A TRAMP ABROAD, Part 1

By Mark Twain

(Samuel L. Clemens)

First published in 1880

Illustrations taken from an 1880 First Edition

 * * * * * *

ILLUSTRATIONS:

 1.    PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR 2.    TITIAN'S MOSES 3.    THE AUTHOR'S MEMORIES 4.    THE BLACK KNIGHT 5.    OPENING HIS VIZIER 6.    THE ENRAGED EMPEROR 7.    THE PORTIER 8.    ONE OF THOSE BOYS 9.    SCHLOSS HOTEL 10.   IN MY CAGE 11.   HEIDELBERG CASTLE 12.   HEIDELBERG CASTLE, RIVER FRONTAGE 13.   THE RETREAT 14.   JIM BAKER 15.   "A BLUE FLUSH ABOUT IT" 16.   COULD NOT SEE IT 17.   THE BEER KING 18.   THE LECTURER'S AUDIENCE 19.   INDUSTRIOUS STUDENTS 20.   IDLE STUDENT 21.   COMPANIONABLE INTERCOURSE 22.   AN IMPOSING SPECTACLE 23.   AN ADVERTISEMENT 24.   "UNDERSTANDS HIS BUSINESS" 25.   THE OLD SURGEON 26.   THE FIRST WOUND 27.   THE CASTLE COURT 28.   WOUNDED 29.   FAVORITE STREET COSTUME 30.   INEFFACEABLE SCARS 31.   PIECE OF SWORD

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I A Tramp over Europe--On theHolsatia--Hamburg--Frankfort-on-the- Main--How it Won its Name--A Lessonin Political Economy--Neatness in Dress--Rhine Legends--"The Knaveof Bergen" The Famous Ball--The Strange Knight--Dancing with theQueen--Removal of the Masks--The Disclosure--Wrath of the Emperor--TheEnding

CHAPTER II At Heidelberg--Great Stir at a Hotel--The Portier--Arrivalof the Empress--The Schloss Hotel--Location of Heidelberg--The RiverNeckar--New Feature in a Hotel--Heidelberg Castle--View from theHotel--A Tramp in the Woods--Meeting a Raven--Can Ravens Talk?--Laughedat and Vanquished--Language of Animals--Jim Baker--Blue-Jays

CHAPTER III Baker's Blue-Jay Yarn--Jay Language--The Cabin--"Hello, Ireckon I've struck something"--A Knot Hole--Attempt to fill it--A Tonof Acorns--Friends Called In--A Great Mystery--More Jays called A BlueFlush--A Discovery--A Rich Joke--One that Couldn't See It

CHAPTER IV Student Life--The Five Corps--The Beet King--A FreeLife--Attending Lectures--An Immense Audience--IndustriousStudents--Politeness of the Students--Intercourse with the ProfessorsScenes at the Castle Garden--Abundance of Dogs--Symbol of BlightedLove--How the Ladies Advertise

CHAPTER V The Students' Dueling Ground--The Dueling Room--The SwordGrinder--Frequency of the Duels--The Duelists--Protection againstInjury--The Surgeon--Arrangements for the Duels--The FirstDuel--The First Wound--A Drawn Battle--The Second Duel--Cutting andSlashing--Interference of the Surgeon

CHAPTER VI The Third Duel--A Sickening Spectacle--Dinner betweenFights--The Last Duel--Fighting in Earnest--Faces and HeadsMutilated--Great Nerve of the Duelists--Fatal Results notInfrequent--The World's View of these Fights

CHAPTER VII Corps--laws and Usages--Volunteering to Fight--Coolnessof the Wounded--Wounds Honorable--Newly bandaged Students aroundHeidelberg--Scarred Faces Abundant--A Badge of Honor--Prince Bismarkas a Duelist--Statistics--Constant Sword Practice--Color of theCorps--Corps Etiquette

CHAPTER I

[The Knighted Knave of Bergen]

One day it occurred to me that it had been many years since the worldhad been afforded the spectacle of a man adventurous enough to undertakea journey through Europe on foot. After much thought, I decided thatI was a person fitted to furnish to mankind this spectacle. So Idetermined to do it. This was in March, 1878. 

I looked about me for the right sort of person to accompany me in thecapacity of agent, and finally hired a Mr. Harris for this service. 

It was also my purpose to study art while in Europe. Mr. Harris was insympathy with me in this. He was as much of an enthusiast in art asI was, and not less anxious to learn to paint. I desired to learn theGerman language; so did Harris. 

Toward the middle of April we sailed in the HOLSATIA, Captain Brandt, and had a very pleasant trip, indeed. 

After a brief rest at Hamburg, we made preparations for a longpedestrian trip southward in the soft spring weather, but at thelast moment we changed the program, for private reasons, and took theexpress-train. 

We made a short halt at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and found it aninteresting city. I would have liked to visit the birthplace ofGutenburg, but it could not be done, as no memorandum of the site of thehouse has been kept. So we spent an hour in the Goethe mansion instead. The city permits this house to belong to private parties, insteadof gracing and dignifying herself with the honor of possessing andprotecting it. 

Frankfort is one of the sixteen cities which have the distinction ofbeing the place where the following incident occurred. Charlemagne, while chasing the Saxons (as HE said), or being chased by them (as THEYsaid), arrived at the bank of the river at dawn, in a fog. The enemywere either before him or behind him; but in any case he wanted to getacross, very badly. He would have given anything for a guide, but nonewas to be had. Presently he saw a deer, followed by her young, approachthe water. He watched her, judging that she would seek a ford, and hewas right. She waded over, and the army followed. So a great Frankishvictory or defeat was gained or avoided; and in order to commemorate theepisode, Charlemagne commanded a city to be built there, which he namedFrankfort--the ford of the Franks. None of the other cities where thisevent happened were named for it. This is good evidence that Frankfortwas the first place it occurred at. 

Frankfort has another distinction--it is the birthplace of the Germanalphabet; or at least of the German word for alphabet --BUCHSTABEN. They say that the first movable types were made on birchsticks--BUCHSTABE--hence the name. 

I was taught a lesson in political economy in Frankfort. I had broughtfrom home a box containing a thousand very cheap cigars. By way ofexperiment, I stepped into a little shop in a queer old back street, took four gaily decorated boxes of wax matches and three cigars, andlaid down a silver piece worth 48 cents. The man gave me 43 centschange. 

In Frankfort everybody wears clean clothes, and I think we noticed thatthis strange thing was the case in Hamburg, too, and in the villagesalong the road. Even in the narrowest and poorest and most ancientquarters of Frankfort neat and clean clothes were the rule. The littlechildren of both sexes were nearly always nice enough to take into abody's lap. And as for the uniforms of the soldiers, they were newnessand brightness carried to perfection. One could never detect a smirchor a grain of dust upon them. The street-car conductors and drivers worepretty uniforms which seemed to be just out of the bandbox, and theirmanners were as fine as their clothes. 

In one of the shops I had the luck to stumble upon a book which hascharmed me nearly to death. It is entitled THE LEGENDS OF THE RHINE FROMBASLE TO ROTTERDAM, by F. J. Kiefer; translated by L. W. Garnham, B. A. 

All tourists MENTION the Rhine legends--in that sort of way whichquietly pretends that the mentioner has been familiar with them all hislife, and that the reader cannot possibly be ignorant of them--but notourist ever TELLS them. So this little book fed me in a very hungryplace; and I, in my turn, intend to feed my reader, with one ortwo little lunches from the same larder. I shall not mar Garnham'stranslation by meddling with its English; for the most toothsome thingabout it is its quaint fashion of building English sentences on theGerman plan--and punctuating them accordingly to no plan at all. 

