"I am only giving you a hypo-critical case, Mawruss," Abe continued,
"where I am trying to explain to you that if this was Germany it
wouldn't be necessary for Mr. Ridder to sue anybody for liable. All he
would have to do when they ask him if he's got anything to say why
sentence should not be passed, y'understand, is to tell the judge what
was his trade before he became an editor, understand me, and they would
put him to work at it for the remainder of the war."

"He wouldn't get off so easy as that, even," Morris commented. "Why,
what do you suppose they would do to the editor of this here, for
example, _Star-Gazette_ if he was to just so much as hint that the Crown
Prince couldn't be such a terrible good judge of French chateau
furniture, y'understand, on account he had slipped over on the Berlin
antique dealers a lot of reproductions which they had every right to
believe was genwine old stuff, as it had been rescued from the flames,
packed, and shipped under the Crown Prince's personal supervision? I bet
you, Abe, if the paper was on the streets at three-thirty and the sun
rose at three-thirty-five, y'understand, the authorities wouldn't wait
that long. They'd shoot him at three-thirty-two."

"I know it," Abe agreed. "You see, Mawruss, an editor, a soap-boxer, a
cotton-mill owner, or a stock-waterer might get away with it in this
country under the Constitution, but over on the other side they wouldn't
know what he was talking about at all, because in Germany, Mawruss, a
constitution means only one thing. It's something that can be ruined by
drinking too much beer, and you don't have to hire no lawyer for
_that_."

III

POTASH AND PERLMUTTER ON FINANCING THE WAR

On everything which a feller buys, from pinochle decks to headache
medicine, he will have to put a stamp.

"I see where this here Chump Clark says that incomes from over ten
thousand dollars should ought to be confiscated," Abe Potash observed to
his partner, Morris Perlmutter, one morning in September.

"Sure, I know," Morris replied, "and if this here Chump Clark has a good
year next year and cleans up for a net profit of ten thousand two
hundred and twenty-six dollars and thirty-five cents, then he'll claim
that all incomes over ten thousand two hundred and twenty-six dollars
and thirty-five cents should ought to be confiscated, Abe, and that's
the way it goes. I am the same way, Abe. Any one what makes more money
as I do, Abe, I