peaceful life, harmin' nobody, and bing! they wake up some mornin'
and find themselves homeless. Do you realize what that means, Mr.
Strumpet? It means--"

"Yollop, if you please."

"It means they got to go out and slug some innocent citizen, some
poor guy that had nothing whatever to do with drivin' them out, and
then if they happen to be caught they got to go through with all the
uncertainty of a trial by jury, never knowin' but what some
pin-headed juror will stick out for acquittal and make it necessary
to go through with it all over again. And more than that, they got
to listen to the testimony of a lot of policemen, and their own
derned fool lawyers, tryin' to deprive them of their bread and
butter, and the judge's instructions that nobody pays any attention
to except the shorthand reporter,--and them just settin' there sort
of helpless and not even able to say a word in their own behalf
because the law says they're innocent till they're proved guilty,--
why, I tell you, Mr. Dewlap, it's heart-breakin'. And all because
some weak-minded smart aleck gets them paroled. As I was sayin', the
law's all right if it wasn't for the people that abuse it."

"This is most interesting," said Mr. Yollop. "I've never quite
understood why ninety per cent of the paroled convicts go back to
the penitentiary so soon after they've been liberated."

"Of course," explained Mr. Smilk, "there are a few that don't get
back. That's because, in their anxiety to make good, they get killed
by some inexperienced policeman who catches 'em comin' out of
somebody's window or--"