In the chapter devoted to "Legends of Frankfort, " I find the following:

"THE KNAVE OF BERGEN" "In Frankfort at the Romer was a great mask-ball, at the coronation festival, and in the illuminated saloon, the clangingmusic invited to dance, and splendidly appeared the rich toilets andcharms of the ladies, and the festively costumed Princes and Knights. All seemed pleasure, joy, and roguish gaiety, only one of the numerousguests had a gloomy exterior; but exactly the black armor in which hewalked about excited general attention, and his tall figure, as well asthe noble propriety of his movements, attracted especially the regardsof the ladies. 

Who the Knight was? Nobody could guess, for his Vizier was well closed, and nothing made him recognizable. Proud and yet modest he advanced tothe Empress; bowed on one knee before her seat, and begged for the favorof a waltz with the Queen of the festival. And she allowed his request. With light and graceful steps he danced through the long saloon, withthe sovereign who thought never to have found a more dexterous andexcellent dancer. But also by the grace of his manner, and fineconversation he knew to win the Queen, and she graciously accorded hima second dance for which he begged, a third, and a fourth, as well asothers were not refused him. How all regarded the happy dancer, howmany envied him the high favor; how increased curiosity, who the maskedknight could be. 

"Also the Emperor became more and more excited with curiosity, and withgreat suspense one awaited the hour, when according to mask-law, eachmasked guest must make himself known. This moment came, but although allother unmasked; the secret knight still refused to allow his featuresto be seen, till at last the Queen driven by curiosity, and vexed at theobstinate refusal; commanded him to open his Vizier. 

He opened it, and none of the high ladies and knights knew him. But fromthe crowded spectators, 2 officials advanced, who recognized the blackdancer, and horror and terror spread in the saloon, as they said who thesupposed knight was. It was the executioner of Bergen. But glowing withrage, the King commanded to seize the criminal and lead him to death, who had ventured to dance, with the queen; so disgraced the Empress, and insulted the crown. The culpable threw himself at the Emperor, andsaid--

"'Indeed I have heavily sinned against all noble guests assembled here, but most heavily against you my sovereign and my queen. The Queen isinsulted by my haughtiness equal to treason, but no punishment evenblood, will not be able to wash out the disgrace, which you havesuffered by me. Therefore oh King! allow me to propose a remedy, toefface the shame, and to render it as if not done. Draw your sword andknight me, then I will throw down my gauntlet, to everyone who dares tospeak disrespectfully of my king. '

"The Emperor was surprised at this bold proposal, however it appearedthe wisest to him; 'You are a knave, ' he replied after a moment'sconsideration, 'however your advice is good, and displays prudence, asyour offense shows adventurous courage. Well then, ' and gave him theknight-stroke 'so I raise you to nobility, who begged for grace for youroffense now kneels before me, rise as knight; knavish you have acted, and Knave of Bergen shall you be called henceforth, ' and gladly theBlack knight rose; three cheers were given in honor of the Emperor, andloud cries of joy testified the approbation with which the Queen dancedstill once with the Knave of Bergen. "

CHAPTER II

Heidelberg

[Landing a Monarch at Heidelberg]

We stopped at a hotel by the railway-station. Next morning, as we sat inmy room waiting for breakfast to come up, we got a good deal interestedin something which was going on over the way, in front of another hotel. First, the personage who is called the PORTIER (who is not the PORTER, but is a sort of first-mate of a hotel) [1. See Appendix A] appearedat the door in a spick-and-span new blue cloth uniform, decorated withshining brass buttons, and with bands of gold lace around his cap andwristbands; and he wore white gloves, too. 

He shed an official glance upon the situation, and then began to giveorders. Two women-servants came out with pails and brooms and brushes, and gave the sidewalk a thorough scrubbing; meanwhile two othersscrubbed the four marble steps which led up to the door; beyond these wecould see some men-servants taking up the carpet of the grand staircase. This carpet was carried away and the last grain of dust beaten andbanged and swept out of it; then brought back and put down again. Thebrass stair-rods received an exhaustive polishing and were returned totheir places. Now a troop of servants brought pots and tubs of bloomingplants and formed them into a beautiful jungle about the door and thebase of the staircase. Other servants adorned all the balconies of thevarious stories with flowers and banners; others ascended to theroof and hoisted a great flag on a staff there. Now came some morechamber-maids and retouched the sidewalk, and afterward wiped the marblesteps with damp cloths and finished by dusting them off with featherbrushes. Now a broad black carpet was brought out and laid down themarble steps and out across the sidewalk to the curbstone. The PORTIERcast his eye along it, and found it was not absolutely straight; hecommanded it to be straightened; the servants made the effort--madeseveral efforts, in fact--but the PORTIER was not satisfied. He finallyhad it taken up, and then he put it down himself and got it right. 

At this stage of the proceedings, a narrow bright red carpet wasunrolled and stretched from the top of the marble steps to thecurbstone, along the center of the black carpet. This red path cost thePORTIER more trouble than even the black one had done. But he patientlyfixed and refixed it until it was exactly right and lay precisely in themiddle of the black carpet. In New York these performances would havegathered a mighty crowd of curious and intensely interested spectators;but here it only captured an audience of half a dozen little boys whostood in a row across the pavement, some with their school-knapsacks ontheir backs and their hands in their pockets, others with arms full ofbundles, and all absorbed in the show. Occasionally one of them skippedirreverently over the carpet and took up a position on the other side. This always visibly annoyed the PORTIER. 

Now came a waiting interval. The landlord, in plain clothes, andbareheaded, placed himself on the bottom marble step, abreast thePORTIER, who stood on the other end of the same steps; six or eightwaiters, gloved, bareheaded, and wearing their whitest linen, theirwhitest cravats, and their finest swallow-tails, grouped themselvesabout these chiefs, but leaving the carpetway clear. Nobody moved orspoke any more but only waited. 

In a short time the shrill piping of a coming train was heard, andimmediately groups of people began to gather in the street. Two or threeopen carriages arrived, and deposited some maids of honor and some maleofficials at the hotel. Presently another open carriage brought theGrand Duke of Baden, a stately man in uniform, who wore the handsomebrass-mounted, steel-spiked helmet of the army on his head. Last camethe Empress of Germany and the Grand Duchess of Baden in a closedcarriage; these passed through the low-bowing groups of servants anddisappeared in the hotel, exhibiting to us only the backs of theirheads, and then the show was over. 

It appears to be as difficult to land a monarch as it is to launch aship. 

But as to Heidelberg. The weather was growing pretty warm, --very warm, in fact. So we left the valley and took quarters at the Schloss Hotel, on the hill, above the Castle. 

Heidelberg lies at the mouth of a narrow gorge--a gorge the shape ofa shepherd's crook; if one looks up it he perceives that it is aboutstraight, for a mile and a half, then makes a sharp curve to theright and disappears. This gorge--along whose bottom pours the swiftNeckar--is confined between (or cloven through) a couple of long, steepridges, a thousand feet high and densely wooded clear to their summits, with the exception of one section which has been shaved and put undercultivation. These ridges are chopped off at the mouth of the gorgeand form two bold and conspicuous headlands, with Heidelberg nestlingbetween them; from their bases spreads away the vast dim expanse of theRhine valley, and into this expanse the Neckar goes wandering in shiningcurves and is presently lost to view. 

Now if one turns and looks up the gorge once more, he will see theSchloss Hotel on the right perched on a precipice overlooking theNeckar--a precipice which is so sumptuously cushioned and draped withfoliage that no glimpse of the rock appears. The building seems veryairily situated. It has the appearance of being on a shelf half-wayup the wooded mountainside; and as it is remote and isolated, and verywhite, it makes a strong mark against the lofty leafy rampart at itsback. 

