The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-12-27 00:00:00

A.PREENWICH PEllgtONk

med the office

shakitg his hesid.

This won't do, Thomp•
if you con-

rate courseM, the 1c

of your leg will

we•you

Yer hoe°

knows NI

here I lost it

rejoined the pensioner

ssuming a rueful griffiin•eisage loot

which was meant to convey

what of the

didn't go overboard without company ;" and he looked
at the jury-limb of the lieutenant. " But our legs being
buried together is no reason you should be constantly getting
into trouble, and expect me to get you out of it again," re-
turned the officer, looking over the black list, which he held
in his hand ; our legs did not have kindred soles, old man ;
and here I find your name, like the heading of a log-book,
on every page, drunk'—' drunk'—everlastingly drunk ;'
and running stem on, into all sorts of mischief. Why, it is
only a week ago that you paid seven shillings for the freak
you played in a china shop, by riding upon a donkey slap
abroad the crockery ; and," turning over the leaves, " a few
days before that, you were hauled up before Colonel Forman
for knocking Bonaparte from an Italian's image-board ; and
now here you are once more in limbo, for getting drunk, and
using abusive language to the main-guard." "Why, ye;
honour, as for that 'ere donkey consarn," rejoined the pen-
sioner, resuming his hat and his list to starboard, " I.was
just going to show 'em how to steer the hanimal, all nat'ral
like, by his tiller, instead of hauling it upon his head-braces,
when he flings out abaft, and slap he runs me right into an
enemy's port. And in regard o' the matter o' Boney,"
added he, hitching up his azure inexpressibles with his wrists,
and giving a severe turn to his quid, " why, yer honour, it
warn't in natur' to see him standing up at full length all
ataunt-o, with his boots fresh black'd, and his spurs rigg'd
out below, and his sky-scraper cross'd aloft, and to see Wel-
lington's head alongside of him, with not never a bit of body
whatsomever, as if Boney had just taken it off the duke's
shoulders. I'm no sodger anyhow, but I'm bless'd if that
warn't coming it too strong ; and so I doused him like a
widow's pig, though I hardly thought they would have logged
the matter o' that again me. But, howsomever, the worthy
magistrate made all that square, an' guy me a glass o' grog
into the bargain. And as to abusing the main-guard, why,
I suppose it's a correct reckoning, seeing.as yer honour has
got it down in black and white, though, for my own part, I
don't disremember any thing about it whatsomever." And
poor Thompson ultimately found favour where he had often
found it before.—Naval Club Book.
A STUDENT'S FUNERAL.—On the 22nd of July, 1840, I
witnessed, in_ Heidelberg, one of these most singular and
striking ceremonies. The deceased was a young man from
Hamburgh, who died of consumption ; and the general
esteem in which he was held by his fellow-students was
testified by the mode in which they celebrated his obsequies.
When it is intended to show more than ordinary respect for
a deceased fellow-student, his funeral is conducted by torch-
light, and all or the greater part of the students attend.
* * Bells were tolling from various churches, and the pro-
cession was proceeding through the principal street to the
lodgings of the deceased, as we went into the city about eight
o'closk. We were at too great a distance to see more than
a crowd and the torches; but on reaching the house, the
scene was singular to an English eye, and deeply interesting.
The main part of the procession had halted at the distance of
three or four hundred yards, where they had extinguished
their torches. Before this house stood a sort of low covered
car, or waggon, with six black horses ; the four first in Ger-
man fashion, at a considerabledistance from each other, and
from the wheelers, and having, as usual, traces of ropes, but
in this case black ones. The car, which, unlike our English
hearses, was not boarded up top and sides, but appeared
merely covered with an awning supported by bows of wood,
had laid upon it a plain pall of black velvet, and upon the
pall three garlands of leaves and flowers. The outer garlands
seemed to be composed entirely of laurels, and occupied the
whole outer portion of the pall, with the exception of a broad
margin. Within that was another, which appeared coin.
posed of roses and lilies; and then a central one, of flowers
also. This inner garland, which was very beautiful, was
said to be the work and gift of a female hand. Within
it lay his cap, his gloves, and sword. One wondered
that the sword should be there, and the books not ; and
had one inclined to be critical on such an occasion, we
should have asked why not, as well as the sword, the pipe,
the beer-glass, the stick, and the spectacles? The sword,
except as denoting the character of the students for duelling,
was a singular appendage for a student ; but, without being
too critical, the whole effect was rich and beautiful. The
garlands of laurel and splendid flowers were so dispersed as
to cover nearly the whole surface of the pall with a mass of
rich and mosaic beauty, which was made visible to the crowd
of spectators by a light set upon it as well as by the flare of
a cresset-fire, which was burning before the house, on the
opposite side of the little street. Behind the car stood two
rows of about twenty torch-bearers each, but with their
torches also extinguished. These men were not students,
but hired attendants, probably the boot-cleaners of the stu-
dents, called by them boot-foxes. Many of them were of
considerable age. In this manner stood the car and its at-
tendants before the house for a quarter of an hour,
when the coffin, also richly covered with black velvet, and
