"Very well--charities, then. There are numberless organizations that--
"He stopped abruptly at the other's uplifted hand.

"Organizations! Good Heavens, I should think there were! I tried 'em
once. I got that philanthropic bee in my bonnet, and I gave thousands,
tens of thousands to 'em. Then I got to wondering where the money
went."

Unexpectedly the lawyer chuckled.

"You never did like to invest without investigating, Fulton," he
observed.

With only a shrug for an answer the other plunged on.

"Now, understand. I'm not saying that organized charity isn't all
right, and doesn't do good, of course. Neither am I prepared to
propose anything to take its place. And maybe the two or three I dealt
with were particularly addicted to the sort of thing I objected to.
But, honestly, Ned, if you'd lost heart and friends and money, and
were just ready to chuck the whole shooting-match, how would you like
to become a 'Case,' say, number twenty-three thousand seven hundred
and forty-one, ticketed and docketed, and duly apportioned off to a
six-by-nine rule of 'do this' and 'do that,' while a dozen spectacled
eyes watched you being cleaned up and regulated and wound up with a
key made of just so much and no more pats and preachments carefully
weighed and labeled? How WOULD you like it?"

The lawyer laughed.