This hotel had a feature which was a decided novelty, and one whichmight be adopted with advantage by any house which is perched in acommanding situation. This feature may be described as a series ofglass-enclosed parlors CLINGING TO THE OUTSIDE OF THE HOUSE, one againsteach and every bed-chamber and drawing-room. They are like long, narrow, high-ceiled bird-cages hung against the building. My room was a cornerroom, and had two of these things, a north one and a west one. 

From the north cage one looks up the Neckar gorge; from the west one helooks down it. This last affords the most extensive view, and it is oneof the loveliest that can be imagined, too. Out of a billowy upheavalof vivid green foliage, a rifle-shot removed, rises the huge ruinof Heidelberg Castle, [2. See Appendix B] with empty window arches, ivy-mailed battlements, moldering towers--the Lear of inanimatenature--deserted, discrowned, beaten by the storms, but royal still, and beautiful. It is a fine sight to see the evening sunlight suddenlystrike the leafy declivity at the Castle's base and dash up it anddrench it as with a luminous spray, while the adjacent groves are indeep shadow. 

Behind the Castle swells a great dome-shaped hill, forest-clad, andbeyond that a nobler and loftier one. The Castle looks down upon thecompact brown-roofed town; and from the town two picturesque old bridgesspan the river. Now the view broadens; through the gateway of thesentinel headlands you gaze out over the wide Rhine plain, whichstretches away, softly and richly tinted, grows gradually and dreamilyindistinct, and finally melts imperceptibly into the remote horizon. 

I have never enjoyed a view which had such a serene and satisfying charmabout it as this one gives. 

The first night we were there, we went to bed and to sleep early; butI awoke at the end of two or three hours, and lay a comfortable whilelistening to the soothing patter of the rain against the balconywindows. I took it to be rain, but it turned out to be only the murmurof the restless Neckar, tumbling over her dikes and dams far below, inthe gorge. I got up and went into the west balcony and saw a wonderfulsight. Away down on the level under the black mass of the Castle, thetown lay, stretched along the river, its intricate cobweb of streetsjeweled with twinkling lights; there were rows of lights on the bridges;these flung lances of light upon the water, in the black shadows of thearches; and away at the extremity of all this fairy spectacle blinkedand glowed a massed multitude of gas-jets which seemed to cover acres ofground; it was as if all the diamonds in the world had been spreadout there. I did not know before, that a half-mile of sextuplerailway-tracks could be made such an adornment. 

One thinks Heidelberg by day--with its surroundings--is the lastpossibility of the beautiful; but when he sees Heidelberg by night, afallen Milky Way, with that glittering railway constellation pinned tothe border, he requires time to consider upon the verdict. 

One never tires of poking about in the dense woods that clothe allthese lofty Neckar hills to their beguiling and impressive charm in anycountry; but German legends and fairy tales have given these an addedcharm. They have peopled all that region with gnomes, and dwarfs, andall sorts of mysterious and uncanny creatures. At the time I am writingof, I had been reading so much of this literature that sometimes I wasnot sure but I was beginning to believe in the gnomes and fairies asrealities. 

One afternoon I got lost in the woods about a mile from the hotel, andpresently fell into a train of dreamy thought about animals which talk, and kobolds, and enchanted folk, and the rest of the pleasant legendarystuff; and so, by stimulating my fancy, I finally got to imagining Iglimpsed small flitting shapes here and there down the columnedaisles of the forest. It was a place which was peculiarly meet for theoccasion. It was a pine wood, with so thick and soft a carpet of brownneedles that one's footfall made no more sound than if he were treadingon wool; the tree-trunks were as round and straight and smooth aspillars, and stood close together; they were bare of branches to a pointabout twenty-five feet above-ground, and from there upward so thick withboughs that not a ray of sunlight could pierce through. The world wasbright with sunshine outside, but a deep and mellow twilight reigned inthere, and also a deep silence so profound that I seemed to hear my ownbreathings. 

When I had stood ten minutes, thinking and imagining, and gettingmy spirit in tune with the place, and in the right mood to enjoy thesupernatural, a raven suddenly uttered a horse croak over my head. Itmade me start; and then I was angry because I started. I looked up, andthe creature was sitting on a limb right over me, looking down at me. I felt something of the same sense of humiliation and injury whichone feels when he finds that a human stranger has been clandestinelyinspecting him in his privacy and mentally commenting upon him. I eyedthe raven, and the raven eyed me. Nothing was said during some seconds. Then the bird stepped a little way along his limb to get a better pointof observation, lifted his wings, stuck his head far down below hisshoulders toward me and croaked again--a croak with a distinctlyinsulting expression about it. If he had spoken in English he could nothave said any more plainly than he did say in raven, "Well, what do YOUwant here?" I felt as foolish as if I had been caught in some mean actby a responsible being, and reproved for it. However, I made no reply;I would not bandy words with a raven. The adversary waited a while, withhis shoulders still lifted, his head thrust down between them, andhis keen bright eye fixed on me; then he threw out two or three moreinsults, which I could not understand, further than that I knew aportion of them consisted of language not used in church. 

I still made no reply. Now the adversary raised his head andcalled. There was an answering croak from a little distance in thewood--evidently a croak of inquiry. The adversary explained withenthusiasm, and the other raven dropped everything and came. The two satside by side on the limb and discussed me as freely and offensively astwo great naturalists might discuss a new kind of bug. The thing becamemore and more embarrassing. They called in another friend. This was toomuch. I saw that they had the advantage of me, and so I concluded to getout of the scrape by walking out of it. They enjoyed my defeat as muchas any low white people could have done. They craned their necks andlaughed at me (for a raven CAN laugh, just like a man), they squalledinsulting remarks after me as long as they could see me. They werenothing but ravens--I knew that--what they thought of me could be amatter of no consequence--and yet when even a raven shouts after you, "What a hat!" "Oh, pull down your vest!" and that sort of thing, ithurts you and humiliates you, and there is no getting around it withfine reasoning and pretty arguments. 

Animals talk to each other, of course. There can be no question aboutthat; but I suppose there are very few people who can understand them. I never knew but one man who could. I knew he could, however, because hetold me so himself. He was a middle-aged, simple-hearted miner who hadlived in a lonely corner of California, among the woods and mountains, a good many years, and had studied the ways of his only neighbors, thebeasts and the birds, until he believed he could accurately translateany remark which they made. This was Jim Baker. According to Jim Baker, some animals have only a limited education, and some use only simplewords, and scarcely ever a comparison or a flowery figure; whereas, certain other animals have a large vocabulary, a fine command oflanguage and a ready and fluent delivery; consequently these latter talka great deal; they like it; they are so conscious of their talent, and they enjoy "showing off. " Baker said, that after long and carefulobservation, he had come to the conclusion that the bluejays were thebest talkers he had found among birds and beasts. Said he:

"There's more TO a bluejay than any other creature. He has got moremoods, and more different kinds of feelings than other creatures; and, mind you, whatever a bluejay feels, he can put into language. Andno mere commonplace language, either, but rattling, out-and-outbook-talk--and bristling with metaphor, too--just bristling! And as forcommand of language--why YOU never see a bluejay get stuck for a word. No man ever did. They just boil out of him! And another thing: I'venoticed a good deal, and there's no bird, or cow, or anything that usesas good grammar as a bluejay. You may say a cat uses good grammar. Well, a cat does--but you let a cat get excited once; you let a cat get topulling fur with another cat on a shed, nights, and you'll hear grammarthat will give you the lockjaw. Ignorant people think it's the NOISEwhich fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain't so; it'sthe sickening grammar they use. Now I've never heard a jay use badgrammar but very seldom; and when they do, they are as ashamed as ahuman; they shut right down and leave. 

