One man can get away with things that another man will hang for.  A Jean Valjean will steal a banana and go to the Island, while some rich fellow will put a bank in his pocket and everybody will treat it as a joke.  A popular man may get drunk and not be criticized for it; but the sour chap who does the same thing is flung out of the club.  There is little justice in the arbitrary decisions of society at large.

In a word we exact a degree of morality from our fellowmen precisely in proportion to its apparent importance to ourselves.  It is a purely practical and even a rather shortsighted matter with us.  Our friend’s private conduct, so far as it does not concern us, is an affair of small moment.  He can be as much of a roue as he chooses, so long as he respects our wives and daughters.  He can put through a gigantic commercial robbery and we will acclaim his nerve and audacity, provided he is on the level with ourselves.  That is the reason why cheating one’s club members at cards is regarded as worse than stealing the funds belonging to widows and orphans.

So long as a man conducts himself agreeably in his daily intercourse with his fellows they are not going to put themselves out very greatly to punish him for wrongdoing that does not touch their own bank accounts or which merely violates their private ethical standards.  Society is crowded with people who have been guilty of one detestable act, have got thereby on Easy Street and are living happily ever after.

I meet constantly fifteen or twenty men who have deliberately married women for their money—­of course without telling them so.  According to our professed principles this is—­to say the least—­obtaining money under false pretenses—­a crime under the statutes.  These men are now millionaires.  They are crooks and swindlers of the meanest sort.  Had they not married in this fashion they could not have earned fifteen hundred dollars a year; but everybody goes to their houses and eats their dinners.

There are others, equally numerous, who acquired fortunes by blackmailing corporations or by some deal that at the time of its accomplishment was known to be crooked.  To-day they are received on the same terms as men who have been honest all their lives.  Society is not particular as to the origin of its food supply.  Though we might refuse to steal money ourselves we are not unwilling to let the thief spend it on us.  We are too busy and too selfish to bother about trying to punish those who deserve punishment.

On the contrary we are likely to discover surprising virtues in the most unpromising people.  There are always extenuating circumstances.  Indeed, in those rare instances where, in the case of a rich man, the social chickens come home to roost, the reason his fault is not overlooked is usually so arbitrary or fortuitous that it almost seems an injustice that he should suffer when so many others go scot-free for their misdeeds.