“And because the brute is a rich man on an avenue,” she sobbed, “they’ve turned him loose with a fine. I’m poor and ignorant, and I’m not a member of your church, but all the people are talking about you in our neighbourhood, and told me you were a friend of the weak, and I’m here.”
He called his assistant in.
“Anderson, do you know anything of this case? How could such a thing be?”
“I’ve looked into it. It’s just as she tells you. The man was arraigned before a police magistrate, who had no power to try such a case. He was allowed to plead under an assumed name-John Stevens, of Newark, New Jersey, fined and discharged. I informed the city editor of the Herald of the case; he detailed a reporter, who wrote it up. He left out the man’s real name. Nothing has come of it. Our courts have become so debased, God only knows what they will do next. We have a police judge now who is the owner of five disreputable dives, which he runs every day and Sunday. He sits down on the bench on Monday and discharges the cases against his saloons. We’ve another, who was drunk in the gutter, with two warrants out for his arrest, when the Boss made him a judge. What can we expect from such courts?”
He sent her away with the premise to consult the best legal talent.
A little frousle-headed woman, carrying a bag full of documents, then explained to him that she was the inventor of a process for preserving dead bodies, meats and eggs by treating them with the purifying ozone of the air, and wished him to organise a company, make her president, and act as her secretary.
“It’s the greatest invention ever conceived by the human mind,” she explained, as she spread out scores of letters and testimonials from men who had tested it, and many who had signed anything to get rid of her.
“Madam, if your process can only be applied to the city government of New York you will deserve a monument higher than the Statue of Liberty. But I’m afraid there’s not enough ozone in the atmosphere.”
He had to call help to get her out, and then she only went after she got the loan of five dollars to tide her over the week.
A theological student with an open hatchet face, from the western plains, on his way to Moody’s school at Northfield, asked for money to get there.