"You may call a jay a bird. Well, so he is, in a measure--but he's gotfeathers on him, and don't belong to no church, perhaps; but otherwisehe is just as much human as you be. And I'll tell you for why. A jay'sgifts, and instincts, and feelings, and interests, cover the wholeground. A jay hasn't got any more principle than a Congressman. A jaywill lie, a jay will steal, a jay will deceive, a jay will betray; andfour times out of five, a jay will go back on his solemnest promise. Thesacredness of an obligation is such a thing which you can't cram intono bluejay's head. Now, on top of all this, there's another thing; ajay can out-swear any gentleman in the mines. You think a cat can swear. Well, a cat can; but you give a bluejay a subject that calls for hisreserve-powers, and where is your cat? Don't talk to ME--I know too muchabout this thing; in the one little particular of scolding--just good, clean, out-and-out scolding--a bluejay can lay over anything, human ordivine. Yes, sir, a jay is everything that a man is. A jay can cry, a jay can laugh, a jay can feel shame, a jay can reason and plan anddiscuss, a jay likes gossip and scandal, a jay has got a sense of humor, a jay knows when he is an ass just as well as you do--maybe better. Ifa jay ain't human, he better take in his sign, that's all. Now I'm goingto tell you a perfectly true fact about some bluejays. "

CHAPTER III

Baker's Bluejay Yarn

[What Stumped the Blue Jays]

"When I first begun to understand jay language correctly, there was alittle incident happened here. Seven years ago, the last man in thisregion but me moved away. There stands his house--been empty ever since;a log house, with a plank roof--just one big room, and no more; noceiling--nothing between the rafters and the floor. Well, one Sundaymorning I was sitting out here in front of my cabin, with my cat, takingthe sun, and looking at the blue hills, and listening to the leavesrustling so lonely in the trees, and thinking of the home away yonder inthe states, that I hadn't heard from in thirteen years, when a bluejaylit on that house, with an acorn in his mouth, and says, 'Hello, Ireckon I've struck something. ' When he spoke, the acorn dropped out ofhis mouth and rolled down the roof, of course, but he didn't care; hismind was all on the thing he had struck. It was a knot-hole in the roof. He cocked his head to one side, shut one eye and put the other one tothe hole, like a possum looking down a jug; then he glanced up withhis bright eyes, gave a wink or two with his wings--which signifiesgratification, you understand--and says, 'It looks like a hole, it'slocated like a hole--blamed if I don't believe it IS a hole!'

"Then he cocked his head down and took another look; he glances upperfectly joyful, this time; winks his wings and his tail both, andsays, 'Oh, no, this ain't no fat thing, I reckon! If I ain't in luck!--Why it's a perfectly elegant hole!' So he flew down and got thatacorn, and fetched it up and dropped it in, and was just tilting hishead back, with the heavenliest smile on his face, when all of asudden he was paralyzed into a listening attitude and that smile fadedgradually out of his countenance like breath off'n a razor, and thequeerest look of surprise took its place. Then he says, 'Why, I didn'thear it fall!' He cocked his eye at the hole again, and took a longlook; raised up and shook his head; stepped around to the other side ofthe hole and took another look from that side; shook his head again. Hestudied a while, then he just went into the Details--walked round andround the hole and spied into it from every point of the compass. No use. Now he took a thinking attitude on the comb of the roof andscratched the back of his head with his right foot a minute, and finallysays, 'Well, it's too many for ME, that's certain; must be a mighty longhole; however, I ain't got no time to fool around here, I got to "tendto business"; I reckon it's all right--chance it, anyway. '

"So he flew off and fetched another acorn and dropped it in, and triedto flirt his eye to the hole quick enough to see what become of it, but he was too late. He held his eye there as much as a minute; then heraised up and sighed, and says, 'Confound it, I don't seem to understandthis thing, no way; however, I'll tackle her again. ' He fetchedanother acorn, and done his level best to see what become of it, but hecouldn't. He says, 'Well, I never struck no such a hole as this before;I'm of the opinion it's a totally new kind of a hole. ' Then he begunto get mad. He held in for a spell, walking up and down the comb of theroof and shaking his head and muttering to himself; but his feelings gotthe upper hand of him, presently, and he broke loose and cussed himselfblack in the face. I never see a bird take on so about a little thing. When he got through he walks to the hole and looks in again for half aminute; then he says, 'Well, you're a long hole, and a deep hole, anda mighty singular hole altogether--but I've started in to fill you, andI'm damned if I DON'T fill you, if it takes a hundred years!'

"And with that, away he went. You never see a bird work so since you wasborn. He laid into his work like a nigger, and the way he hove acornsinto that hole for about two hours and a half was one of the mostexciting and astonishing spectacles I ever struck. He never stopped totake a look anymore--he just hove 'em in and went for more. Well, atlast he could hardly flop his wings, he was so tuckered out. He comesa-dropping down, once more, sweating like an ice-pitcher, dropped hisacorn in and says, 'NOW I guess I've got the bulge on you by this time!'So he bent down for a look. If you'll believe me, when his head come upagain he was just pale with rage. He says, 'I've shoveled acorns enoughin there to keep the family thirty years, and if I can see a sign of oneof 'em I wish I may land in a museum with a belly full of sawdust in twominutes!'

"He just had strength enough to crawl up on to the comb and lean hisback agin the chimbly, and then he collected his impressions andbegun to free his mind. I see in a second that what I had mistook forprofanity in the mines was only just the rudiments, as you may say. 

"Another jay was going by, and heard him doing his devotions, and stopsto inquire what was up. The sufferer told him the whole circumstance, and says, 'Now yonder's the hole, and if you don't believe me, go andlook for yourself. ' So this fellow went and looked, and comes back andsays, 'How many did you say you put in there?' 'Not any less thantwo tons, ' says the sufferer. The other jay went and looked again. Hecouldn't seem to make it out, so he raised a yell, and three more jayscome. They all examined the hole, they all made the sufferer tellit over again, then they all discussed it, and got off as manyleather-headed opinions about it as an average crowd of humans couldhave done. 

"They called in more jays; then more and more, till pretty soon thiswhole region 'peared to have a blue flush about it. There must have beenfive thousand of them; and such another jawing and disputing and rippingand cussing, you never heard. Every jay in the whole lot put his eye tothe hole and delivered a more chuckle-headed opinion about the mysterythan the jay that went there before him. They examined the house allover, too. The door was standing half open, and at last one old jayhappened to go and light on it and look in. Of course, that knocked themystery galley-west in a second. There lay the acorns, scattered allover the floor.. He flopped his wings and raised a whoop. 'Come here!'he says, 'Come here, everybody; hang'd if this fool hasn't been tryingto fill up a house with acorns!' They all came a-swooping down like ablue cloud, and as each fellow lit on the door and took a glance, thewhole absurdity of the contract that that first jay had tackled hit himhome and he fell over backward suffocating with laughter, and the nextjay took his place and done the same. 

