TARÁS. It seems to have bowled you over too!
TRAMP. No, not exactly that, though I have suffered from that too. The career of my life might have been different but for the drink.
TARÁS. Now, to my thinking, if you drink reasonably, there's no manner of harm in it.
TRAMP. But I say that it is so strong that it may completely ruin a man.
MARTHA. That's what I say: you worry and do your best, and the only comfort you get is to be scolded and beaten like a dog.
TRAMP. And that's not all. There are some people, persons I mean, that are quite deprived of their reason through it and commit entirely inappropriate actions. While he does not drink, give him anything you like and he won't take what is not his; but when drunk, he grabs whatever comes handy. Many a time one gets beaten and put in prison. As long as I don't drink, all goes honestly and honourably, but as soon as I drink, I mean as soon as that same person drinks, he at once begins grabbing whatever comes his way.
AKULÍNA. And I think it's all in oneself.
TRAMP. Of course it's in oneself as long as one is well, but this is a kind of disease.
TARÁS. A nice kind of disease. A good hiding would soon cure that disease. Well, goodbye for the present. [Exit].
MARTHA [wipes her hands and turns to go].