STUDENTS OF HEIDELBURG.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9737, 27 May 1897, Page 2

STUDENTS OF HEIDELBURG.

AKf ACCOUNT OP THEIE DAILY LIFE AND THEIR RIDICULOUS DUELS.

Trivial Thikgs are Taken as Cause por

a Challsngk,

LBARKrKQ SEKM3 TO BE THB LTCAST COKCETRX

QT THE COBPS-STTJDENT's MIND.

Detroit Free Preta.

Aβ the Heidelberg students assemble in the hall of the main- university building before entering the lecture rooms, one notices at a glance that there are two distinct castes. Those humble creatures who hnrry through the ball with downcast eyes and plunge into a class-room ten minutes early are the so-called Philistines. Even the indefatigable German investigators have failed to prove their descent from the biblical Philistines, but the doctors all agree , that Philistine is the only name for this j student species. Their linen is always dirty and, in fact, usually consists of only a collar and a dicky. The deception intended in the # use of the latter article is painfully betrayed by the wide gaping of a misfit, low cut vest. The rest of clothing fits like the vest. These Philistines | have a tendency to be wondrously ugly and marvellously learned. They do the' studying for'the entire body of students. Perhaps, they will have a glorious future, but at''present they are distinctly caterpillars. Their cocoons are little bare rooms penetrated by kitchen odors and fur- ' nished with a bed, one chair, and a table with unsteady legs. The one window looks down into a vile court or a narrow, dirty alley. "For breakfast the Philistine has a cup of poor coffee and a piece of black bread; for dinner a mug of beer and more bread with a possible, but not probable, sausage. Supper is a repetition of the breakfast. The remainder of his college life is an uneventful " grind." ! ' Those fellows in coloured caps who are incessantly bowing and taking off their caps to other gay-coloured birds are corpsstudents. They are nervous young nien j with .very peculiar ideas about honour. Pettiness is the only word for a colour-, student's honour. To speak to one of them without- raising a cap is an insult to be atoned'for only upon the duelling ground. Their very conversation is stilled bepause of the fear of offending. American audacity: offerer their "honour "some severe shocks at times. Recently a German student, a successful duellist, made an insulting., remark 'to a fellow student, who was sitting at the same table at the pension. The prudent German made no reply, but an American sitting at the bully's side said coolly? "If you had said that to mc I should have slapped your face." There was an awkward euenee while the duellist remembered the American preference j for pistole and decided to laugh the matter off. "■'■■ '-■' .■■•■■/.. - : -' ■ ■ ''. \ ' ' ' -

A corpsman's ideal of an honourable college career is that of Prince Biemark's, which the world- knows was a series of hard drinking, thirty-two duels, and, general debauchery. The conviction is rooted in the German brain-matter that such actions are a necessary prelude to successful career as a statesman.

The life of this student aristocrat is a direct antithesis to that of the Philistine. i He is usually the son of a baron, a count > jOr.. some of the other possibilities in the nobility line. His rooms are sure to be comfortable and adorned with bid pipes of 1 ever; design, beer mags, trophies of bis . love adventures, parts of a fencing outfitand IA gallery of load pictures. Bat be does not ! «pend mack of his time in thie bower olfoUy.

as an account of his daily life will reveal. He awakes mornings about 9 o'clock, and takes his " fruhstueok," or early bit, in bed. Coffee and hot rolls suffice for this. Then he. arises, dresses, and calls for his chum. They descend to the street, enter a cab and are driven to the official beer hall. Not that they have to be " driven," for it only appears that way on account of the peculiarities of i our language. At the corps' table, with their comrades, they refresh the inner man, which is by far the most important part of this particular man. About 10 o'clock, the tribe migrates in carriages and appears next in the Hirsh-. gasse. Here they are met by other tribes distinguished by their colours. Many ceuturies ago, when the Germanic peoples wandered over the face of Europe, most of the tribes seem to have passed through Heidelberg and to have left a few representatives. Their descendants are here today, still clannish in their sympathies, and preservine; their old tribal names. Vandals, Stievi, Allemani, Franks, and Teutons are all represented by the corps, Vandatia, Suevia, Allemania, &o. These speculations are the result of a long series of German investigations, and onght to account for the phenomenal names. In the Hirshgasse Mensur, or duelling room, these Germanic braves seat themselves, each tribe about its own table. Here they have another breakfast and more liquors. The latter- are served by old '" Amor "or " Cupid," a serving man whose ugliness of features "is "world-famous. The traveller is shown "Amor" first, and the castle and Great Pass next. In his presence, all one can do is to quote Shakespeare : "Oh, for breath to utter what is like to tKee !'* After this diversion the braves light some : poor cigars and group themjselves ioore pr ( lega picturesquely about =j the Jeoiiitestants 'for - the ~ dayi. : -Wh»l?a a. ~i ellowjjg carved "and mu^uated ( f i>x '.;fife, 'they loot: on nonchalantly and nil the XOdnl with ,r the devil's breath," as I*e Teune " called tobacco smoke. At last,the doctors lead one. victim away to be sewed up, and the crowd follows" perfunctorily.., The yj must -see that the sufferer* does not winO6! or show any sign of pain under the doctor's attentions.