"Well, sir, they roosted around here on the housetop and the trees foran hour, and guffawed over that thing like human beings. It ain't anyuse to tell me a bluejay hasn't got a sense of humor, because I knowbetter. And memory, too. They brought jays here from all over the UnitedStates to look down that hole, every summer for three years. Otherbirds, too. And they could all see the point except an owl that comefrom Nova Scotia to visit the Yo Semite, and he took this thing in onhis way back. He said he couldn't see anything funny in it. But then hewas a good deal disappointed about Yo Semite, too. "

CHAPTER IV

Student Life

[The Laborious Beer King]

The summer semester was in full tide; consequently the most frequentfigure in and about Heidelberg was the student. Most of the studentswere Germans, of course, but the representatives of foreign landswere very numerous. They hailed from every corner of the globe--forinstruction is cheap in Heidelberg, and so is living, too. TheAnglo-American Club, composed of British and American students, hadtwenty-five members, and there was still much material left to drawfrom. 

Nine-tenths of the Heidelberg students wore no badge or uniform;the other tenth wore caps of various colors, and belonged to socialorganizations called "corps. " There were five corps, each with a colorof its own; there were white caps, blue caps, and red, yellow, and greenones. The famous duel-fighting is confined to the "corps" boys. The"KNEIP" seems to be a specialty of theirs, too. Kneips are held, now andthen, to celebrate great occasions, like the election of a beer king, for instance. The solemnity is simple; the five corps assemble at night, and at a signal they all fall loading themselves with beer, outof pint-mugs, as fast as possible, and each man keeps his owncount--usually by laying aside a lucifer match for each mug he empties. 

The election is soon decided. When the candidates can hold no more, acount is instituted and the one who has drank the greatest number ofpints is proclaimed king. I was told that the last beer king electedby the corps--or by his own capabilities--emptied his mug seventy-fivetimes. No stomach could hold all that quantity at one time, ofcourse--but there are ways of frequently creating a vacuum, which thosewho have been much at sea will understand. 

One sees so many students abroad at all hours, that he presently beginsto wonder if they ever have any working-hours. Some of them have, someof them haven't. Each can choose for himself whether he will work orplay; for German university life is a very free life; it seems to haveno restraints. The student does not live in the college buildings, buthires his own lodgings, in any locality he prefers, and he takes hismeals when and where he pleases. He goes to bed when it suits him, anddoes not get up at all unless he wants to. He is not entered at theuniversity for any particular length of time; so he is likely to changeabout. He passes no examinations upon entering college. He merely paysa trifling fee of five or ten dollars, receives a card entitling him tothe privileges of the university, and that is the end of it. He is nowready for business--or play, as he shall prefer. If he elects towork, he finds a large list of lectures to choose from. He selects thesubjects which he will study, and enters his name for these studies; buthe can skip attendance. 

The result of this system is, that lecture-courses upon specialtiesof an unusual nature are often delivered to very slim audiences, while those upon more practical and every-day matters of education aredelivered to very large ones. I heard of one case where, day after day, the lecturer's audience consisted of three students--and always thesame three. But one day two of them remained away. The lecturer began asusual--

"Gentlemen, " --then, without a smile, he corrected himself, saying--

"Sir, " --and went on with his discourse. 

It is said that the vast majority of the Heidelberg students are hardworkers, and make the most of their opportunities; that they haveno surplus means to spend in dissipation, and no time to spare forfrolicking. One lecture follows right on the heels of another, with verylittle time for the student to get out of one hall and into the next;but the industrious ones manage it by going on a trot. The professorsassist them in the saving of their time by being promptly in theirlittle boxed-up pulpits when the hours strike, and as promptly out againwhen the hour finishes. I entered an empty lecture-room one day justbefore the clock struck. The place had simple, unpainted pine desks andbenches for about two hundred persons. 

About a minute before the clock struck, a hundred and fifty studentsswarmed in, rushed to their seats, immediately spread open theirnotebooks and dipped their pens in ink. When the clock began to strike, a burly professor entered, was received with a round of applause, movedswiftly down the center aisle, said "Gentlemen, " and began to talk as heclimbed his pulpit steps; and by the time he had arrived in his box andfaced his audience, his lecture was well under way and all the pens weregoing. He had no notes, he talked with prodigious rapidity andenergy for an hour--then the students began to remind him in certainwell-understood ways that his time was up; he seized his hat, stilltalking, proceeded swiftly down his pulpit steps, got out the last wordof his discourse as he struck the floor; everybody rose respectfully, and he swept rapidly down the aisle and disappeared. An instant rush forsome other lecture-room followed, and in a minute I was alone with theempty benches once more. 

Yes, without doubt, idle students are not the rule. Out of eight hundredin the town, I knew the faces of only about fifty; but these I saweverywhere, and daily. They walked about the streets and the woodedhills, they drove in cabs, they boated on the river, they sipped beerand coffee, afternoons, in the Schloss gardens. A good many of them worecolored caps of the corps. They were finely and fashionably dressed, their manners were quite superb, and they led an easy, careless, comfortable life. If a dozen of them sat together and a lady or agentleman passed whom one of them knew and saluted, they all roseto their feet and took off their caps. The members of a corps alwaysreceived a fellow-member in this way, too; but they paid no attentionto members of other corps; they did not seem to see them. This was nota discourtesy; it was only a part of the elaborate and rigid corpsetiquette. 

There seems to be no chilly distance existing between the Germanstudents and the professor; but, on the contrary, a companionableintercourse, the opposite of chilliness and reserve. When the professorenters a beer-hall in the evening where students are gathered together, these rise up and take off their caps, and invite the old gentleman tosit with them and partake. He accepts, and the pleasant talk and thebeer flow for an hour or two, and by and by the professor, properlycharged and comfortable, gives a cordial good night, while the studentsstand bowing and uncovered; and then he moves on his happy way homewardwith all his vast cargo of learning afloat in his hold. Nobody findsfault or feels outraged; no harm has been done. 

It seemed to be a part of corps etiquette to keep a dog or so, too. I mean a corps dog--the common property of the organization, like thecorps steward or head servant; then there are other dogs, owned byindividuals. 

On a summer afternoon in the Castle gardens, I have seen six studentsmarch solemnly into the grounds, in single file, each carrying a brightChinese parasol and leading a prodigious dog by a string. It was a veryimposing spectacle. Sometimes there would be as many dogs around thepavilion as students; and of all breeds and of all degrees of beauty andugliness. These dogs had a rather dry time of it; for they were tiedto the benches and had no amusement for an hour or two at a time exceptwhat they could get out of pawing at the gnats, or trying to sleep andnot succeeding. However, they got a lump of sugar occasionally--theywere fond of that. 

It seemed right and proper that students should indulge in dogs; buteverybody else had them, too--old men and young ones, old women andnice young ladies. If there is one spectacle that is unpleasanter thananother, it is that of an elegantly dressed young lady towing a dog by astring. It is said to be the sign and symbol of blighted love. It seemsto me that some other way of advertising it might be devised, whichwould be just as conspicuous and yet not so trying to the proprieties. 

It would be a mistake to suppose that the easy-going pleasure-seekingstudent carries an empty head. Just the contrary. He has spent nineyears in the gymnasium, under a system which allowed him no freedom, butvigorously compelled him to work like a slave. Consequently, he has leftthe gymnasium with an education which is so extensive and complete, thatthe most a university can do for it is to perfect some of its profounderspecialties. It is said that when a pupil leaves the gymnasium, he notonly has a comprehensive education, but he KNOWS what he knows--it isnot befogged with uncertainty, it is burnt into him so that it willstay. For instance, he does not merely read and write Greek, but speaksit; the same with the Latin. Foreign youth steer clear of the gymnasium;its rules are too severe. They go to the university to put a mansardroof on their whole general education; but the German student alreadyhas his mansard roof, so he goes there to add a steeple in the nature ofsome specialty, such as a particular branch of law, or diseases of theeye, or special study of the ancient Gothic tongues. So this Germanattends only the lectures which belong to the chosen branch, and drinkshis beer and tows his dog around and has a general good time the rest ofthe day. He has been in rigid bondage so long that the large libertyof the university life is just what he needs and likes and thoroughlyappreciates; and as it cannot last forever, he makes the most of itwhile it does last, and so lays up a good rest against the day that mustsee him put on the chains once more and enter the slavery of official orprofessional life. 

