THE ARCHBISHOP AND THE BURGLAR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 18, 4 May 1899, Page 27

THE ARCHBISHOP AND THE BURGLAR.

Speaking at a meeting in New York on the possibilities of prison reform, Archbishop Corrigan related the following bit of personal history, which had long been a seoret in his own breast : — 1 It was years ago,' the Archbishop saic\ ' that a man who had ' just been released came to me and asked that I supply him with j money to get him to San Francisco, where he promised to start life | afresh. " What claim have you on me," I asked. " that I should do this ? " My strange visitor hesitated and then said :'• I entered your room one night with evil in my heart. You were asleep and j the task was easy. I had taken your watch — I can even now tell the number of it — when something caused me to make a closer inspection of the room and I saw who you were. I put back what I had taken and left as empty-handed as I came." 'The man's story decided me,' the Archbishop continued, 'and I gave him five hundred dollars. He did as he had promised, went far away and started a new life. Within a year I received one hundred dollars from him. Every year since I have received from the same penitent a similar sum. The original debt has long since been repaid.'