The duels for the day are usually finished about one .o'clock, and everybody drives merrily away to dinner. Each corpa dines at what is known as the official table. This may be at some one of the beet hotels or the clubhouse. After fattening himself at a fine German dinner, our specimen student becomes once more an individual. His egoism expresses itself in more smoke, and he drinks some more beer for his stomach's sake.' Next, he turns wearily and sadly toward the university. The laws of the institution require at least an hour a day of attendance upon the lectures. It is unjust, pure tyranny, but they have been educated to loyalty to the emperor, the grand duke or whoever this arbitrary tyrant may be. But one, may take his choice, so the corps students flock to the entertaining lectures by the great Kuno Fiecher upon Goethe's •'Faust, s Here thoy may laugh at the horse, pranks of Mephisto in AuerbacVs " Keller," or titter over their own unsavoury interpretations of Faust's love for Gretchen.

This 'function over, our student, and his chum have some more beer and rolls and then call a cab that they may exercise after the last hour's severe mental etrain. The cab exercises them, they ogle some-pretty peasant girls, and then it is time for their hour's training in the fencing-shool. This is the Bole exercise, that these students take, A corpa man scorns a bicycle, and football is a brutal sporfc suited only to the barbarous tribes of the United States or the savage Britons. . An hour's, instruction in the art of disfiguring a fellow man brings on that insatiable thirst and hunger. A cab carries the exhausted athlete to the official hotel. The supper, cold meats, coffee and rolls, is digested with aid iof more beer. Now the most important duty of the day is before man. His tribe meet "every eyenj ing a* nine o'clock in its " kncipe " room at the, "Red Ox," "White Goat," "Black Ship," or" Golden Heart "beer hall. Some corps have their own clubhouse, magnificently furnished and containing a " knejpe " room, or in plain English, a revel room, a jag room, a drunk room, whichever of our unique expressions you may choose. ..One of these MKneipe" rooms may- be 'described as follows ; The room is perhaps thirty-five feet long by twenty feet broad, and finely finished. Above the two ,doors are fine stag's horns. One wall of the room is completely inlaid with photographs of the present and ; former members of the corps. On the opposite wall are two immense silver shields, and above them are crossed fencing swords. The other walls are adorned with some find etchings and paintings of a kind which our Puritan fathers would condemn as works of the devil. Upon the floor is a rich profusion of ruga from pelts. A long table runs almost the length of the room.

At sociable distances large, elaborately carved chairs line this table,, and uponitwe a few elegant holders for cigar ashea. To this Walhalla, this heaven of Geftnan students, the corpsman turns his dutiful steps.

The members meet in the reception-room and when the roll is complete repair to the " Kneipe " chamber. They take their seats with a little preliminary mummery, in which the »' fuchs " or foxes, as the freshmen members are called, are consigned to the care of the " master of foxes," who site in their midet at one end of the table and punishes them for offences of the beer etiquette, by striking with & fox-tail. The "kellner" brings beer, pipes are produced, and the, leader of revels exhorts the faithful to fling dull care a distant flight Bad yield to the charms of the rosy. Then they sing "There was a dwarf named Perkeo"or •' Old Heidelberg," or any one of a myriad songe. This is followed by drinking and talking, The raising of the mug to the lips is regulated at first, by the master of revels, and they are replaced with a concerted clash. As a variation "beer dueU" are fought. One member challenges another, say, for four glasses. The four carefully equated glasses are placed before each contestant. At a signal the weapons are seized and at another gulped down as rapidly as possible. The lost_ man through ia die. graced, and must drink himself into favour. His former opponent may fix the number of glasses that he must drink.

So the evening passes with, alternating songs, shovb clownish, exhortations and (e< peated mugs of beer. Gradually the weaker revellers succumb, and slip beneath the table. But the fittest,, who survive, according to the Darwinian doctrine, continue the roystering. The songs grow even met rollicking, and the voices more husfiy, Jl careful tally is kept of the.Mumbeii-otglAsees consumed by each member. The qiw ■"who survives and retnains seaworthy after &\fo ping th.c greatest quantity of beer is. the champion. Seventy-two viertels, about eighteen quarts, is the best official and authentic record, at Heidelberg. When all are spoiled down the Kneipe isover for that night. .

By I o'clock all the corps aye again BJ»n the street and make Heidelberg's narrow thoroughfares resound with songs "and the slamming of luckless flhuCters. frequently the students are reported by the police to the university authorities for misdeeds committed in fchiß witching time of night. If convicted, the offender must languish in the university " Karsrer," for time immemorial the prison for unruly students. As the condemned enters the cell'of the "Harzor" he finds the most elaborately* frescoed room in the world at his solo disposal. The wits of many generations of culprits have levelled themselves in v*in against these relentless walk. Chair, bed and bench are so carved with fantastic figures of bird and beast, but barely wood enough remains to preserve them from the fate of the " wonderful one, hoss ehay." There are six cells in the Karzer, and one may guesa gentility of the past inmates from the names which they have painted above the door of their prison house—" Palais Royale," "Villa Sans Souoi," " Dungeon of the Safntu," '•Angels , Eetreat," &o. Every door if a roguee , gallery. Card photographs save been embedded in the wood of the door, or fastened there with putty. A significant fact is that every man in these pictures wears a coloured cap. This means the* corps students have had the exclusive use of these apartments. - ' We left our sample student with his day of toil complete and *then " hie little life rounded with a sleep." It is no exaggeration ' to state that every day is an exact copy of this. ?ou have hie college life, aadwtever hie virtues may be, I think youwu concede that he is most excellent at fatslta 0. H. Yah Tnra.