Reformer: Well, there is international peace and arbitration. You will admit that our first duty is to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.
Vegetarian: Ah, I see! And the habit of living by bloodshed doesn't come within your scope!
Reformer: Then there is the land question, and the need of relieving the congestion of our crowded cities by the revival of agriculture.
Vegetarian: So, of course, you can't attend to a diet-system which would bring people back to the land!
Reformer: There is also the temperance problem—the terrible evils of the drink crave.
Vegetarian: Which would disappear for the most part if we left off eating flesh.
Reformer: And the welfare of animals—for to that also I devote myself. We need some stringent legislation for the better prevention of cruelty.
Vegetarian: We do. But as such legislation would leave your reformers dinnerless, don't you think you should revise your dietary meantime? Your reforms are excellent, I grant you; but what of self-reform? Does not reform, like charity, begin at home?
Reformer: Well, well; to everyone his taste—reform or self-reform. I prefer the former; you the latter, I suppose.
Vegetarian: No; that is just where you are mistaken. I prefer both at once.