"We want something different. New ways of looking at life, new feelings, something fresh, for we ourselves are a new phase in life."
"Yes, indeed, that's what we want," says the schoolmaster.
"What's the use of discussing and thinking?" inquires "The End"; "we haven't got long to live; I'm forty, you are fifty. There is no one under thirty among us. And even if one were twenty, one could not live very long in such surroundings as these."
"And then again, what new phase are we? Tramps, it seems to We, have always existed in the world," says "Scraps" satirically.
"Tramps created Rome," says the schoolmaster.
"Yes; that was so!" said the captain jubilantly. "Romulus and Remus, were they not tramps? And we—when our time comes—we shall also create." "A breach of the peace!" interjects "Scraps," and laughs, pleased with his own wit.
His laugh is wicked, and jars on the nerves. He is echoed by Simtzoff, by the deacon, and by "Tarass and a half." The naïve eyes of the lad "Meteor" burn with a bright glow, and his cheeks flush red. "The End" mutters, in tones that fall like a hammer on the heads of the audience—
"All that's trash and nonsense, and dreams!"
It was strange to hear these people, outcasts from life, ragged, saturated with vodka, anger, irony, and filth, discussing life in this way.
For the captain such discussions were a feast. He spoke more than the others, and that gave him a chance of feeling his superiority. For however low a person may fall, he can never refuse himself the delight of feeling stronger and better off than the rest. Aristide Kouvalda abused this sensation, and never seemed to have enough of it, much to the disgust of "Scraps," "The Top," and the other outcasts, little interested in similar questions. Politics was with them the favourite topic. A discussion on the necessity of conquering India, and of checking England, would continue endlessly. The question as to the best means of sweeping the Jews off the face of the earth, was no less hotly debated. In this latter question the leader was always "Scraps," who invented marvellously cruel projects; but the captain, who liked always to be first in a discussion, evaded this topic. Women were always willingly and constantly discussed, but with unpleasant allusions; and the schoolmaster always appeared as women's champion, and grew angry when the expressions used by the others were of too strong a nature. They gave in to him, for they looked upon him as a superior being, and on Saturdays they would borrow money from him, which he had earned during the week.