It was, in fact, that erroneous statement "The King can do
no wrong" done up into tabloid form. From it, too, sprang that
double-worded maxim of the days of chivalry, "_Noblesse oblige_."
In our own time, the two-worded phrase is "Money talks," and if diligent
inquirers probe deeply into the matter, they will find that the
aspirations of the people always correspond with reasonable accuracy to
the meaning of the phrase then in use. Nothing could be more excellent,
for instance, than the proverb "Money talks" as representing two
commercial countries like America and England. In that short sentence is
packed the essence of many other wise and drastic sayings, as, for
instance, "The devil take the hindmost;" for, of course, if money talks,
then the man without it must remain silent, and his place is at the tail
of the procession, where the devil prowls about like a Cossack at the
rear of Napoleon's army.
Confronting each other in that ancient house on the Fahrgasse, we
witness, then, the personification of the two phrases, ancient and
modern: blood represented by the standing lad, and money by the seated
merchant.
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