Rubes, eh? Well, thank Joshyouway, I ain’t a New Yorker, mister—where every next fella’s a Harp or a Ginny, a Kike or a Polack; where haff of ’em don’t even talk Amurrican. (_Turning to The Devil, who has been listening with approval_) Doctor Agnus, be ashamed of yourself! I’m older’n you: old enough to be Sheriff here when your daddy was Senator. And your dad, young gentleman, he told me to arrest old Commodore Vanderbilt. Yes, sir—the Commodore—driving his hosses too fast ‘long Main Street, endangerin’ lives and limbs of old women and children. Your dad, he sez: “St. Elmo, no matter who he is, any _big_ man that breaks laws is _little_.” _Little_, yes, sir; and why? “Because,” says your dad, the Honnible Maxwell Agnus, “because, Sheriff, people who don’t know no better is goin’to say: ‘If the biggest man in the country breaks laws then them laws ’es no good’—and so,” sez your dad, “ignorant people start breakin’ ’em too—” and, sez he, “the law’s like a brick barn, Sheriff; taking one brick out makes the walls git weak and, pritty soon, the whole blamed thing starts tumbling down.” THE DEVIL (_interested_) And did the Honorable Maxwell Agnus get elected to the Senate again after telling you to arrest the biggest man in the country? PEATTIE Betcha he did! People was different then. They was Amurricans. And when they found out why the Commodore hated your dad; why he was tryin’to keep him outa office agin; why, they just swan to goodness _that_ was the sorta fella they wanted in Congress—what would take up for the weak agin’ the strong. He was Senator pritty nigh fifteen years after— THE DEVIL (_smiling_) And then? PEATTIE (_reluctantly_) Wa-al _then_. Then that there Eye-talian colony got so big over to Cove Neck, and, seeing as how their votes war only a dollar apiece and a kiss for the babies, why, our votes warn’t strong enough to beat the politicians. THE DEVIL You see, money has a long memory, Sheriff. And it always wins in the end. PEATTIE But think of all the good he done in them fifteen years. THE DEVIL With the result that the railroad doesn’t run within seven miles of this village and the population has fallen to two thousand inhabitants. PEATTIE (_sulkily_) Wa-al—we’re all Amurricans, anyway. It kept the Eye-talians and the Polacks _out_. You—can’t—buy—votes—here—and _he_ (_points to Schwartzenhopfel, meaning Magnus_) can’t scare anybody like he kin New Yorkers. (_He jerks his head with a sneer at the Detectives_) Keeping ’em from arresting the man they’re sent to git—a furriner—not Amurrican, mind—a cowardly furriner that blows people up. Magnus, nor twenty Magnuses couldn’t keep me from doing my dooty on sich a villin—couldn’t keep any real Amurrican. (_Turning to the Detectives_) I’ll bet you folks ain’t Amurricans? LIEUTENANT (_who all along has spoken with an Irish accent, and now, when violently angry, speaks with a pronounced brogue_) Go on, ye scut! (_He makes threatening motion at him_)