The dragon being dead, the emperor fell on the hero's neck and said: "Deliverer, name your request," at the same time beckoning out behind with his heel for a detachment of his daughters to form and advance.

But the tramp gave them no observance.

He simply said: "My request is, that upon me be conferred the monopoly of the manufacture and sale of spectacles in Germany." The emperor sprang aside and exclaimed: "This transcends all the impudence I ever heard! A modest demand, by my halidome! Why didn't you ask for the imperial revenues at once, and be done with it ?" But the monarch had given his word, and he kept it.

To everybody's surprise, the unselfish monopolist immediately reduced the price of spectacles to such a degree that a great and crushing burden was removed from the nation.

The emperor, to commemorate this generous act, and to testify his appreciation of it, issued a decree commanding everybody to buy this benefactor's spectacles and wear them, whether they needed them or not.
So originated the wide-spread custom of wearing spectacles in Germany; and as a custom once established in these old lands is imperishable, this one remains universal in the empire to this day.