WORKINGMAN. Don't I know it. I read all about it in "Humanitie" yesterday. Do you think I'd have jumped in the water otherwise?
[_A crowd has collected around the Beggar._]
AMERICAN [_cold bloodedly._] Isn't that surprising?
BEGGAR. I am freezing. I am freezing to death.
COCOTTE. Waiter, bring him a glass of brandy and charge it to me. [_Waiter exit Right._]
CHILD [_whimpering_]. I am freezing too, Mama, I'm cold.
TOWNSWOMAN. My poor little Phillip. [_To her husband._] You never think of bringing a coat for the child. There, my darling, you shall have a cup of hot coffee right away.
TOWNSMAN [_sternly_]. Brandy is not for children. You'll drink coffee.
TOWNSWOMAN. Who says brandy is not for children? You get the most foolish ideas in your head. Hush, hush, my baby, you shall have some brandy.
AMERICAN. They ought to offer a medal for the murder of certain kinds of wives.
BEGGAR. Oh! [_Whimpering._] Oh, what a life I lead! What a life!
BEGGAR. I wish I were dead. Why did they pull me out? I want to die. What does life mean to me? What joy is there in life for me?
ARTIST. There will be less joy for you in death. [_Laughter._]
BEGGAR. If I were only young. If I only had my two strong arms again. I never dreamed I would come to this. I never would have believed it--Forty years ago I was a workingman, yes, forty years until an accident--
WORKINGMAN. Were you a Union man, brother?
BEGGAR. Certainly--certainly. [_Guardedly._] That is, I wasn't exactly a Union man but--
WORKINGMAN. What! Not a Union man. [_Rushes at him._]
TOWNSMAN. What do you want to do to that poor man?
WORKINGMAN. Throw him back in the river. [_He is held back._]
BEGGAR. Forty years I worked at the machine--and now I have nothing to show for it but diseased lungs.
TOWNSWOMAN [_decisively_]. Aristide, we are going home. Tuberculosis is contagious.
WORKINGMAN. That's capital for you. The capitalist sucks the workingman dry and then turns him out on the streets to starve. But we, the people, shall have our day. When first the uprising of the masses--
BEGGAR [_whining_]. And my military medal is gone. I must have lost it in the water. You can still see the saber wound on my arm.
YOUNG MAN. Thus the Fatherland repays its valiant sons.