you five hunded dollars a veek fer dat face, and you vant to go git
it smashed? And fer a lot o' lousy bums dat vont vork for honest
vages, and vont let nobody else vork! Honest to Gawd, Mr. Carpenter,
I tell you some stories about strikes vot we had on our own lot--you
vouldn't spoil your face for such lousy sons-o'-guns--"

"Ssh, Abey, don't use such langwich, you should to be shamed of
yourself!" It was Maw, guardian of the proprieties, who had been
extracted from the car by the footman, and helped to the table.

"Vell, Mr. Carpenter, he dunno vot dem fellers is like--"

"Sit down, Abey!" commanded the old lady. "Ve ain't ordered no stump
speeches fer our dinner."

We seated ourselves. And Carpenter turned his dark eyes on me. "I
observe that you have many kinds of mobs in your city," he remarked.
"And the police do interfere with some of them."

"My Gawd!" cried T-S. "You gonna have a lot o' bums jumpin' on
people ven dey try to git to dinner?"

Said Carpenter: "Mr. Rosythe said that the police would not work
unless they were paid. May I ask, who pays them to work here? Is it
the proprietor of the restaurant?"

"Vell," cried T-S, "ain't he gotta take care of his place?"

"As a matter of fact," said I, laughing, "from what I read in the
'Times' this morning, I gather that an old friend of Mr. Carpenter's