hanged relating to the
threatening aspect of the affairs of the realm. Then Parliament would
meet to decide as to the particular wine to be used on a given day in
compounding the cold punch. The decision had to be solemnly laid before
His Majesty in Council, and, after due deliberation, the King would
bow, in assent; the ordinance concerning the cold punch, duly passed,
would be remitted for execution to the Minister of the Interior. Art
and Science, also, were represented in these ceremonies; the poet who
wrote a new drinking song, and the musician who composed and performed
it, receiving a decoration from His Majesty's hands in the shape of a
red hen's feather, coupled with the permission to drink an extra bottle
of wine--at their own expense. On State occasions the King had a crown,
orb, and sceptre of gilt pasteboard, and the dignitaries of the realm
wore quaint head-dresses. The symbol of the fraternity was a silver box
with a hen sitting on eggs on the lid. At the time when I forgathered
with this pleasant company, there was a large proportion of talented
people in its ranks, so that it was entertaining enough, as far a it
went."

"I have no doubt it was," said Lothair, "but I can't comprehend how a
thing of the kind could be kept up for any length of time. The best of
jokes loses its point if it is kept going so long as it seems to have
been in this 'Lodge of the Clucking Hen,' if I may so style it. You
have both, Theodore and Ottmar, told us of clubs on a grand scale, with
their rules, regulations, and mystifications. Let me direct your
attention to what was probably the very _minutest_ club that ever, I
should think, existed on this earth. In a certain little town on the
Polish frontier, occupied, at the time, by Prussia, the only German
officials were an old captain--retired on account of bad health--who
was postmaster, and the exciseman. Every evening as the clock struck
five, these two repaired to the only inn which there was in the place,
to a little room where nobody else was admitted. Generally, the
exciseman arrived there before the captain, who would find him smoking
his pipe over his jug of beer. The captain, on coming in, would greet
him with, 'Fine evening! Any news?' sit down opposite to him at the
table; light his pipe--filled beforehand; take the paper out of his
pocket, and hand each sheet, as he finished it, across to the
exciseman, who would read it with equal care and avidity. They would go
o