CHAPTER V

At the Students' Dueling-Ground

[Dueling by Wholesale]

One day in the interest of science my agent obtained permission to bringme to the students' dueling-place. We crossed the river and drove upthe bank a few hundred yards, then turned to the left, entered a narrowalley, followed it a hundred yards and arrived at a two-story publichouse; we were acquainted with its outside aspect, for it was visiblefrom the hotel. We went upstairs and passed into a large whitewashedapartment which was perhaps fifty feet long by thirty feet wide andtwenty or twenty-five high. It was a well-lighted place. There was nocarpet. Across one end and down both sides of the room extended a row oftables, and at these tables some fifty or seventy-five students [1. SeeAppendix C] were sitting. 

Some of them were sipping wine, others were playing cards, others chess, other groups were chatting together, and many were smoking cigaretteswhile they waited for the coming duels. Nearly all of them wore coloredcaps; there were white caps, green caps, blue caps, red caps, andbright-yellow ones; so, all the five corps were present in strongforce. In the windows at the vacant end of the room stood six or eight, narrow-bladed swords with large protecting guards for the hand, andoutside was a man at work sharpening others on a grindstone. 

He understood his business; for when a sword left his hand one couldshave himself with it. 

It was observable that the young gentlemen neither bowed to nor spokewith students whose caps differed in color from their own. This did notmean hostility, but only an armed neutrality. It was considered thata person could strike harder in the duel, and with a more earnestinterest, if he had never been in a condition of comradeship with hisantagonist; therefore, comradeship between the corps was not permitted. At intervals the presidents of the five corps have a cold officialintercourse with each other, but nothing further. For example, when theregular dueling-day of one of the corps approaches, its president callsfor volunteers from among the membership to offer battle; three or morerespond--but there must not be less than three; the president lays theirnames before the other presidents, with the request that they furnishantagonists for these challengers from among their corps. This ispromptly done. It chanced that the present occasion was the battle-dayof the Red Cap Corps. They were the challengers, and certain caps ofother colors had volunteered to meet them. The students fight duels inthe room which I have described, TWO DAYS IN EVERY WEEK DURING SEVENAND A HALF OR EIGHT MONTHS IN EVERY YEAR. This custom had continued inGermany two hundred and fifty years. 

To return to my narrative. A student in a white cap met us andintroduced us to six or eight friends of his who also wore white caps, and while we stood conversing, two strange-looking figures were led infrom another room. They were students panoplied for the duel. They werebareheaded; their eyes were protected by iron goggles which projected aninch or more, the leather straps of which bound their ears flat againsttheir heads were wound around and around with thick wrappings whicha sword could not cut through; from chin to ankle they were paddedthoroughly against injury; their arms were bandaged and rebandaged, layer upon layer, until they looked like solid black logs. These weirdapparitions had been handsome youths, clad in fashionable attire, fifteen minutes before, but now they did not resemble any beings oneever sees unless in nightmares. They strode along, with their armsprojecting straight out from their bodies; they did not hold them outthemselves, but fellow-students walked beside them and gave the neededsupport. 

There was a rush for the vacant end of the room, now, and we followedand got good places. The combatants were placed face to face, each withseveral members of his own corps about him to assist; two seconds, wellpadded, and with swords in their hands, took their stations; a studentbelonging to neither of the opposing corps placed himself in a goodposition to umpire the combat; another student stood by with a watch anda memorandum-book to keep record of the time and the number and natureof the wounds; a gray-haired surgeon was present with his lint, hisbandages, and his instruments. 

After a moment's pause the duelists saluted the umpire respectfully, then one after another the several officials stepped forward, gracefullyremoved their caps and saluted him also, and returned to their places. Everything was ready now; students stood crowded together in theforeground, and others stood behind them on chairs and tables. Everyface was turned toward the center of attraction. 

The combatants were watching each other with alert eyes; a perfectstillness, a breathless interest reigned. I felt that I was going tosee some wary work. But not so. The instant the word was given, the twoapparitions sprang forward and began to rain blows down upon each otherwith such lightning rapidity that I could not quite tell whether I sawthe swords or only flashes they made in the air; the rattling din ofthese blows as they struck steel or paddings was something wonderfullystirring, and they were struck with such terrific force that I could notunderstand why the opposing sword was not beaten down under the assault. Presently, in the midst of the sword-flashes, I saw a handful of hairskip into the air as if it had lain loose on the victim's head and abreath of wind had puffed it suddenly away. 

The seconds cried "Halt!" and knocked up the combatants' swords withtheir own. The duelists sat down; a student official stepped forward, examined the wounded head and touched the place with a sponge once ortwice; the surgeon came and turned back the hair from the wound--andrevealed a crimson gash two or three inches long, and proceeded to bindan oval piece of leather and a bunch of lint over it; the tally-keeperstepped up and tallied one for the opposition in his book. 

Then the duelists took position again; a small stream of blood wasflowing down the side of the injured man's head, and over his shoulderand down his body to the floor, but he did not seem to mind this. Theword was given, and they plunged at each other as fiercely as before;once more the blows rained and rattled and flashed; every few momentsthe quick-eyed seconds would notice that a sword was bent--then theycalled "Halt!" struck up the contending weapons, and an assistingstudent straightened the bent one. 

The wonderful turmoil went on--presently a bright spark sprung froma blade, and that blade broken in several pieces, sent one of itsfragments flying to the ceiling. A new sword was provided and the fightproceeded. The exercise was tremendous, of course, and in time thefighters began to show great fatigue. They were allowed to rest amoment, every little while; they got other rests by wounding each other, for then they could sit down while the doctor applied the lint andbandages. The law is that the battle must continue fifteen minutes ifthe men can hold out; and as the pauses do not count, this duel wasprotracted to twenty or thirty minutes, I judged. At last it was decidedthat the men were too much wearied to do battle longer. They were ledaway drenched with crimson from head to foot. That was a good fight, butit could not count, partly because it did not last the lawful fifteenminutes (of actual fighting), and partly because neither man wasdisabled by his wound. It was a drawn battle, and corps law requiresthat drawn battles shall be refought as soon as the adversaries are wellof their hurts. 

During the conflict, I had talked a little, now and then, with a younggentleman of the White Cap Corps, and he had mentioned that he was tofight next--and had also pointed out his challenger, a young gentlemanwho was leaning against the opposite wall smoking a cigarette andrestfully observing the duel then in progress. 

My acquaintanceship with a party to the coming contest had the effect ofgiving me a kind of personal interest in it; I naturally wished he mightwin, and it was the reverse of pleasant to learn that he probably wouldnot, because, although he was a notable swordsman, the challenger washeld to be his superior. 

The duel presently began and in the same furious way which had markedthe previous one. I stood close by, but could not tell which blows toldand which did not, they fell and vanished so like flashes of light. Theyall seemed to tell; the swords always bent over the opponents' heads, from the forehead back over the crown, and seemed to touch, all theway; but it was not so--a protecting blade, invisible to me, was alwaysinterposed between. At the end of ten seconds each man had struck twelveor fifteen blows, and warded off twelve or fifteen, and no harm done;then a sword became disabled, and a short rest followed whilst a new onewas brought. Early in the next round the White Corps student got an uglywound on the side of his head and gave his opponent one like it. In thethird round the latter received another bad wound in the head, and theformer had his under-lip divided. After that, the White Corps studentgave many severe wounds, but got none of the consequence in return. At the end of five minutes from the beginning of the duel the surgeonstopped it; the challenging party had suffered such injuries that anyaddition to them might be dangerous. These injuries were a fearfulspectacle, but are better left undescribed. So, against expectation, myacquaintance was the victor. 

