ht
it to me from Europe, and made a translation for us youngsters."

"Sure! Those pictures'd make a reformer laugh. I picked up the book in
German on an Ann Street sidewalk stand, caught the Big Idea right then
and there; to Americanize the stuff and--"

"For 'Americanize,' read 'steal,'" commented Edmonds.

"There ain't no thin' crooked in this," protested the other with
sincerity. "The stuff ain't copyrighted here. I looked that up
particularly."

"Quite true, I believe," confirmed Severance. "It's an open field."

"I got ten series mapped out to start. Call 'em 'The Trouble-hunter
Twins, Ruff and Reddy.' If they catch on, the artist and me can keep 'em
goin' forever. And they'll catch."

"I believe they will," said Severance.

"Smeared across the top of a page it'll make a business man laugh as
hard as a kid. I know business men. I was one, myself. Sold bar fixtures
on the road for four years. And my best selling method was the laughs I
got out of 'em. Used to take a bit of chalk and do sketches on the
table-tops. So I know what makes 'em laugh. Belly-laughs. You make a
business man laugh that way, and you get his business. It ain't
circulation alone; it's advertising that the stuff will bring in. Eh?"

"What do you think, Mr. Banneker?" asked Severance.

"It's worth trying," decided Banneker after thought. "You don't think
so, do you, Pop?"

"Oh, go ahead!" returned Edmonds, spewing forth a mouthful of smoke as
if to expel a bad taste. "What's larceny among friends?"

"But we're not taking anything of value, since there's no copyright and
any one can grab it," pointed out the smooth Severance.

Thus there entered into the high-tension atmosphere of the
sensationalized Patriot the relaxing quality of humor. Under the
ingenuous and acquisitive Sheffer, whose twins achieved immediate
popularity, it developed along other lines. Sheffer--who knew what makes
business men laugh--pinned his simple faith to three main subjects,
convulsive of the diaphragmatic muscles, building up each series upon
the inherent humor to be extracted from physical violence as represented
in the perpetrations and punishments of Ruff and Reddy, marital
infidelity as mirrored in the stratagems and errancies of an amorous ape
with an aged and jealous spouse, and the sure-fire familiarity of aged
minstrel jokes (mother-in-law, country constable, young married cookery,
and the like) refurbished in pictorial serials through the agency of