Dave Ranney | Page 5

catch for my team and I would not miss that game of ball for
anything in the world; I simply had to go. In looking around the room I
found a skirt belonging to my sister that I thought would answer my
purpose. I had my shirt on and I put the skirt on over my head. Then I
ripped the skirt up the center and tied it around each leg with a piece of
cord--anything for that game!--and there I was with a pair of trousers
manufactured out of a girl's skirt. But I had to catch that game of ball
that day at any cost. Getting to the ground was easy. I opened the
window and let myself down as far as I could and then dropped. I
arrived all right, a little shaken up, but what is that to a boy who has a
ball game in his head!
I got to the game all right and some of the boys fixed me up. I don't
remember which side won that game, but when it was finished I went
home and met mother, and the interview was not a pleasant one, though
she did not give me a whipping.
I used to read novels, any number of them, in those days--all about
Indians, pirates, and all those blood-and-thunder tales--lies. You can
not get any good out of them, and they do corrupt your mind. I would
advise the young people who read these lines, and older folks also, if
this is your style of reading, to stop right where you are. Get some good
books--there are plenty of them--and don't fill your mind with stuff that
only unfits you for the real life of the years to come.
[Illustration: A NOON SHOP MEETING ADDRESSED BY MR.
RANNEY.]

CHAPTER II
FIRST STEPS IN CRIME
I was getting tired of school and wanted to go to work. I had a good
Christian man for my Sunday-school teacher, Mr. M., a fairly rich man,
and I did think a good deal of him. I liked to go to Sunday-school and
was often the first in my class. The teacher would put up a prize for the
one that was there first. Sometimes it would be a baseball bat, skates,
book, or knife. I would let myself out then and would be first and get
the prize.
I asked Mr. M. to get me work in an office. After a few weeks he called
and told my mother he had got me a job in Jersey City, in the office of
a civil engineer, at $3 a week. I was a happy boy as I started in on my
first day's work. It was easy; all I had to do was to open up and dust the
office at 8 A. M., and close at 5 P. M. I used to run errands and draw a
little. But after a few weeks the newness of work wore off and I wished
I was back at school again, where I could play hookey and have fun
with the other fellows.
THE FIRST THEFTS
I had lots of time on my hands, and you know the saying, "Satan finds
some mischief still for idle hands to do." He certainly found plenty for
me. The boss was a great smoker and bought his cigars by the box. He
asked me if I smoked, and I said no, for I had not begun to smoke as
yet. Well, he left the box of cigars around, always open, so I thought I
would try one, and I took a couple out of the box. See how the Devil
works with a fellow. He seemed to say, "Now if you take them from the
top he will miss them," so he showed me how to take them from the
bottom. I took out the cigars that were on top, and when I got to the
bottom of the box I crossed a couple and took the cigars, and you could
not tell that any had been taken out. That was the beginning of my
stealing. The cigars were not missed, and I thought how easy it was, but
this beginning proved to be just a stepping-stone to what followed.
I did not smoke the cigars then, but waited until I got home. After

supper I went out and met Mike ----, and gave him one of them, and I
started in to smoke my first cigar. Mike could smoke and not get sick,
but there never was a sicker boy than I was. I thought I was going to die
then and there and I said, "No more cigars for me." I recovered,
however, and as usual forgot my good resolutions. That turned out to
be the beginning of