It was just beginning to pay me, and now my wife writes me that she has had to shut the place up and sell the machinery to keep them all from starving." "But couldn't you have done anything to stop it ?" demanded a Frenchman, lying next to him.

"All your millions of Socialists, what were they up to?
What went wrong with the Internationale, the Universal Brotherhood of Labour, and all that Tra-la-la ?" The German laughed again.

"Oh, they know their business," he answered.
"You have your glass of beer and go to bed, and when you wake up in the morning you find that war has been declared; and you keep your mouth shut--unless you want to be shot for a traitor.

Not that it would have made much difference," he added.

"I admit that.