When the coffin was carried out and lifted into the hearse, and Paul came out of his house, he saw through the veil of tears that obscured his vision that several hundred men were standing in orderly array on the opposite side of the Carlstrasse.

They were young for the most part, but there was a sprinkling of older men among them; all were poorly, but cleanly and decently dressed, and every man had a red everlasting in his buttonhole.

They stood as motionless as a troop under arms, and apparently followed the orders of a gray-bearded man who paced authoritatively up and down the silent line.
Paul was surprised, and asked the undertaker, who was waiting for him beside the hearse, who these people were.

He had not invited anybody, and did not expect there would be a crowd of any kind, although the Hamburg papers had devoted whole columns to the accident.
The undertaker went over and addressed himself to the man who was evidently the leader of the party.

He informed Paul on his return: "They are workingmen's societies from Hamburg and Altona.