se several claims were enhanced by a white necktie,
white vest, and black cloth swallowtail coat.

"Gentlemen," began the mayor with solemnity, "my honorable predecessor
in this place has told you with admirable sagacity that the kernel of
every political question is of a religious character. Indeed, religion
is linked with every important question of the day, it is the _ratio
ultima_ of the intellectual movement of our times. Men of thought and
of learning are all agreed as to the condition to which our social life
should be and must be brought. The friends of the people are actively
and earnestly at work trying to further a healthy development of our
social and political status. Nor have their efforts been utterly
fruitless. Progress has made great conquests; yet, gentlemen, these
conquests are far from being complete. What is it that is most hostile
to liberalism in morals, to enlightenment, and to humanity? It is the
antiquated faith of departed days. Have we not heard the language of
the Holy Father in the Syllabus? But the Holy Father at Rome,
gentlemen, is no father of ours--happily he is the father only of
stupid and credulous men."

"Bravo! Well said!" resounded from the audience. Flaschen nudged
Spitzkopf, who sat next to him. "Shund is no mean speaker. Even that
fellow Voelk, of Bavaria, cannot compete with Shund."

"Gentlemen, our good sense teaches us to smile with pity at the
infallible declarations of yon Holy Father. We are firmly convinced
that papal decrees can no more stop the onward march of civilization
than they can arrest the heavenly bodies in their journeys about the
sun. 'Tis true, an [oe]cumenical council is lowering like a black
storm-cloud. But let the council meet; let it declare the Syllabus an
article of faith; it will never succeed in destroying the treasures of
independent thought which creative intellects have been hoarding up for
centuries among every people. Since men of culture have ceased to yield
unquestioning submission, like dumb sheep, to the church, they have
begun to discover that nowhere are so many falsehoods uttered as in
pulpits."

Tremendous applause, clapping, and swinging of hats, followed this
eloquent period. A distinguished gentleman, laying his hand upon Till's
shoulder, asked: "What calibre of ammunition do you use in hunting
_black_ game?"

"Conical balls of two centimetres," replied Till, with no great wit.

"Yon fellow in the pulpit fires shells of a hun