inveighed convincingly against the evils of betting.  Yet a cynic might guess that the tipsters’ recipes for being prosperous and happy (and therefore, by a logical inversion, good) were perhaps as well based and practical as the reverend moralist’s.  His correspondence, surest indication of editorial following, grew to be almost as large as Banneker’s.  Severance nicknamed him “the Oracle of Boobs,” and for short he became known as the “Booblewarbler,” for there were times when he burst into verse, strongly reminiscent of the older hymnals.  This he resented hotly and genuinely, for he was quite sincere; as sincere as Sheffer, in his belief in himself.  But he despised Sheffer and feared Severance, not for what the latter represented, but for the cynical honesty of his attitude.  In retort for Severance’s stab, he dubbed the pair Mephistopheles and Falstaff, which was above his usual felicitousness of characterization.  Sheffer (who read Shakespeare to improve his mind, and for ideas!) was rather flattered.

Even the platitudinous Bland had his practical inspirations; if they had not been practical, they would not have been Bland’s.  One of these was an analysis of the national business character.

“We Americans,” he wrote, “are natural merchandisers.  We care less for the making of a thing than for the selling of it.  Salesmanship is the great American game.  It calls forth all our native genius; it is the expression of our originality, our inventiveness, our ingenuity, our idealism,” and so on, for a full column slathered with deadly and self-betraying encomiums.  For the Reverend Bland believed heartily that the market was the highest test of humankind. He would rather sell a thing than make it!  In fact, anything made with any other purpose than to sell would probably not be successful, and would fail to make its author prosperous; therefore it must be wrong.  Not the creator, but the salesman was the modern evangel.

“The Booblewarbler has given away the game,” commented Severance with his slight, ironic smile, the day when this naive effusion appeared.  “He’s right, of course.  But he thinks he’s praising when he’s damning.”

Banneker was disturbed.  But the flood of letters which came in promptly reassured him.  The Reverend editorializer was hailed broadcast as the Messiah of the holy creed of Salesmanship, of the high cult of getting rid of something for more than it is worth.  He was organized into a lecture tour; his department in the paper waxed ever greater.  Banneker, with his swift appreciation of a hit, followed the lead with editorials; hired authors to write short stories glorifying the ennobled figure of the Salesman, his smartness, his strategy, his ruthless trickery, his success.  And the salesmanhood of the nation, in trains, in hotel lobbies, at the breakfast table with its Patriot propped up flanking the egg and coffee, rose up to call him blessed and to add to his income.