They have
only to break the law--and they make a public appearance in a
court of justice. If the circumstances connected with their
offense are of an interesting kind, they gain a second advantage:
they are advertised all over England by a report in the
newspapers.
"Yes! even _I_ have my knowledge of the law. I know that it
completely overlooked me as long as I respected it. But on two
different occasions it became my best frie nd when I set it at
defiance! My first fortunate offense was committed when I was
just twelve years old.
"It was evening time. I was half dead with starvation; the rain
was falling; the night was coming on. I begged--openly, loudly,
as only a hungry child can beg. An old lady in a carriage at a
shop door complained of my importunity. The policeman did his
duty. The law gave me a supper and shelter at the station-house
that night. I appeared at the police court, and, questioned by
the magistrate, I told my story truly. It was the every-day story
of thousands of children like me; but it had one element of
interest in it. I confessed to having had a father (he was then
dead) who had been a man of rank; and I owned (just as openly as
I owned everything else) that I had never applied to him for
help, in resentment of his treatment of my mother.
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