My partner was obliged to spend the whole of almost every day in attendance at the criminal courts.

Frequently he remarked jestingly that under the circumstances, as he had to give all his time to it anyway, he could as easily attend to _all_ the criminal business of the city as to the small part of it that came to him.
"Well," I said to him one day, "why don't you ?" "Why don't I what ?" he retorted.
"Get all the criminal business there is," I answered.
"Quib," he exclaimed excitedly, "have you got another of your ideas ?" "I think so," I returned.

"How does this strike you?
Why not issue a policy, like life or accident insurance, in which for a moderate sum you agree to defend _free of charge_ any man accused of crime?
You know that every criminal is always trying to save up money against the time when he shall be caught and have to hire a lawyer.

Now, it is true that these fellows pay very well, but there are not many that can pay a large fee.

If you could get enough crooks to take out a policy at ten dollars per year you might make a good thing of it." "But how would we get our scheme going ?" inquired my partner, with a gleam in his eye.