoo him away, but I called in the boy. I ordered a recess. No doubt the distinguished counsel were shocked; certainly they looked shocked. But a live boy looms larger than a dead man’s millions to me, and when this boy came into my Court, unafraid, smiling, and sure of justice, I remembered the flash of fear and hatred that I once had seen on this same freckled face. So I beckoned Morris up to me, and I heard his case then and there. He was in busi- ness. He sold newspapers, and his place of busi- ness was a certain busy corner where he dealt not only with pedestrians, but with passengers on passing cars. The ‘old cop, it seemed, had let him ‘hop the cars,’ and all had gone well till a new cop had come there. The ‘new guy,’ as Morris called him, had ordered the boy off the corner. ‘Thinks ’cause he’s a cop he owns the whole town,’ said Morris, who was losing about fifty cents a day. The case stated, I asked Mor- ris what he would have me do.

“Evidently Morris had been reading, as well as selling, his newspapers, for he was ready with

his answer.

“‘Judge,’ he said, ‘can’t you gimme one o