JAEGER
Little good that would do, father Baumert. There's been plenty written about it in the news-papers. But the rich people, they can turn and twist things round … as cunning as the devil himself.
OLD BAUMERT
[Shaking his head.] To think they've no more sense than that in Berlin.
ANSORGE
And is it really true, Moritz? Is there no law to help us? If a man hasn't been able to scrape together enough to pay his mortgage interest, though he's worked the very skin off his hands, must his house be taken from him? The peasant that's lent the money on it, he wants his rights—what else can you look for from him? But what's to be the end of it all, I don't know.—If I'm put out o' the house … [In a voice choked by tears.] I was born here, and here my father sat at his loom for more than forty year. Many was the time he said to mother: Mother, when I'm gone, keep hold o' the house. I've worked hard for it. Every nail means a night's weavin', every plank a year's dry bread. A man would think that …
JAEGER
They're just as like to take the last bite out of your mouth—that's what they are.
ANSORGE
Well, well, well! I would rather be carried out than have to walk out now in my old days. Who minds dyin'? My father, he was glad to die. At the very end he got frightened, but I crept into bed beside him, an' he quieted down again. Think of it; I was a lad of thirteen then. I was tired and fell asleep beside him—I knew no better—and when I woke he was quite cold.