ring of debts which became pressing
and impossible of payment by legitimate means; then followed a thirst
for gambling, in which large returns were promised for small
investments, and failing in this, came the temptation to crime and his
consequent ruin.

How certain it is, that once the downward step is taken, the rest
follows swiftly and inevitably, and ruin and disgrace tread swiftly and
surely upon the heels of folly and crime. Newton Edwards began life
under the brightest aspects. Of respectable parentage, he had enjoyed
the benefits of a liberal education, and his first essay in business had
been both fortunate and profitable. Beloved by his family, and admired
by a numerous circle of friends, he deliberately gave himself up to a
life of excess and dissipation, and the end was soon to be a dark and
gloomy prison.

I will, however, leave him to tell his own story, and the moral of it is
so plain that he who runs may read. We were all seated around the fallen
young man awaiting his recital, and after a few moments of hesitation
and embarrassment he began:

"I will tell you all there is to relate, and in order that you may fully
understand my present situation, I will commence with the first
temptations, which finally led to the commission of this crime."

"Yes," said William, encouragingly, "tell us all."

"The robbery of the Geneva bank was planned more than six months ago,"
continued Edwards, "but its real origin dates back more than a year. At
that time I was traveling for a large house in the city, and was
receiving a liberal salary. I had a large trade, and my employers were
very generous with me. I cannot tell you how I drifted into habits of
dissipation, but it was not very long before I found it a very easy
matter to dispose of my salary almost as soon as received, and was
forced to borrow money of my friends to enable me to maintain myself at
all. From that I was tempted to gamble, and being fortunate at the
outset, I soon found, as I imagined, an easy way to make money without
serious labor; but I speedily discovered that my first success was
doomed to be of short life, and I began to lose more money than I had
ever won. It was after one of my losing experiences at the gaming-table,
and when I was hard pressed for money to meet my immediate wants, that I
visited Geneva, for the purpose of selling goods to some of my
customers in that place. At that time I made the acquaintance of a young
man by the n