and
there forswore the stage. No artist had ever won such triumphs since
Nero. They had started as Beau Brummels. They had become Kaisers--only
infinitely more Caesarean. And the union sandwiches following in Indian
file, oblivious, like true artists, of the admiration of the rabble,
thought of the end of the day, of the forty beers and the free food--of
unearned wealth!--and actually swaggered so that their parasite-infested
hirsuteness and their beast-faces took on an aspect of aristocratic
eccentricity, of zeal for a noble cause. Their rags, in juxtaposition to
the dazzling gorgeousness of their sandwich-boards, thus became
ecclesiastical vestments--pilgrims wearing tatters in fulfillment of
Lenten vows of renunciation.

It was, of course, the masterly combination. Valiquet's was the last
word in swellness, the label of utterly inutilitarian wealth.

The sandwich business was therefore the postscript.

"Only Valiquet's would think of doing such a thing!" said all Fifth
Avenue, as usual giving credit to commercial genius instead of to the
creative artist.

The other mercantile geniuses, seeing that their shoppers had declared a
legal holiday, frantically telephoned to Mr. Andrew Barrett to send out
_their_ sandwiches at once. They would pay ten dollars per man; yes,
twenty dollars. Only do it now! They did not wish to be put in the
position of _following_. This is fatal on Fifth Avenue.

Valiquet's was skimming the cream! Never mind submitting the legends!
Get a hustle on! Never mind striking catch-phrases. That would come
later. Get the sandwiches on the Avenue! The bare name and the
sandwiches!

The crowd, who had not had time to forget about the sandwich-men's
parade of a few days before, cleverly saw that this was the second
chapter. They therefore knew all about it and could and would say so to
their less-clever fellow-beings. Completeness of knowledge is one of the
nicest feelings in the world.

Barrett excitedly reported the avalanche of orders to H. R. and was
promptly and calmly despatched to the board-makers to order fifty boards
each of the six Valiquet designs, three hundred in all. H. R. then
dictated a statement for publication, as to the real meaning of
sandwiching on Fifth Avenue. It was not merely advertising--it was
philanthropy. Much more went to feeding starving artists at the
Colossal Restaurant than to the militant brethren in the shape of wages.
It was also the best way of advertising F