s bit of blue ribbon.

"No use," returned Sam, sorrowfully, "I once put it on, and--and--I've
broke the pledge."

"That's bad, no doubt; but what then?" returned North; "are we never to
tell the truth any more 'cause once we told a lie? Are we never to give
up swearin' 'cause once we uttered a curse? The Lord is able to save
us, no matter how much we may have sinned. Why, sin is the very thing
He saves us from--if we'll only come to Him."

Sam shook his head, but the manner of the man had attracted him, and
eventually he told all his story to him. Reggie North listened
earnestly, but the noise of the disputants in the next box was so great
that they rose, intending to go to a quieter part of the large room.
The words they heard at the moment, however, arrested them. The speaker
was, for such a place, a comparatively well-dressed man, and wore a
top-coat. He was discoursing on poverty and its causes.

"It is nothing more nor less," he said, with emphasis, "than the absence
of equality that produces so much poverty."

"Hear! hear!" cried several voices, mingled with which, however, were
the scoffing laughs of several men who knew too well and bitterly that
the cause of their poverty was not the absence of equality, but, drink
with improvidence.

"What right," asked the man, somewhat indignantly, "what right has Sir
Crossly Cowel, for instance, the great capitalist, to his millions that
'e don't know what to do with, when we're starvin'?" (Hear!) "He didn't
earn these millions; they was left to 'im by his father, an' _he_ didn't
earn 'em, nor did his grandfather, or his great-grandfather, and so,
back an' back to the time of the robber who came over with William--the
greatest robber of all--an' stole the money, or cattle, from our
forefathers." (Hear! hear!) "An' what right has Lord Lorrumdoddy to the
thousands of acres of land he's got?" (`Ha! you may say that!' from an
outrageously miserable-looking man, who seemed too wretched to think,
and only spoke for a species of pastime.) "What right has he, I say, to
his lands? The ministers of religion, too, are to be blamed, for they
toady the rich and uphold the unjust system. My friends, it is these
rich capitalists and landowners who oppress the people. What right have
they, I ask again, to their wealth, when the inmates of this house, and
thousands of others, are ill-fed and in rags? If I had my way,"
(_Hear_! hear! and a laugh), "I would distribute the w