white ornamental work of silver-plated nails and shields,
was put into the car, the light was removed from the top,
and the attendants, lighting their torches at the funeral
fire in the cresset, communicated light from one to ano-
ther down the line. The pall-bearers, who were young stu-
dents from the native town or neighbourhood of the deceased,
took their places on each side of the car, dressed in court
dresses, with their swords, and wearing white scarfs. The
mutes with staves of black, ornamented with bunches of
white crape, walked on each side; the band struck up a
mournful strain, and the procession moved on. The band,
a military one, from Mannheim, a full and very superior one,
preceded the car, the musicians being clothed also in black.
Immediately behind came the chef mourners, young students
in full dresses, with white neckcloths, and white gloves.
These carried no torches, but on each side of them walked
the hired torch-bearers. Then followed the main and almost
innumerable train of students, in their usual costume of frock
coats and caps. * * * The procession, taking a circuit,
came along the main street for a considerable part of its
length, where, of course, a dense crowd was collected, and
every window in the upper rooms thronged with spectators.
The students were about seven hundreds, and it is pro-
bable that the greater part followed, for the whole length
of the street, as far as it could be seen both ways, was
occupied by their two lines of torches, and they con-
tinued passing for some time. The whole procession could
not be much less in length than half a mile. The effect was
singular and impressive. * * * The procession passed
on to the church near the end of the city, where the students
are generally buried, where the clergyman performed the cus-
tomary service, and then a student pronounced an oration
over their departed companion. The service being over, the
procession then returned by the main street to the Museum
Plaz. * * * As we stood at the .vindow of the Museum,
we could see above the houses the light in the air over the spot
where they were committing his mortal remains to the earth.
Anon, the light moved, it became like a streaming lustrous
cloud above the roofs in the direction of the High-street.
The sound of the music became audible, and presently the
first torches came flaring through the darkness, round the
corner, from the street into the square. Nothing can sur-
pass the strange and wild effect of this scene. The proces-
sion, which had gone towards the church slowly, now re-
turned at a quick pace ; the music, which had been dolorous
and complaining, was now gay and triumphant. The band
was playing a martial and resounding air ; the students in a
wild troop, three abreast, came rushing on, whirling round
and round their torches, and shaking them above their heads,
like so many wild Bacchanalians, and crowds of boys and
young men ran on each side, amid the mingled flare, and
smoke, and gloom, some of them having snatched up fallen
and nearly burnt-out torches, and whirling them fiercely
about as they ran. The band halted before the door of the
Museum, and continued playing while the students formed
themselves into a large circle in the square. The first, as he
took his place, flung his blazing torch to some distance on
the ground, and every one as he arrived did the same. This
became the centre of the ring, round which the whole train
arranged itself; and as the young men came near its bound,
they tossed up their torches into the air, which came
whirling and flaming down from a hundred places into
the area of the circle. The scene was most wild and
strange. The gathering ring of densely standing figures,
all in the Burschen costume ; the lights tossing, and spinning,
and falling through the air ; the hundreds of them lying and
blazing on the ground ; while others, flying errant, dropped
into the thickest masses of the spectators, and were again
snatched up, and again sent aloft, and through all this the
band playing in a consonant thunder and rending strain of
exciting music. * * * When the circle was completes
and the torches had been flung down, the marschals and the
police were seen walking about in it. The scattered torche,
were thrown together, till they formed one blazini, heap,
which illuminated with its red light the whole walls and win-
dows of the square, and sent up a rolling column of pitchy
smoke, that hung like a sable canopy above the crowds. At
once, the band ceased playing; there was a pause of deep
silence, and then the whole circle of students, as they stood
round the flames, burst forth into a funeral song. which, un-
expected as it was, and sudden and solemn as was the strain,
startled and thrilled beyond description. The deep red light
flung upon the circle; the dark groups behind ; the mar-
schals and seniors standing with drawn swords ' • the blazing
pile in the centre, and the sound of the funeral hymn, sung
by hupdreds of deep and manly voices, like the sound as of
the sea itself—was altogether so wild, so novel, and strange,
that it is not to be conceived by those who have not wit-
nessed the like, nor forgotten by those who have. The song
was that sung on all such occasions, the hymn for the main-
tenance of their academical liberty. As it closed, one of tho
seniors stood forward, and wielded his sword as in defiance..
The rest rushed together, and with wild cries clashing their
swords above their heads, there was a shout—" Quench the
fire !" and the whole of the skudents at once dispersed. The
crowds then closed round it, waterwas thrown on the flames,
the dense black column of smoke changed into a white one,
and the whole was over.—Rural and Domestic Life of Ger-
many; by William Howilt