"We are all in the same boat," said the professor.

"But some of us have provisioned ourselves rather better and can generally
weather it through till we are picked up," the lawyer put in.

"I am always saying the working-man is improvident," returned the
professor.

"There are the charities," the minister suggested.

"But his economical status," the Altrurian pursued, "is in a state of
perpetual uncertainty, and to save himself in some measure he has
organized, and so has constituted himself a danger to the public peace?"

"A very great danger," said the professor.

"I guess we can manage him," the manufacturer remarked.

"And socially he is non-existent?"

The Altrurian turned with this question to the banker, who said: "He is
certainly not in society."

"Then," said my guest, "if the working-man's wages are provisionally so
much better here than in Europe, why should they be discontented? What is
the real cause of their discontent?"

I have always been suspicious, in the company of practical men, of an
atmosphere of condescension to men of my calling, if nothing worse. I