a conversation about the war, is
going to say, '_What_ war?' and when it is reminded to his memory that
as recently ago as last November the papers was printing every day
columns and columns about the war which was going on in Europe, he would
probably say: 'Oh, _that_ war! I thought that war was already a thing
of the past.' And also probably he might even ask, 'Tell me, was there
many people hurt?'"

"Well, if some folks has got such short memories like all that, and is
only affected by what they have read in the papers at the latest the day
before yesterday, Mawruss," Abe said, "why not have the Victory Liberty
Loan salesmen approach them on the basis of what is going on _now_ in
Europe? 'You are asked,' such a salesman would say, 'to invest your
money in a first-class A-number-one security, backed by the United
States government and bearing interest at the rate of four and
three-quarters per cent. per annum, and that is the very least you could
do for your country when you consider that right now,' the salesman
would say, and he should practise in advance to make his voice sound
tragical, 'right now _your_ uncles and _my_ uncles is making peace in
Paris with all the strength of language which they've got in their
system.

"'Yes, Mr. Sitson,' the salesman should go on to say, 'the government is
only asking _you_ to invest in interest-bearing cash money, so to speak,
and what for a sacrifice is _that_ compared to the suffering of _your_
father-in-laws and _my_ father-in-laws which is bravely standing larynx
to larynx in the battle area of the Peace Conference while the air is
filled with the French, Italian, Greek, Jugo-Slob, and Polish remarks?
_You_ sit here in your comfortable home while the flower of our experts
and college professors is exposed to all kinds of coffee and cigars.
Ain't you ashamed to be doing nothing but buy bonds when old and feeble
men like most of the American Peace delegates is battling with French
waiters, French taxicab-drivers, French hotel service, and French
laundry-lists, giving and receiving no mercy, y'understand, and you
should thank Heaven that your own country has been spared the horrors of
having on our own soil this here Peace Conference which is now raging in
Paris, understand me.'"

"That would be anyhow an argument," Morris admitted, "but with these
here Victory Liberty Bonds it shouldn't ought to be a case of first come
first serve. With only four and a half billion dollars