276 THE PRUSSIAN GENTLEMAN. 



pawnbroker's box. The linen was displayed upon the counter ; a few 

 yards were unrolled ; and having been subjected to the educated eye 

 of the shopman, was received as cloth of the most delicate web, and 

 money was lent accordingly. Kutzlus paid two or three visits of the 

 kind to nearly every money-lender in the metropolis ; and it was not 

 until the several shop-keepers had, in the way of trade, remarked to 

 each other, on the unaccountable influx of Irish linen, that one of our 

 friend Hans' samples was more rigidly examined. Great was the 

 surprize greater the indignation, of every pawnbroker : for, upon 

 unrolling the pledge of Hans, the first six or eight yards displayed a 

 delicacy of texture not " continued in the next !" The first were, 

 indeed, as housewives have it, " fine as a hair," but beyond, ensued 

 and ended the coarsest cotton ; or, in the emphatic words of Hans 

 and he laughed to choaking, as he uttered them " coffin cloth !" 

 We believe, had the law allowed it, a gallows, emulating the altitude 

 of Hamon's gibbet, might, in less than four-and-twenty hours, have 

 been erected, by pawnbrokers' subscriptions, for the exaltation of 

 Hans Kutzlus. The excommunication of Ernulphus, cited by Mr. 

 Shandy, is replete with charity and benedictions, compared to the 

 aspirations of which Hans was the sole and peculiar object. How- 

 ever, as the Irishman on his death-bed, owned, as a saving grace, 

 that he had once " shot a gauger," so, we verily believe, die as he 

 may, Hans Kutzlus will find a delicious solace in the consciousness 

 of having robbed a pawnbroker ! 



Hans once pawned a watch. Luckless was the man who took it 

 in ! By day and night was the chronometer of Hans a source of 

 exquisite annoyance to the money-lender. Hans entertained a notion, 

 which, in a theoretical view, was by no means extravagant; but, 

 practically applied, demanded of the patient all the virtue of the man 



of Uz. Hans reasoned thus : " Mr. having my watch, surely 



I have a right to call at any time to ask the hour." And this right 

 he never lost an opportunity of enforcing. Thus for the shop lay a 

 few doors from his home at morning and night he would call, with 

 his one question, " Vhat's o'clock ?" He would knock, ring the bell, 

 thump the shutter and when, at length, the night-capped pawn- 

 broker threw up the window, and thrust forth his head there, like 

 the night raven, was Hans. Pop was the question "Vhat's 

 o'clock ?" At times, by some subtle invention, he would inflict the 



query as the sting of a narrative as thus : " Mr. , mem vife is 



just got a litteel poy ; and as I put down in de Pible ven de children 

 are porn, vill you tell me vkafs o'clock?" At other times, his wife, 

 or his " litteel poy" was ill, and having to take medicine at a certain 

 hour, he just begged to know "vhat's o'clock?" Mercury for 

 surely he is Hans' tutelar deity alone knows how long this war 

 would have been inflicted on the pawnbroker, had not a most fortu- 

 nate occurrence put an end to the evil. His shop was one night 

 burnt to the ground, and with it was irretrievably lost the " family 

 watch" of Hans Kutzlus. 



Despite that a recorder's report is published every week or two 

 that transports sail for New Holland every other sessions Hans 

 Kutzlus is still alive, in London, and at liberty! 



