LUKE. How?
REVENUE. In a thousand ways.... [Pause.] Did you ever see an automobile?
LUKE. No.
REVENUE. They go faster than steam engines, and they don't stay on tracks. Did you ever hear of Fifth Avenue, New York?
LUKE. No.
REVENUE. Fifth Avenue is jammed with automobiles, eight deep all day long. People being killed every day. I crossed Fifth Avenue a thousand times a day, every day for weeks, never once trying to get out of the way, and always praying I'd be hit.
LUKE. And couldn't yu git hit?
REVENUE. [In disgust.] No. Automobiles only hit people who try to get out of the way. [Pause.] When that failed, I frequented the lowest dives on the Bowery, flashing a roll of money and wearing diamonds, hoping they'd kill me for them. They stole the money and diamonds, but never touched me.
LUKE. Couldn't you pick a fight?
REVENUE. I'm coming to that. You know up North they believe that a man can be killed in the South for calling another man a liar.