"I suppose you have heard the report that Deacon Smith has stolen the church funds ?" we say to our friends with a sententious sigh--the outward sign of an invisible satisfaction.

Deacon Smith after the money-bag?
Ha! ha! Of course, he's guilty! These deacons are always guilty! And in a few minutes Deacon Smith is ruined forever, although the fact of the matter may well have been that he was but counting the money in the collection-plate.

This willingness to believe the worst of others is a matter of common knowledge and of historical and literary record.

"The evil that men do lives after them--" It might well have been put, "The evil men are said to have done lives forever." However unfair, this is a psychologic condition which plays an important part in rendering the presumption of innocence a gross absurdity.
But let us press the history of Jones and Robinson a step further.

The next event in the latter's criminal history is his appearance in court before a magistrate.