yet. Well, he left the box of cigars around, always open, so I thought I
would try one, and I took a couple out of the box. See how the Devil
works with a fellow. He seemed to say, "Now if you take them from the
top he will miss them," so he showed me how to take them from the
bottom. I took out the cigars that were on top, and when I got to the
bottom of the box I crossed a couple and took the cigars, and you could
not tell that any had been taken out. That was the beginning of my
stealing. The cigars were not missed, and I thought how easy it was, but
this beginning proved to be just a stepping-stone to what followed.

I did not smoke the cigars then, but waited until I got home. After
supper I went out and met Mike ----, and gave him one of them, and I
started in to smoke my first cigar. Mike could smoke and not get sick,
but there never was a sicker boy than I was. I thought I was going to
die then and there and I said, "No more cigars for me." I recovered,
however, and as usual forgot my good resolutions. That turned out to be
the beginning of my smoking habit, and I was a good judge of a cigar
when I was but fourteen years of age. I went on stealing them until the
boss tumbled that some one was taking them and locked them up for safe
keeping. I never smoked a cigarette in all my life. I know it takes
away a young fellow's brains and I really class cigarettes next to drink
and would warn boys never to smoke them.

I had been in the office now about three months. At the end of each
month I received a check for $12. It seemed a fortune to me and I hated
to give it in at the house. The third month I received the check as
usual, made out to bearer. Well, I went home and gave the check to
mother, and she said I was a good boy and gave me fifty cents to spend.

I watched my mother and saw her put the check in an unused pitcher in