Worcester daily spy., 1859-09-12
Correspondence of the n. Y. Times.
STUDENT LIFE IN GERMANY.

hElDELBURG, saturday, July 70, 1909.
This place is the headquarters of the so call
ed studentlite in Germany and | turned my
face hitherward, as many another green one
has done before, with pleasing visions of a state
OF brotherhood and noble simplicity, of Com
mers" and "Kneipe," of mystic ceremonies and
inspiring songs, of all the chivalry of the past,
in picturesque caps and Wellington boots de-
Tending the last stronghold of romance in the
present. No one who has visited Heidelburg
will need to be told how soon l was undeceiy-
ed. Brotherhood and noble simplicity consist
in saying Chou" to a fellow who wears the
same colors with ones self, and shuflling off
the sidewalk the fellow who doesn't. Com
mers and Kneipe are just like any other
'drunks, only rather more disgusting mas
much as the intoXication resulting from beer
comes slowly and makes the victim merely
maudlin-and inasmuch, also, as these scenes
are regularly enacted two or three times a
week, reminding one of the old English noble
man who used to say, 'Next Friday night, at
8 oo'clock, propose, by the blessing of Provi-
dence, to be beastly drunk" The mystic cere-
monies are no more interesting than any set of
boozy loaters could extemporize on the nearest
lamp-post or the hat of the first unfortunate
passer-by. And as to music-I never in my
lite heard such fine songs so abomnably
sung, as by German students. / very fire.
during the evening, and a little experience has
enabled me to determine with considerable ac-
curacy, the hour of the night by the degrees
of discord which pours from their lighted win
dows- If they are not singing at all, it Is 8
o'clock, and they are not fairly through with
the first quart OF beer apiece. If they are ask
ing, in three different keys at once, "What is
is the Germans fatherland 2" it is o'clock,
and they are not yet drunk. "Frei list der
Bursch" is executed at 10 o'clock, with pow
er OF lung and an ingenious variety of tone
quite astonishing. Now they are "getting in
trim," and from 10 to II the combat thick
ems" Imagine the close of an American Con
gressional session. where, instead of bills ro be
passed, there were fiye-and-twenty songs to be
sung Imagine each fellow committee of
three to sing his particular song, and give it
expression by pounding his glass on the table,
and you will have faint idea of the grand
creScendd which takes place between the hours
l have mentioned. AT IL, when the ordinary
kneipe or carouse must break up, the climax of
discord is reached; the great ideal pow-wow
seems to be realized. All the dogs in the
northumberland where there are students
dogs will not be wanting-yell in harmonious
chorus The last grand howl assumes
startling dignity, from its very power; but
dies away into ignominious chromatic pas
uous charge. 1t is past IL, and no more is to
be heard that night.
AT Commers, or Grand Universal Drunk,
the:matter is somewhat different Here there
is no distinction as to hour The University
authorities have given their consent to pro-
tracted Kneipe, and the police do not rap at
the door when the usual hour for closing ar
rives. The climax is reached by midnight,
but after that time the spirit of the thing is on
the wane. Judicious fellows go home, foolish
fellows sink through all stages of maudlin i'm
becility, till they find their level under the
table And a few old hands are left for a while
longer to revel in persevering way, till they,
too, yield, and stagl er home to a heavy sleep
and the Katzenjammer.
The Katzenjammer is the alternate state of
a German student. l hardly know what name
to give it in English My dictionary defines
it as the ''ndisposition after q drunken de-
bauch." | suppose there is some technical ex-
preston for it among the Bowery Boys, or
fast men generally, in America; but my vo-
cabulary fails me at this point.
A corps student may be expected to get out
of bed by IL or II lin summer,) unless he has
a duel on hand, which must be attended to in
the "cool of the morning" A lounge at the
shop of the confectioner with pretty daugh-
ter, couple of hours practice at the fencing
school, ride or promenade about town, and
the days work is over. The evening will
probably pass as the last one did, at the kneipe,
and tomorrow morning will be what this one
was, u stupid, insensible snooze-or, if he is
Fueks, or "green 'un," more violent form of
the katzenjammer. So goes the time, day
after day.
"But when do the students find time to at
tend lectures or study" My dear Madam,
they don't attend lectures, and they don't stu