A big bank president, a railway magnate, an official connected with some big corporation, or a Government official in a responsible fiduciary position, necessarily belongs among the men who have succeeded in life.

This means that his family are living in comfort, and perhaps luxury and refinement, and that his sons and daughters have been well educated.

In such a case the misdeed of the father comes as a crushing disaster to the wife and children, and the people of the community, however bitter originally against the man, grow to feel the most intense sympathy for the bowed-down women and children who suffer for the man's fault.

It is a dreadful thing in life that so much of atonement for wrong-doing is vicarious.

If it were possible in such a case to think only of the banker's or county treasurer's wife and children, any man would pardon the offender at once.