CHAPTER VI

[A Sport that Sometimes Kills]

The third duel was brief and bloody. The surgeon stopped it when he sawthat one of the men had received such bad wounds that he could not fightlonger without endangering his life. 

The fourth duel was a tremendous encounter; but at the end of five orsix minutes the surgeon interfered once more: another man so severelyhurt as to render it unsafe to add to his harms. I watched thisengagement as I watched the others--with rapt interest and strongexcitement, and with a shrink and a shudder for every blow that laidopen a cheek or a forehead; and a conscious paling of my face when Ioccasionally saw a wound of a yet more shocking nature inflicted. My eyes were upon the loser of this duel when he got his last andvanquishing wound--it was in his face and it carried away his--but nomatter, I must not enter into details. I had but a glance, and thenturned quickly, but I would not have been looking at all if I had knownwhat was coming. No, that is probably not true; one thinks he would notlook if he knew what was coming, but the interest and the excitement areso powerful that they would doubtless conquer all other feelings; andso, under the fierce exhilaration of the clashing steel, he would yieldand look after all. Sometimes spectators of these duels faint--and itdoes seem a very reasonable thing to do, too. 

Both parties to this fourth duel were badly hurt so much that thesurgeon was at work upon them nearly or quite an hour--a fact which issuggestive. But this waiting interval was not wasted in idleness bythe assembled students. It was past noon, therefore they ordered theirlandlord, downstairs, to send up hot beefsteaks, chickens, and suchthings, and these they ate, sitting comfortable at the several tables, whilst they chatted, disputed and laughed. The door to the surgeon'sroom stood open, meantime, but the cutting, sewing, splicing, andbandaging going on in there in plain view did not seem to disturbanyone's appetite. I went in and saw the surgeon labor awhile, but couldnot enjoy; it was much less trying to see the wounds given and receivedthan to see them mended; the stir and turmoil, and the music of thesteel, were wanting here--one's nerves were wrung by this grislyspectacle, whilst the duel's compensating pleasurable thrill waslacking. 

Finally the doctor finished, and the men who were to fight the closingbattle of the day came forth. A good many dinners were not completed, yet, but no matter, they could be eaten cold, after the battle;therefore everybody crowded forth to see. This was not a love duel, buta "satisfaction" affair. These two students had quarreled, and were hereto settle it. They did not belong to any of the corps, but they werefurnished with weapons and armor, and permitted to fight here by thefive corps as a courtesy. Evidently these two young men were unfamiliarwith the dueling ceremonies, though they were not unfamiliar with thesword. When they were placed in position they thought it was timeto begin--and then did begin, too, and with a most impetuous energy, without waiting for anybody to give the word. This vastly amused thespectators, and even broke down their studied and courtly gravity andsurprised them into laughter. Of course the seconds struck up the swordsand started the duel over again. At the word, the deluge of blows began, but before long the surgeon once more interfered--for the only reasonwhich ever permits him to interfere--and the day's war was over. It wasnow two in the afternoon, and I had been present since half past nine inthe morning. The field of battle was indeed a red one by this time;but some sawdust soon righted that. There had been one duel before Iarrived. In it one of the men received many injuries, while the otherone escaped without a scratch. 

I had seen the heads and faces of ten youths gashed in every directionby the keen two-edged blades, and yet had not seen a victim wince, norheard a moan, or detected any fleeting expression which confessed thesharp pain the hurts were inflicting. This was good fortitude, indeed. Such endurance is to be expected in savages and prize-fighters, for theyare born and educated to it; but to find it in such perfection in thesegently bred and kindly natured young fellows is matter for surprise. It was not merely under the excitement of the sword-play that thisfortitude was shown; it was shown in the surgeon's room where anuninspiring quiet reigned, and where there was no audience. The doctor'smanipulations brought out neither grimaces nor moans. And in the fightsit was observable that these lads hacked and slashed with the sametremendous spirit, after they were covered with streaming wounds, whichthey had shown in the beginning. 

The world in general looks upon the college duels as very farcicalaffairs: true, but considering that the college duel is fought by boys;that the swords are real swords; and that the head and face are exposed, it seems to me that it is a farce which had quite a grave side to it. People laugh at it mainly because they think the student is so coveredup with armor that he cannot be hurt. But it is not so; his eyes andears are protected, but the rest of his face and head are bare. Hecan not only be badly wounded, but his life is in danger; and he wouldsometimes lose it but for the interference of the surgeon. It isnot intended that his life shall be endangered. Fatal accidents arepossible, however. For instance, the student's sword may break, and theend of it fly up behind his antagonist's ear and cut an artery whichcould not be reached if the sword remained whole. This has happened, sometimes, and death has resulted on the spot. Formerly the student'sarmpits were not protected--and at that time the swords were pointed, whereas they are blunt, now; so an artery in the armpit was sometimescut, and death followed. Then in the days of sharp-pointed swords, aspectator was an occasional victim--the end of a broken sword flew fiveor ten feet and buried itself in his neck or his heart, and death ensuedinstantly. The student duels in Germany occasion two or three deathsevery year, now, but this arises only from the carelessness of thewounded men; they eat or drink imprudently, or commit excesses in theway of overexertion; inflammation sets in and gets such a headway thatit cannot be arrested. Indeed, there is blood and pain and dangerenough about the college duel to entitle it to a considerable degree ofrespect. 

All the customs, all the laws, all the details, pertaining to thestudent duel are quaint and naive. The grave, precise, and courtlyceremony with which the thing is conducted, invests it with a sort ofantique charm. 

This dignity and these knightly graces suggest the tournament, not theprize-fight. The laws are as curious as they are strict. For instance, the duelist may step forward from the line he is placed upon, if hechooses, but never back of it. If he steps back of it, or even leansback, it is considered that he did it to avoid a blow or contrive anadvantage; so he is dismissed from his corps in disgrace. It would seemnatural to step from under a descending sword unconsciously, and againstone's will and intent--yet this unconsciousness is not allowed. Again:if under the sudden anguish of a wound the receiver of it makes agrimace, he falls some degrees in the estimation of his fellows; hiscorps are ashamed of him: they call him "hare foot, " which is the Germanequivalent for chicken-hearted. 

CHAPTER VII

[How Bismark Fought]

In addition to the corps laws, there are some corps usages which havethe force of laws. 

Perhaps the president of a corps notices that one of the membership whois no longer an exempt--that is a freshman--has remained a sophomoresome little time without volunteering to fight; some day, the president, instead of calling for volunteers, will APPOINT this sophomoreto measure swords with a student of another corps; he is free todecline--everybody says so--there is no compulsion. This is alltrue--but I have not heard of any student who DID decline; to declineand still remain in the corps would make him unpleasantly conspicuous, and properly so, since he knew, when he joined, that his mainbusiness, as a member, would be to fight. No, there is no law againstdeclining--except the law of custom, which is confessedly stronger thanwritten law, everywhere. 

