The populace, only a small minority of which consisted of landlords, went mad. The working classes now had to pay millions in yearly rentals for their rooms, and a small middle-class apartment could not be had for less than fifty million. The housewives’ organization, the unions, the association of steadily employed workers, the war invalids and war widows, the artisans’ societies--all of them called mass meetings and staged demonstrations; for fully eight days no work of any sort was done in Vienna or the provincial towns, while demonstrations were held from morning to night. The number of broken window-panes grew at a terrifying rate, and for the first time in a considerable number of years the streets resounded with the cry: “Down with the government!” Both the Christian and the German-Nationalist papers lost many readers; but the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ again basked in the sunshine of fortune’s smiles. CHAPTER VII. ZWICKERL GOES INTO BANKRUPTCY Herr Zwickerl was in a bad humor, venting his wrath by furious pokes at the cherry _Strudel_ on the plate before him. Frau Zwickerl anticipated the approaching storm: “What’s eating you now, Anton? Isn’t business going?” This was too much for Herr Zwickerl. He pushed away the cherry _Strudel_; and his face grew redder than the cherries as he roared: “You bet business is going! To the devil, that’s where! I might as well tell you--I’ve got to go into bankruptcy!” “Jesus Christ!” shrieked Frau Zwickerl. “How can that be? The store’s always been crowded, and everybody thinks you got a gold-mine from that Jew Lessner!” “Yah,” sneered Zwickerl, “a gold-mine full o’ mud! The more people buy, the more I lose. And you know what? It’s all on account o’ that damnable exchange! It’s kronen, measly kronen, what I take in, while Czech crowns and francs fly out the window. I buy ten thousand yards of batiste in Reichenberg; a week later the salesman of that division comes to me, his silly face shining with joy, and says, ‘Herr Zwickerl, these goods fairly fly out of the store! Tomorrow there won’t be a single yard left in the house!’ “That’s fine, I think, and go to the bookkeeper; and when we go over the accounts I see I’ve lost on every yard, because the Czech crown has gone up again. And this is only one case out of a hundred. I always add three hundred per cent to every price, but the krone still falls quicker than I can raise the prices. I’m losing all the time; the Länderbank, which backed me when I took over the store, is demanding its money, and I can’t pay, because I have a terrific deficit. What’s more, I need another billion, because I can’t buy any more without it!” Having let off steam, Herr Zwickerl now felt calmer. Drawing the cherry _Strudel_ toward him, he continued with a shrewd wink: