[A man passes. Enter lady from Left. Stops lady Center. Sings and holds out his hat.]
The rich man in his banquet hall,
Has everything I long for!
The poor man gets the scraps that fall;
That's what I sing this song for.
Kind sir, have pity while you can—
[Man exit Left.]
Do you see? he doesn't give me anything! (Social enlightenment ends with the lower classes. That is where need is greatest and the police are thickest.)
Young Man [to the Cocotte]. I would buy you a flying machine too, but you shouldn't fly alone in it—Ah, to soar with you a thousand meters above the earth—and far and wide nothing—only you and our love—
Cocotte. What a wonderful boy you are.
[She flirts with the Artist.]
Beggar. How often have I wanted to commit suicide. But why should I gratify my fellow man by doing that?—suicide is the one sin I can see nothing funny in. I always say to myself, so long as there's a jail one can never starve.
Waiter. You have no dignity.
Beggar. No. My dignity was taken away from me ten years ago by the law. But I'm not so sure I want it back.