The externals of Mindernickel are remarkable, odd, and ridiculous. For instance, one sees him when he takes a walk, supporting his lean figure on a cane as he proceeds along the street, always clothed in black, from head to foot. He wears an old-fashioned, bell-topped, rough tall hat, a tight-fitting frock-coat shiny with age, and equally shabby trousers, which are frayed out at the bottom and far too short, so that one sees the gores of his gaiters. It must, however, be said that these clothes of his are brushed in the most scrupulous manner. His lean neck appears the longer because it lifts itself from a low folding collar. His grey hair is combed back smoothly over the temples, and the broad brim of the tall hat shades a pale, smooth-shaven face with sunken cheeks, with inflamed eyes, which are seldom raised from the ground, and two deep furrows which run sorrowfully from the nostrils to the down-drawn corners of the mouth.
Mindernickel seldom goes forth, and there is a reason for this. As soon as he appears on the street, a great many children gather, follow him for quite a distance, laughing, mocking, and singing: “Ho, ho, Tobias!” and even pull him by the coattails, while the people come to the doors and enjoy the spectacle. He himself, however, goes on without defending himself, looking shyly about him, with high-drawn shoulders and extended head, like a man who hurries through a shower without an umbrella; and even though people laugh in his face, he greets with a humble politeness this or that person standing before their doors. Later, when the children remain behind, when he comes to parts where he is not known, and only a few turn to look at him, his behaviour does not greatly alter. He continues to peer about him anxiously and to hurry along in a hangdog manner, as though he felt a thousand mocking glances levelled at him, and when he lifts his eyes, shyly and irresolutely, then one observes the strange fact that he is unable to look any person straight and quietly in the eyes, or even regard an object with fixity. He appears to lack, however strangely this may sound, the natural superiority of the sense of perception with which a human being looks upon the world of phenomena about him; he appears to feel himself inferior to every phenomenon, and his uneasy eyes must seek the ground in the face of men and of things.
What are the circumstances attending this man, who is always alone and who appears to be unhappy in an uncommon degree? His forced middle-class dress, as well as a certain careful motion of the hand across the chin, seems to indicate that he does not in any circumstances wish to be reckoned as belonging to that class of population amid which he is living. God knows what tricks Fate has played upon him. He looks as though Life had laughed contemptuously as it gave him a blow full in the face. It is also possible that he has not suffered any great disasters at the hands of destiny and is simply not fitted to cope with it. The painful inferiority and idiotic aspect of his appearance give one the painful impression that nature has refused him the necessary measure of balance, power, and backbone which would enable him to exist with head erect.
After he has taken a walk, supported by his black cane, into town, he is wont to return to his home by the Grey Way, where the children receive him with jeers. He walks up the musty steps to his rooms, which are bare and poor. Only the bureau, an excellent piece of Empire furniture, with heavy metal handles, is fine and valuable. In front of the window, the view from which is hopelessly cut off by the tall sidewall of the neighbouring house, stands a flowerpot full of earth. Though nothing grows in this pot, Tobias Mindernickel occasionally goes up to it, regards it earnestly, and smells the bare soil within it. Adjacent to this room there is a small, dark bedroom. After he has entered, Tobias puts his tall hat and his cane upon the table, sits down on the green-covered sofa, which smells of dust, supports his chin in his hand, and looks with raised eyebrows at the floor. It seems that there is really nothing else on earth left for him to do.
As to Mindernickel’s character, it is very difficult to judge of this; the following incident seems to speak in his favour. One day as this singular man left the house, and as usual a swarm of children gathered and followed him with mocking cries and laughter, a boy of some ten years stumbled over the foot of another and pitched so heavily upon the pavement that the blood ran from his nose and forehead and he lay where he fell, crying. Tobias thereupon turned round, hurried up to the prostrate lad, bent over him, and began to express his compassion in a mild and trembling voice.
“You poor child,” said he, “did you hurt yourself? You are bleeding! See, the blood is running down his forehead! Oh, how sad to see you lying there that way! Of course it hurts him—that’s why the poor little fellow is crying. Oh, I’m so sorry! It was your fault, but I’ll tie my handkerchief about your head. So, so! Now be brave, now come and get on your feet again!”
After he had spoken these words and tied his own handkerchief about the boy’s head, he raised him carefully to his feet and went on his way. His attitude and his face were, however, at this moment quite different from what they usually were. He walked upright and with a firm
