COCOTTE [_shuddering_]. I can't look at it. [_Comes back to her table._] A WOMAN. Look! He's come up! Over there! CHILD. I can't see. TOWNSWOMAN. My little heart of gold [_to her husband_]. Why don't you lift him up? Don't you hear that the child can't see? [_Townsman takes the child on his shoulder._] YOUNG MAN [_coming back to table_]. These people are utterly heartless. It is revolting. AMERICAN [_loudly_]. I'll bet twenty dollars he drowns. Who'll take the bet? Twenty dollars. YOUNG MAN. Are you a man or a beast? AMERICAN. Young man, better shut your mouth. [_Fills his glass._] YOUNG MAN. Does no one hear know the meaning of Altruism? ARTIST. Altruism! Ha, ha! [_Laughs scornfully._] Love of one's neighbor. God preserve mankind from Altruism! COCOTTE. What do you mean? You are not in earnest? ARTIST. In dead earnest. [_Some one in the crowd brings a boat hook and reaches down into the river._] AMERICAN. I'll bet twenty-five dollars that he doesn't drown--thirty dollars! [_Disgustedly, seeing that no one takes him up._] Tightwads! ARTIST. Life is like that. One man's success is another man's failure. He who sacrifices himself for an idea is a hero. He who sacrifices himself for a fellow man is a fool. YOUNG MAN [_theatrically_]. No, it is the highest, the noblest of instincts. That is why my heart bleeds when I see all these people stand indifferently by while a fellow man is drowning. No one jumps in after him-- AMERICAN. Jump in yourself, young man, jump in yourself. YOUNG MAN [_center_]. It is different with me, I am with a lady--it wouldn't be right. AMERICAN. Nobody will bet. This is a hell of a bunch. They ought to see one of our nigger lynchings. [_Strokes the dog._] Poor Molly! She is so nervous. Things like this get her all excited. [_Two Policemen enter._] FIRST POLICEMAN. Look at the mob. Something is liable to happen there. SECOND POLICEMAN. Isn't it forbidden for such a mob to gather on the dock? FIRST POLICEMAN. Sure, it's against the law. Why shouldn't it be? SECOND POLICEMAN [_shaking their heads_]. This is no place for us. [_Exit Left._] ARTIST [_to the Young Man_]. Does it begin to dawn on you that true love of one's neighbor would not only be monotonous but unbearable as well. YOUNG MAN. Out there a man is drowning--and you stand there moralizing. ARTIST. Why not? We read a dozen suicides every day. [_x to Chair Left._] Yet we go home and eat our dinner with undiminished relish. Why then sentimentalize over a drowning beggar? I wouldn't rescue a man who had fallen into the water much less one who had jumped in. YOUNG MAN [_passionately_]. Sir--I despise you! [_Goes into the crowd._] [_A man has succeeded in prying up the life buoy, now he throws it into the water with the warning cry "Look out."_] ARTIST. Love of one's neighbor is a mask. A mask that people wear to hide from themselves their real faces.