Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 228, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1913 — The First Offense. [ARTICLE]

The First Offense.

I have seen very many first offenders and talked to them before they got into the hands, of pleaders and others, and my experience tells m* that a man who has committed his first offense is very like a man whd has caught his first attack of serious illness. He Is afraid not so much of the results as of the thing itself. Sin has caught him and he is afraid of sin. He wants protection and help and cure. He does not want to hide anything; his first need is confession to some understanding ear. Many, many such confessions have I beard in tha old days. That la the result of the first offense. —H. Fielding-Hall, In the Atlantic.