Foreign + 

Artsybashev is a Russian. + 

I am an American. + 

Let us wonder, my townspeople, + 

if Artsybashev tends his own fires + 

as I do, gets himself cursed + 

for the baby’s failure to thrive, + 

loosens windows for the woman + 

who cleans his parlor⁠— + 

or has he neat servants + 

and a quiet library, an + 

intellectual wife perhaps and + 

no children⁠—an apartment + 

somewhere in a back street or + 

lives alone or with his mother + 

or sister⁠— + 

I wonder, my townspeople, + 

if Artsybashev looks upon + 

himself the more concernedly + 

or succeeds any better than I + 

in laying the world. + 

I wonder which is the bigger + 

fool in his own mind. + 

These are shining topics + 

my townspeople but⁠— + 

hardly of great moment. + 