The variety dancer Lola Lalà: The clever woman said jokingly: When
women break down, they remain standing for a long time.--Farewell,
young lady. Lola Lalà, alias Lene Levi, runs as though insane.
V. Burglary scene at Lola's:
--The professional burglar Benjamin, lying under the bed, didn't
know what to think. His head shook and his skull hit a senseless
bedpost, which gave off a fixed tone. Benjamin was frightened. The
lamp fell over. The curtains ignited immediately.
Suddenly she (Lola Lalà) also became frightened. Everything slurped
up by licking fire. Ran out. Shut the door. Locked it. Twice.
Senseless. Suddenly, pitiful masculine shouts from behind the door:
Help, help. She screamed: Murderer, murderer, murderer. Ran. Onto
the street in the peace of the evening: People coming out of houses.
Helpless. She ran by all of them. Murderer, murderer... A crazy
woman came up behind her. A dog catcher was able to grasp her.
Murderer, murderer. Took her in an open hackney cab and through the
town. Murderer, murderer. Windows go up, cars stop. Running about.
Into lunatic section of the hospital.
In the meantime, burning room. Burglar Benjamin thrashing at the
window: Help. Forbidden action. Help. One shouldnt become a
social democrat that way. Wailing: a police trap, to let decent
people burn in a fire. Help, help. Fire department comes. Help.
Water sprays him. From the frying pan into the fire. He can even
jump right now into the river. Drowns.
When the half-decayed corpse was pulled from the water, the doctor,
still drunk, began to make bad jokes. Dr. Bryller vomited.
All talking, thinking, writing is useless; a corpse pulled from the
water, lying dead in front of you, ruins everything written with its
terrible distortion. See how the face and the hands are rigid as
though clamped in iron! As though they are screaming to get out of
themselves!
VI. Lunatic asylum scene: the insane red-haired sister of Martin
Müller (Maria).
"The earth is getting dark", said Maria, the insane red-haired sister
of Martin Müller. (She loves her brother). She strokes little Kohn,
but says: "I can love only saints". All around were the melodies of
the evening, which conceal everything as with a silk veil: the green
trees, the longing earth, the bench with the red-haired girl and the
little humpback.
In the lunatic asylum: one inmate, a lady with hair already rather
gray, said: "If one stops here too long, one stays."--A modern writer
who imagines he is there only to study the milieu, but who has, in
reality, a softening of the brain, etc.
VII. Kohn's first lover (on Laaks' order): Hysterical person, the
bugs really crept around in the kitchen.