Part 55 (2/2)

(_Ghostly laughter shakes the rows of the dead._)

The distinguished and the wealthy must surely have had a bad day.

It fairly smelled of money and they had to lie with the worms.

It almost threw them out of their graves.

_Many_

Money ... money ... money.... (_Ghostly laughter._)

But you poor devils hadn't a much better time either. It smelled of money and you couldn't even beg. (_Laughter._)

It is high time for all of you to be forgetting life.... Come quickly into the synagogue.... (_Many of the dead vanish._)

It gave me really an exalted feeling to see how little fear of us they felt.

Don't flatter yourself. We would have been no better. We were no better either.

_Many_

(_At the same time._) Money ... Money ... Money....

_Others_

And that is life ... that is life ... that is life....

It exalted me in my grave too. So many women walked about here today. Young ones and pretty ones, I wager.... (_Laughter._)

Who speaks thus? Who opens his mouth to speak such ugly words?

It's the petty field surgeon who lies buried by the wall.

_The Pious Rabbi_

(_In pa.s.sing. His praying shawl hangs but loosely over his left shoulder._) They have dug up my whole grave.... They have dug away my right arm. Woe, how shall I now put on my praying shawl? How shall I appear before G.o.d? (_To a group._) Will not some one help me to put on my praying shawl?

(_They surround and help him. They show signs of deep feeling at the sight of the missing arm. Murmurs of astonishment and compa.s.sion._)

_Many_

Woe ... woe ... woe....

_Others_

Money ... money ... money....

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