profits by mere technicalities on appeal,--at least in New
York State.

In nine cases out of ten the reversal of a conviction in a
criminal case is due to the carelessness or inefficiency of
the prosecuting officer or trial judge and not to any
inadequacy in our methods of procedure. Yet the tenth case,
the case where the criminal does beat the law by a
technicality, does more harm than can easily be estimated.
That is the one case everybody knows about, the one the papers
descant upon, the one that cheers the heart of the grafter and
every criminal who can afford to pay a lawyer.

Yet the evil influence of the reversal of a conviction on
appeal, however much it is to be deprecated, is as nothing
compared with a deliberate acquittal of a guilty defendant by
a reckless, sentimental, or lawless jury. Few can appreciate
as does a prosecutor the actual, practical and immediate
effect of such a spectacle upon those who witness it.

Two men were seen to enter an empty dwelling-house in the dead
of night. The alarm was given by a watchman near by, and a
young police officer, who had been but seven months on the
force, bravely entered the black and deserted building,
searched it from roof to cellar, and found the marauders
locked in one of the rooms. He called upon them to open,
received no reply, yet without hesitation and without knowing
what the consequences to himself might be, smashed in the door
and apprehended the two men. One was found with a large
bundle of skeleton keys in his pocket and several candles,