Seven Hundred and Five Boys and One Great Bell

According to a contemporary witness the great bell was lowered from its wagon by the church of Our Lady of the Snows onto a stout wooden sledge, from which it was to be dragged all the way to the town hall tower. Seven hundred and five boys gathered for it, among them the sons of aldermen and of distinguished noblemen, who seized the ropes and, with deafening shouts and whooping, hauled the heavy bell to the very spot. As a reward each boy was given a little silver groschen with a roll and a cup of mead, which was accepted without grumbling. But when the town beadles held a few of them back to give them a thrashing with rods, by the ancient custom kept in Bohemia until recently, so that the memory should fix itself the better, there was said to be enormous laughter among the assembled crowd — and weeping among the boys.