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forget it; as an American in a foreign country you are always representing your dignified homeland.
    He looked at me with empty eyes for a long while. I was sure he was still at supper with his dame and was not quite  sure if the time had now come to tell her why he had invited her to have supper with him so late at night, and in his apartment, too, and all alone.
    I didn’t want to wait until he had reached breakfast with that Kentucky dame, so I said: “Maybe, Mr. Consul, sir, there might be a chance to get me a ship making for home. A skipper may easily be short a man.”
    He came to, and snapped: “Eh? What did you —? No, no, of course not. There is no such possibility. An American ship without papers? Not from me, no, sir. Not from me.”
    “Then, where can I get papers, if not from you, sir?”
    “Not my concern, old man. Did I take away your papers? I certainly did not. Any bum might step in here and ask me to provide him with legal papers. No, sir.”
    “Has it never happened, here in your office, sir, that people have come in to tell you that they have lost their papers or that their papers have been stolen?”
    “Of course. Things like that do occur. But those people have money. They are not just bumming about the world like sailors, getting drunk and selling their papers to get the money to buy more booze.”
    “But I tell you, sir, I lost my papers. They are on the Tuscaloosa .”
    “Perhaps they are. Perhaps they are not. Even if you left them there as you say you did, how do you know a fellow-sailor of yours hasn’t sold them? What do you say to that?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Now, of course, if you had money, we could cable to Washington. But since you have no money, I can do nothing. My salary is not so high that I can afford to pay for a cable for you worth perhaps fifty or sixty dollars.”
    “Won’t you tell me what I can do?”
    “Since you have no papers and no proof of your American citizenship, there is nothing I can do for you. I am only an official. I have to obey rules. It certainly is not my fault. I didn’t make the law. By the way, have you had something to eat?”
    “No, sir. I told you I have no money, and I haven’t gone begging yet.”
    “Wait just a minute.”
    He rose from his chair and went into another room.
    After a few minutes he came back and gave me a sort of ticket.
    “With this ticket you will be provided for three full days with three meals each day and lodging. The address of the boarding-house is printed here. After this ticket has expired, if you are still without a berth, you may drop in here again for another one. You are welcome. Why don’t you try some ship sailing under a different flag? There are a good many ships nowadays that are not so very particular as to papers. Some even go across to the Canadian coast. Of course, you understand I make no suggestions. Find out for yourself. My hands are bound in a case like yours. After all is said and done, I am nothing but a servant of the government. Really sorry, old man. Good-by and good luck!”
    I was almost convinced that that man was right after all. Maybe he was not to blame. Why, he has no reason to be that way with me. I never saw him before. I never did him harm. Why should he harm me? He was only a servant of that soulless beast called the state. He had every answer ready for me before I spoke. They must have been part of his education, and they had to be memorized before he could pass the examinations for his diplomatic career.
    However, when he asked me if I was hungry, he really forgot for a second or two that he was nothing but a servant of the state. Then he became quite human and showed that he still had some soul left. Nothing strange about that. To be hungry is human. To have papers or not to have papers is inhuman. It is against nature’s laws. That’s the point. There is a good reason for being the way he is. The state cannot make use of human beings. It would cease to exist.