On one occasion I was with him when charity was solicited of him by a
wretched old woman. "Give me five dollars," he said to me; the money
was handed the woman, and she was sent away, to be drunk and in a
police-station within the hour. I remarked: "That old wretch has
brought all this upon her by an abandoned profligacy." "Then I owe her
sympathy as well as charity," was his reply; "I do not know the cause
of her suffering, but I know she is suffering: it may be for food, it
may be for drink; if either obliterates her misery, your money is well
spent."
He had no idea of the value of money; was constantly in the receipt of
large fees, with a most lucrative practice, but was always
embarrassed, owed everybody, loaned to everybody, gave to everybody,
and paid nobody.
During the existence of the law which imprisoned for debt, he was
constantly in the sheriff's hands, but always settling, by the most
ingenious devices, the claim at the jail-door. It is told of him, that
the sheriff on one occasion notified him that there was a _ca. sa._ in
his hands, and that he did not want to arrest him.
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