True, there might be a slight difficulty in the shame, but as regarded the sin, there was no item of that kind ever scored down on the Bar-slate that had its own familiar peg whereon to hang such tales of evil as must pain and shock every pure mind—tales of devilish import, eventualizing, in most instances, most grievously and banefully—in rags, want of food, perhaps in crime, and almost, for certain, in pauperism!
Source: wiktionary