Lilienfeld, red as a lobster with rage, fidgeted on his seat.

“In the opinion of these men, circumventers and despisers of the laws of the land, the United States is here merely for their purposes, to allow them to sow disease and rake in the dollars.  They are not good American citizens, these peculiar Europeans.  They are not citizens at all.”  Mr. Garry pronounced every word with hard correctness.  “That is why it is a matter of perfect indifference to them if our religion, our customs, our morals are destroyed.  They are unscrupulous birds of prey, and once they have filled their crops, they return with their spoil to their haunts in Europe.  The time has come when Americans should take thought and repel the invasion of such parasites.”

While the old jingo made these cutting remarks, speaking with an unshaken front, proudly, hitting straight out from the shoulder, Frederick unwearyingly watched every movement of his hard, noble old face.  The anthropologist and the newly awakened sculptor in him were equally stirred.  When comparing the “freebooters” to birds of prey, Garry himself had resembled a bird of prey.  His expression was like an eagle’s.  He stood with his back to the windows, but with his head turned slightly to one side, and when he spoke of the birds filling their crops, it seemed to Frederick that his light-blue eyes paled to a whitish sheen.

Garry now came down to the subject of Ingigerd.

“By God’s will a tremendous shipwreck has occurred, an appalling event, wholly calculated to turn men’s thoughts to repentance.”  He interrupted himself to say it was useless to go into more details on this point, since those who did not know how to respect such a visitation from God were beyond redemption.  “It has not been proved that the girl who survived the shipwreck is over sixteen years of age.  I propose to place her in a hospital, have one of the steamship companies transport her back to Europe as soon as possible, and consign her to her mother, who lives in Paris.  She should be placed in the care of a physician and under guardianship.  She has been trained to do a certain dance, during which she falls into a pathologic condition not unlike an epileptic fit.  She turns stiff and rigid as a block of wood, her eyes start from her head, she plucks at her clothes.  Finally, she falls into a faint and loses consciousness of her surroundings.  Such things do not belong on the stage.  It would be an outrage, an insult to public opinion to reproduce this hospital scene in a theatre.  I protest against it in the name of good taste, in the name of public morality, in the name of American decency.  It is not seemly to drag that poor unfortunate child before an audience and shamelessly exploit her misery, merely because the shipwreck has placed her name in everybody’s mouth.”