CHAPTER 21. A RUINOUS HABIT.

January 21, 1908.

"My good Frank, have you heard anything today... about our lovely ladies being forbidden to smoke in public places? And who forbade it... the man who is the most vivid and, what is more, the most zealous admirer of the charms of the aforementioned representatives of the cunning sex! Unhappy little Tim!"

"Since the day they assigned me... an eleven-hour workday... dear Mason... I no longer hear anything... and... what's there to hide!... I don't wish to hear anything at all! My family life has condemned me to unceasing toil... and my unceasing toil, in turn, has condemned me to family life! It is wonderful when a woman awaits you at home every day—it is far worse when you have to go looking for her every day!" said an extraordinarily exhausted Frank with indescribable sadness.

"Astonishing! I did not expect anything more… entertaining!... from our current government!" another representative of that social class, Jim, suddenly intervened in the conversation of the two aforementioned workers. "If it is necessary to distract public attention from one problem, you must attract it to another… or, what is even more exciting!... you must create a new problem!"

"Don't be a fool, Jim! That decree will be the reason for... a certain quality of... replenishment of the municipal budget, for what can... better than fines and taxes!... replenish the municipal budget?"

"That decree is more likely to be the reason for the replenishment of... private, individual budgets! And besides, Jack, why is it that... prohibitive, rather than permissive, regulations substantially replenish certain budgets?"

"Perhaps because, Jim, that is what they are created for? The moral and legal aspects... which are allegedly the cornerstone of these regulations!... are mentioned by the founders of formally established rules of social conduct only because it allows them to appear as benefactors in the eyes of society... and consequently... if they are benefactors in the eyes of society... they will be the legally elected managers of the aforementioned kind of funds."

"With that kind of arrogance... it won't be long before they establish a tax on life itself! As if I wanted to be born! As if I want to live here!" a thirty-year-old factory worker, Samuel Carter, said irascibly.

"Oh, these lawmakers! For the sake of peace and prosperity, they often put a heavy metal revolver to a person's mind and, what is most agonizing, to a person's heart... just as they are doing now!"

"A revolver? What foolishness, Lewis? Hey, Mason! Perhaps... we shouldn't pay... the slightest grain of attention... to these insane decrees at all?"

"Of course not," Jack said cheerfully. "You are not a woman, and consequently you are not a subject of that rule of conduct that was established by the current government for some purpose!"

"My dear Lewis! It is impossible not to pay attention to that which not only changes so rapidly, but also, what is important, arises so rapidly!" Francis Mason said melancholically and immediately continued to perform the very work for which he had for many years received not only constant payment, but also, it must be noted, constant gratitude.

"Life... What is life?" Fred Richmond said with a heavy sigh. "No more and no less than a road... no more and no less than a path! And all kinds of Sullivans... for some reason, in our understanding... and for some purpose, in theirs... set all sorts of traps of all kinds... on our path, on our road... and can we... and is it possible for us to... overcome these traps? They set these traps... as if, for our own good... as if, for our own safety... but for some reason, or rather for some purpose, we are the ones who get caught in them! We are unable to avoid them, unless, of course, we remain in one place..."

"And even in the same place you won't be able to avoid falling into one trap or another!" the aforementioned Jack said cheerfully.

"Agreed... whatever our path... whether it consists of Sullivan's traps or someone else's traps... we must go on! Go on and clear this path—clear it for... and in the name of our descendants!"

"That's true, Jim, but there are far too many traps—and besides, their number isn't decreasing... but, what's important, their number is growing every day! In the near future, our path will be entirely made up of traps, and consequently of nothing but pain and suffering!"

"Then... we should learn how to properly step into these traps!" Francis Mason blurted out with inspiration, as if from a falconet.

"Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Enough of this foolish prattle! You shouldn't blame the traps when your own carelessness is to blame! Should that bird that for some reason got caught in a snare blame the snare? Or should it blame the hunter? No! It should blame only its own foolishness, because... because the entire world, the entire planet is at its disposal, and yet... and yet it gets caught in this very place!"

"Samuel is right about some things, but... but about some things, he is not! And yet... having heard all that you have just said, I can only say one thing: in this life, everything is, indeed, very simple—either you are the hammer, or you are the anvil... either you are a Sullivan, or you are that on which this hammer strikes!"

"Yes, Lewis... what can I say!... Today it is beneficial for all governments to have living corpses at their disposal—physically alive... and mentally dead!"