I knew a respectable man who resided in the vicinity of Tenth Avenue and Fifty-sixth Street; he was out of employment for about three weeks. By this time his family, which consisted of wife and five children, were in dire poverty. The fourth week he found employment at twelve dollars a week driving a truck. On Saturday the boss paid the man six dollars out of which he was to pay rent and feed his family for a whole week. The employer retained six dollars of his wages as security against loss while in his employ. In the middle of the week his funds were exhausted. When he came home Wednesday night his children were crying for food and he had none to give them. Then he remembered that he left a box of goods on the truck when he put his team in the barn. That night he broke the box open, took some of the goods out and pawned them and with the money bought food and fuel to make his family comfortable for several days. It is needless to say that before the week was out he was arrested charged with grand larceny. A good Samaritan made an investigation of this man’s case the following week, found his family in great poverty and supplied their wants. Not only was it found that the man was no thief, but everything he said was true. He was driven to steal by his hard hearted employer who held back half his week’s pay when his family was in great need. When all the facts became fully known the Court suspended sentence and sent him back to his family. The Monday following he went to work for an old employer who had always known him as an honest man. When I spoke to this man about what he had done, he said, “I could not help it. My boss, who retained in his possession six dollars of my hard earned money, made me a thief. I did not want to steal but when I heard my children cry for bread it almost crazed me and I stole to satisfy their hunger.” An old German, over fifty years of age, who some years ago was in business in Philadelphia, failed and lost all his property. He came to New York where he lived from hand to mouth for a month or two. He was often in the bread line on the Bowery to get enough to keep him from starvation. During that winter he went four days without eating anything. Then in his desperation he broke a window and stole an opera glass. For this he was arrested and sent to the Penitentiary for one year.