you felt in his presence the
reserve force that was in him and with it respect. He was, perhaps,
forty years of age, and unlike Littell and Davis, who had been New
Yorkers from birth, was a stranger among us. Less than two years before
he had appeared, none seemed to know from where, and had made friends
and become one of us before we were quite aware of it. That the man was
a gentleman in the worldly sense of the term was unmistakable; he was a
handsome, manly fellow, too, and agreeable, and so was welcome for
himself. Of his antecedents and resources, no one knew anything, nor was
it likely much would be learned through Van Bult, who never sought nor
offered confidences. One frequently meets such men. They come and they
go, and generally things are none the better nor worse for them. I like
them; for the time being they furnish me a new interest, something to
observe, to study; but then I know I am getting older now and surfeited
of the things of daily life, and look for entertainment too much to
things outside of myself, my habits and friends now prone to sameness
through long acquaintanceship. It was different with me in the days of
which I am writing. Then I was learning, and it is more agreeable to
learn than to know. Knowledge of the world advantages sometimes, but it
rarely entertains. As a glass through which to observe men and things,
it is a help to the vision, but it is the defects it magnifies, and the
colors in which it shows things are rarely bright or beautiful. But to
this point of view I had not then attained.

Graduating from the Harvard Law School some twelve years earlier, I had
practised my profession in a desultory way in New York, until about a
year before, when I had secured a position as a deputy with the District
Attorney. In my work there I found so much to occupy and interest me
professionally that other things, such as my social and club life,
became of only secondary importance. I was absorbed in my new duties.

The crimes and criminals of a great city are a study of fascinating
interest. In each case, if we only knew it, is to be found a lesson in
character, method, and motive. He who would cope properly with the
subject must have been trained, not only long and faithfully but
intelligently, to his work.

Noting, as I thought, deficiencies in the several departments which were
auxiliary to ours, I had taken hold of my duties with vigor and with a
purpose to lift the work of our adminis