ervals.
Every half-hour he cleared his throat with a rasping noise and, when he
had secured Morris' attention, ostentatiously swallowed a large gelatine
capsule and rolled his eyes upward in what he conceived to be an
expression of acute agony. At length Morris could stand it no longer.

"What are we running here, anyway, Abe?" he asked. "A cloak and suit
business or a hospital? If you are such a sick man, Abe, why don't you
go home?"

"Must I got to get your permission to be sick, Mawruss?" Abe asked.
"Couldn't I take it maybe a bit of medicine oncet in a while if I want
to, Mawruss?"

He snorted indignantly, but further discussion was prevented by the
entrance of the letter-carrier, and immediately Abe and Morris forgot
their differences in an examination of the numerous letters that were
the fruit of the advertisement.

"Don't let's waste no time over fellers we don't know nothing about,
Abe," Morris suggested as he tossed one envelope into the waste-paper
basket. "Here's a feller called Rutherford B. H. Horowitz, what says he
used to be a suit-buyer in Indianapolis. Ever hear of him, Abe?"

"We don't want no fellers what used to be buyers, Mawruss," Abe
retorted. "What we want is fellers what is cloak and suit salesmen.
Ain't it?"

"Well, here's a feller by the name Arthur Katzen, Abe," Morris went on.
"Did y'ever hear of him, Abe?"

"Sure I know him, Mawruss," Abe replied. "You know him, too, Mawruss.
That's a feller by the name Osher Katzenelenbogen, what used to work for
us as buttonhole-maker when we was new beginners already. Two years ago,
I met that feller in the Yates House and I says to him: 'Hallo,' I says,
'ain't you Osher Katzenelenbogen?' And he says: 'Excuse me,' he says,
'you got the advantage from me,' he says. 'My name is Arthur Katzen,' he
says; and I assure you, Mawruss, the business that feller was doing,
Mawruss, was the sole topic what everybody was talking about."

Morris waved his hand deprecatingly.

"I seen lots of them topics in my time already, Abe," he commented.
"Topics what went up with red fire already and come down like sticks.
That's the way it goes in this business, Abe. A feller gets a little
streak of luck, and everybody goes to work and pats him on the back and
tells him he's a great salesman."

"But mind you, Mawruss, Arthur Katzen was a good salesman then and is a
good salesman to-day yet. The only trouble with him is that he's a
gambler, Mawruss. That feller woul