We all alike must perish!
The scythe of death at last
Mowed down the wealthy brother,
As it the sister had mown.
And when the wealthy brother
His end approaching saw,
He sent for his notary quickly,
And straightway made his will.
With legacies large and lib’ral
The clergy he endow’d,
The schools, and the great museum
Of zoological things.
And noble sums moreover
The great testator bequeath’d
To the deaf and dumb asylum
And Jewish Conversion fund.
A handsome bell bestow’d he
On the new Saint Stephen’s tower;
It weighs five hundred centners,
Of first-rate metal too.
It is a bell enormous,
And sounds both early and late;
It sounds to the praise and glory
Of that most excellent man.
It tells, with its tongue of iron,
Of all the good he has done
To the town and his fellow-townsmen,
Whatever might be their faith.
Thou great benefactor of mortals
In death as well as in life
The great bell’s ever proclaiming
Each benefaction of thine!
The funeral next with all honour
And pomp was solemnized,
The people crowded to see it
And reverently gazed.
Upon a coal-black carriage,
Like a vast canopy
Adorn’d with black ostrich feathers,
The splendid coffin lay.