"The fellow is a Great Mogul!" cried the carpenter, "out with him! out!"
"Quiet, quiet! Go on again!"
"Yes, fellow-citizens, I will go on. About the wood and peat! The peat is moss-peat from the bog, and crumbles apart, and gives no heat, and the wood is fir-brush, and scattered branches, which the children carry home on their shoulders; and then the potato and flax land! Where is it? In the out-fields, on the worn-out soil. How is it manured? Only by the birds, and when one looks at his few potatoes, at harvest, he clasps his hands above his head, and says, 'God preserve us! Shall the family and the pig live on those all winter!' But they do not live on them, they steal. They don't steal from Pomuchelskopp, for they would pay too dear for it, but they steal in the neighborhood, and a good friend of mine, Frau Nüssler, has given orders that, if the Gurlitz laborers are caught stealing potatoes there, they shall let them go, for they do it from necessity, and they are to be pitied!"
"Hurrah for Frau Nüssler!" said Johann Bank, and "Hurrah!" was repeated, again and again.
"And the flax!" continued Bräsig, "so long!"--measuring about a foot on his arm,--"so that even the Herr Notary Slusuhr himself, who is a particular friend of Herr Pomuchelskopp's, once made the bad joke in my presence, that the womenfolk at Gurlitz wear such short dresses, because the flax is too short to make long ones."
"He is an infamous donkey," cried the carpenter, "to be cracking his jokes at the poor! Out with him!"
"Fellow-citizens!" began Bräsig afresh, "I will only say, the house, the cow-pasture, and the wood and peat, and flax and potato land are, for the laborers in the country, their roast beef and plum pudding, they are very nice; but they can't get them, and therefore there is poverty in the country. But how does it come about in the city? Fellow-citizens, I will tell you, for I have lived here long enough, and have studied human nature: the great poverty in the city comes from the great destitution here!"
With that, he made a bow, and took his leave, and "Bravo!" resounded through the hall: "The man is right!" "Long live Inspector Bräsig!"
And then President Rein dismissed the assembly, saying that after such a speech no one could have anything more to say; and they all came up and congratulated Bräsig, and shook hands with him all at once, all except Pomuchelskopp and the city musician, David Berger; the one had stolen away quietly, and the other had run home to call together his fellow-musicians, and when Bräsig stepped out of Grammelin's door, there stood seven brass instruments before him, in a semi-circle, and opened fire on him at once, with "Hail to the chief!" and David Berger had his spectacles on, and was conducting with Grammelin's billiard cue, so that Uncle Bräsig must look out for his head. And the Gurlitz laborers stood around him, in a body, and weaver Ruhrdanz said, "Don't be afraid, Herr Inspector, you have stood by us, and we will stand by you." And as Bräsig was escorted by this festive procession, across the market, and through the streets of Rahnstadt, these poor, despised people followed him in trust and reverence, for it was the first time that the world had troubled itself about their distress and sorrow, and the feeling that one is not wholly forsaken works more good in the human soul than any amount of admonitions.
Before the Frau Pastorin's house, Bräsig made a short speech to his guard of honor: he regretted that he could not invite them in, but it would be unsuitable in a clerical house, for he lived with the Frau Pastorin; but he hoped they would all meet him at Grammelin's, to-morrow evening, over a bowl of punch. They received this with a "Hurrah!" and when Bräsig had gone to bed, after telling Karl the whole story, the Rahnstadt glee-club sang under window,