LITTLE MAN, fidgets, and is about to opens his mouth.]

AMERICAN. For example--is it your opinion that we should kill off
the weak and diseased, and all that can't jump around?

GERMAN. [Nodding] 'Ja, ja'! That is coming.

LITTLE MAN. [Looking from face to face] They might be me.

[The DUTCH YOUTH laughs.]

AMERICAN. [Reproving him with a look] That's true humility.
'Tisn't grammar. Now, here's a proposition that brings it nearer the
bone: Would you step out of your way to help them when it was liable
to bring you trouble?

GERMAN. 'Nein, nein'! That is stupid.

LITTLE MAN. [Eager but wistful] I'm afraid not. Of course one
wants to--There was St Francis d'Assisi and St Julien L'Hospitalier,
and----

AMERICAN. Very lofty dispositions. Guess they died of them. [He
rises] Shake hands, sir--my name is--[He hands a card] I am an
ice-machine maker. [He shakes the LITTLE MAN's hand] I like your
sentiments--I feel kind of brotherly. [Catching sight of the WAITER
appearing in the doorway] Waiter; where to h-ll is that glass of
beer?

GERMAN. Cigarren!

WAITER. 'Komm' gleich'!

ENGLISHMAN. [Consulting watch] Train's late.

ENGLISHWOMAN. Really! Nuisance!

[A station POLICEMAN, very square and uniformed, passes and
repasses.]

AMERICAN. [Resuming his seat--to the GERMAN] Now, we don't have so
much of that in America. Guess we feel more to trust in human
nature.

GERMAN. Ah! ha! you will bresently find there is nothing in him
but self.

LITTLE MAN. [Wistfully] Don't you believe in human nature?

AMERICAN. Very stimulating question.

[He looks round for opinions. The DUTCH YOUTH laughs.]

ENGLISHMAN. [Holding out his half of the paper to his wife] Swap!

[His wife swaps.]

GERMAN. In human nature I believe so far as I can see him--no more.

AMERICAN. Now that 'pears to me kind o' blasphemy. I believe in
heroism. I opine there's not one of us settin' around here that's
not a hero--give him the occasion.

LITTLE MAN. Oh! Do you believe that?

AMERICAN. Well! I judge a hero is just a person that'll help
another at the expense of himself. Take that poor woman there.
Well, now, she's a heroine, I guess. She would die for her baby any
old time.

GERMAN. Animals will die for their babies. That is nothing.

AMERICAN. I carry it further. I postulate we would all die for that
baby if a locomotive was to trundle up right here and t