castic references to Diederich's private life, which were certainly inspired by Napoleon Fischer. But even the usually docile "Netzig Journal" chose this moment to publish a speech of Herr Lauer's to his workmen, in which the manufacturer stated that he was sharing honestly the profits of his business with all who had co-operated in it, a quarter to the office staff and a quarter to the men. In eight years they had had the sum of 130,000 marks to share amongst themselves, in addition to their salaries and wages. This produced a most favourable and widespread impression. Diederich encountered unfriendly faces. Rothgroschen, the editor, to whom he stopped to speak, actually smiled offensively and said something about social progress which could not be arrested by patriotic claptrap. The consequences to his business were particularly irritating. Orders, upon which Diederich could usually count, did not come in. Cohn, the proprietor of the big stores, frankly informed him that he had given preference to the Gausenfeld Paper Factory for his Christmas catalogues, because he could not get mixed up in politics, out of consideration for his customers. Diederich now began to turn up quite early at the office in order to intercept such communications, but Sötbier was always there first, and the reproachful silence of the old manager only increased his rage. "I'll let the whole show go to the devil!" he yelled. "Then you and the rest of them will see where you are, with my doctor's degree I can get a post as managing director to-morrow, with 40,000 marks!"—"I am sacrificing myself for you," he shouted at the men when they drank beer against the rules. "I am paying out money to keep you employed."
Towards Christmas, however, he was compelled to pay off a third of the men. Sötbier showed him by calculation that they could not otherwise meet the obligations which fell due at the beginning of the year, "since we must deduct 2,000 marks as an instalment on the new cylinder machine," and be insisted on this, although Diederich seized the ink-pot. In