The ten men whose duels I had witnessed did not go away when their hurtswere dressed, as I had supposed they would, but came back, one afteranother, as soon as they were free of the surgeon, and mingled with theassemblage in the dueling-room. The white-cap student who won the secondfight witnessed the remaining three, and talked with us during theintermissions. He could not talk very well, because his opponent's swordhad cut his under-lip in two, and then the surgeon had sewed it togetherand overlaid it with a profusion of white plaster patches; neither couldhe eat easily, still he contrived to accomplish a slow and troublesomeluncheon while the last duel was preparing. The man who was the worsthurt of all played chess while waiting to see this engagement. A goodpart of his face was covered with patches and bandages, and all the restof his head was covered and concealed by them. 

It is said that the student likes to appear on the street and in otherpublic places in this kind of array, and that this predilection oftenkeeps him out when exposure to rain or sun is a positive danger forhim. Newly bandaged students are a very common spectacle in the publicgardens of Heidelberg. It is also said that the student is glad toget wounds in the face, because the scars they leave will show so wellthere; and it is also said that these face wounds are so prized thatyouths have even been known to pull them apart from time to time andput red wine in them to make them heal badly and leave as ugly a scaras possible. It does not look reasonable, but it is roundly assertedand maintained, nevertheless; I am sure of one thing--scars are plentyenough in Germany, among the young men; and very grim ones they are, too. They crisscross the face in angry red welts, and are permanent andineffaceable. 

Some of these scars are of a very strange and dreadful aspect; and theeffect is striking when several such accent the milder ones, which forma city map on a man's face; they suggest the "burned district" then. Wehad often noticed that many of the students wore a colored silk bandor ribbon diagonally across their breasts. It transpired that thissignifies that the wearer has fought three duels in which a decisionwas reached--duels in which he either whipped or was whipped--for drawnbattles do not count. [1] After a student has received his ribbon, heis "free"; he can cease from fighting, without reproach--except some oneinsult him; his president cannot appoint him to fight; he can volunteerif he wants to, or remain quiescent if he prefers to do so. Statisticsshow that he does NOT prefer to remain quiescent. They show that theduel has a singular fascination about it somewhere, for these freemen, so far from resting upon the privilege of the badge, are alwaysvolunteering. A corps student told me it was of record that PrinceBismarck fought thirty-two of these duels in a single summer term whenhe was in college. So he fought twenty-nine after his badge had givenhim the right to retire from the field. 

1. FROM MY DIARY. --Dined in a hotel a few miles up the Neckar, in a roomwhose walls were hung all over with framed portrait-groups of the FiveCorps; some were recent, but many antedated photography, and werepictured in lithography--the dates ranged back to forty or fifty yearsago. Nearly every individual wore the ribbon across his breast. In oneportrait-group representing (as each of these pictures did) an entireCorps, I took pains to count the ribbons: there were twenty-sevenmembers, and twenty-one of them wore that significant badge. 

The statistics may be found to possess interest in several particulars. Two days in every week are devoted to dueling. The rule is rigid thatthere must be three duels on each of these days; there are generallymore, but there cannot be fewer. There were six the day I was present;sometimes there are seven or eight. It is insisted that eight duels aweek--four for each of the two days--is too low an average to drawa calculation from, but I will reckon from that basis, preferring anunderstatement to an overstatement of the case. This requires about fourhundred and eighty or five hundred duelists a year--for in summer thecollege term is about three and a half months, and in winter it is fourmonths and sometimes longer. Of the seven hundred and fifty students inthe university at the time I am writing of, only eighty belonged to thefive corps, and it is only these corps that do the dueling; occasionallyother students borrow the arms and battleground of the five corps inorder to settle a quarrel, but this does not happen every dueling-day. [2] Consequently eighty youths furnish the material for some two hundredand fifty duels a year. This average gives six fights a year to eachof the eighty. This large work could not be accomplished if thebadge-holders stood upon their privilege and ceased to volunteer. 

2. They have to borrow the arms because they could not get themelsewhere or otherwise. As I understand it, the public authorities, allover Germany, allow the five Corps to keep swords, but DO NOT ALLOW THEMTO USE THEM. This is law is rigid; it is only the execution of it thatis lax. 

Of course, where there is so much fighting, the students make it a pointto keep themselves in constant practice with the foil. One often seesthem, at the tables in the Castle grounds, using their whips or canes toillustrate some new sword trick which they have heard about; and betweenthe duels, on the day whose history I have been writing, the swords werenot always idle; every now and then we heard a succession of the keenhissing sounds which the sword makes when it is being put through itspaces in the air, and this informed us that a student was practicing. Necessarily, this unceasing attention to the art develops an expertoccasionally. He becomes famous in his own university, his renownspreads to other universities. He is invited to Goettingen, to fightwith a Goettingen expert; if he is victorious, he will be invitedto other colleges, or those colleges will send their experts to him. Americans and Englishmen often join one or another of the five corps. Ayear or two ago, the principal Heidelberg expert was a big Kentuckian;he was invited to the various universities and left a wake of victorybehind him all about Germany; but at last a little student in Strasburgdefeated him. There was formerly a student in Heidelberg who had pickedup somewhere and mastered a peculiar trick of cutting up under insteadof cleaving down from above. While the trick lasted he won in sixteensuccessive duels in his university; but by that time observers haddiscovered what his charm was, and how to break it, therefore hischampionship ceased. 

A rule which forbids social intercourse between members of differentcorps is strict. In the dueling-house, in the parks, on the street, and anywhere and everywhere that the students go, caps of a color groupthemselves together. If all the tables in a public garden were crowdedbut one, and that one had two red-cap students at it and ten vacantplaces, the yellow-caps, the blue-caps, the white caps, and the greencaps, seeking seats, would go by that table and not seem to see it, norseem to be aware that there was such a table in the grounds. The studentby whose courtesy we had been enabled to visit the dueling-place, worethe white cap--Prussian Corps. He introduced us to many white caps, butto none of another color. The corps etiquette extended even to us, whowere strangers, and required us to group with the white corps only, andspeak only with the white corps, while we were their guests, and keepaloof from the caps of the other colors. Once I wished to examine someof the swords, but an American student said, "It would not be quitepolite; these now in the windows all have red hilts or blue; they willbring in some with white hilts presently, and those you can handlefreely. " When a sword was broken in the first duel, I wanted a pieceof it; but its hilt was the wrong color, so it was considered best andpolitest to await a properer season. 

It was brought to me after the room was cleared, and I will now makea "life-size" sketch of it by tracing a line around it with my pen, toshow the width of the weapon. [Figure 1] The length of these swords isabout three feet, and they are quite heavy. One's disposition to cheer, during the course of the duels or at their close, was naturally strong, but corps etiquette forbade any demonstrations of this sort. Howeverbrilliant a contest or a victory might be, no sign or sound betrayedthat any one was moved. A dignified gravity and repression weremaintained at all times. 

When the dueling was finished and we were ready to go, the gentlemen ofthe Prussian Corps to whom we had been introduced took off their capsin the courteous German way, and also shook hands; their brethren of thesame order took off their caps and bowed, but without shaking hands; thegentlemen of the other corps treated us just as they would have treatedwhite caps--they fell apart, apparently unconsciously, and left us anunobstructed pathway, but did not seem to see us or know we were there. If we had gone thither the following week as guests of another corps, the white caps, without meaning any offense, would have observed theetiquette of their order and ignored our presence. 

[How strangely are comedy and tragedy blended in this life! I had notbeen home a full half-hour, after witnessing those playful sham-duels, when circumstances made it necessary for me to get ready immediately toassist personally at a real one--a duel with no effeminate limitation inthe matter of results, but a battle to the death. An account of it, inthe next chapter, will show the reader that duels between boys, for fun, and duels between men in earnest, are very different affairs. ]