Quote by Unknown - GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY?

GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY?
She stood at the bar of justice, a creature wan and wild,
In form too small for a woman, in feature too old for a child.
For a look so worn and pathetic was stamped on her pale, young face,
It seemed long years of suffering must have left that silent trace.

“Your name,” said the judge, as he eyed her, with kindly look, yet keen,
“Is _______” “Mary McGuire, if you please, sir.” “And you age?” “I’m now 15.”
“Well, Mary,” ----and then from a paper, he slowly and gravely read----
“You are charged here----I am sorry to say it ----with stealing 3 loaves of bread.”

"You look not like an offender, and I hope that you can show
This charge to be false. Now tell me, are you guilty of this or no?”
A passionate burse of weeping was at first her sole reply,
But she dried her tears in a moment, and looked in the judges’ eye.

“I will tell you just how it was sir; My father and mother are dead,
And my little brothers and sisters were hungry and asked me for bread.
At first I earned it for them, by working hard all day,
But somehow the times were hard, sir, and the work all fell away.”

“I could get no more employment; the weather was bitter and cold;
The young ones cried and shivered (Johnnie’s but four years old);
So what was I to do, sir? I am guilty, but do not condemn;
I took ----O! Was it stealing? ----The bread to give to them.”

Every man in the courtroom----gray beard and thoughtless youth----
Knew, as he looked upon her, that the prisoner was speaking the truth.
Out from their pockets came kerchiefs, and from their eyes sprung tears,
And out from old, faded wallets, treasures hoarded for years.

The judge’s face was a study, the strangest you ever saw,
As he cleared his throat and murmured something about the law.
For one so learned in such matters, so wise in dealing with men,
He seemed on a simple question sorely puzzled just then.

No one blamed him, or wondered when at last these words they heard,
“The sentence of this young prisoner is for the present deferred.”
And no one blamed him or wondered when he went to her and smiled,
And tenderly led from the courtroom, himself, the “Guilty” child.
                ----Author Unknown

(The above poem dates back to the Depression years in the 1930’s.)