The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-06-18
HE1DELBERG, GERMANY, May 20.

Last Friday went 10 see one oi the iano"'
Heidelberg duels, which are fought here so
frequently by the students. 1t Is not always
easy to obtain access to one OF these duels'
and, unless you are acquainted with one OF
the "Corps Students" 1t is an impossibi!ity. l
was fortunate enough-when I first came here
to get acquainted with one Of the yellow
Caf}s." and 80 saw sight which many leave
Heidelberg without seeing. will first tell
YOU about the 'sCorps Students" themselves,
and then about the duel which witnessed.
THE ''CoRps STUDENTS"
are 30 called because they belong to "Corps''
or "Clubs," and are quite different from the
other students, inasmuch as they never think
of studying or going to lecture, and divide
their time principally between drinking,
duellipg and loaHng; while the other students
do really STUDY. In Heidelberg there are seven
"Corps," called respectively the "White, y
"Green,n "Yellow," ''Blue," Light Red"
"Dsrk Red" and sCrimson Caps" All the
"corpsn have different names. of course: but
thew are called here after the color OF their caps;
for instance, those students wearing the Whlte
caps are called the white Caps;' those wear
S>>S~
trorns.n and the one In which the men,
bers conduct themselves the most like gem
tlemen. ia the .'Corps" called the "White
Caps.n. which Is composed entirely OF tile
sons of noblemen. All the members OF these
ICorps" have two caps. One 1s called
street cap" which Is common N ca cap, aansc mace
tive s'corps," and the other is little cap,
about the Size of saucer, also made OF clotn
of the adopted color of the 'corps," and cover
ed with either gold or silver embroidery,
which makes them very expensive; some vi
guldens. These little caps are called "knle-
5en caps,n which means cap which ID worn
when they get together of an evening 10
6rinh. They are held on the bead by means
of rubber which passes around the oack OF
The head, Just as lady passes rubber aroGna
The back Of her head; the only difference eelng
that lady has chignon, and the students
haveSnone. They pay quite as much atten-
iionl however, to the liking of their "back
hair as the ladies do.
THEIR DRINKING.
They drink upon an average about twenty.
Ave glasses of beer day, and most OF them
have arrived at such point of perfection IN
the noble art of drinking that they can drink
between sixty and seventy glasses OF beer Oh
an evening. and not feel much the worse LOT
if Thev do. this about five evenings week.
The habit of regularly drinking 30 much peer
would of course not agree with Americans, IN
fact, two Americans nave oiea mere oa on S',t ao
count of drinking such a quaatity Of peer, ouC
IL doesn't seem to injure the Germans at all, ior
the ability to drink so much beer seems to pc
long exclusively to them, and Is apparently
handed down from father to son. AZ an e4-
ample of their drinking powers, Will clte tne
following two examples: lew epeI.oss oiE,S Isp
one of the "Corps" were drinking at their ciuo
honse. and one of the members came IN as tne
clock was about to strike twelve, and bet that
he could take twelve glasses OF beer during
the twelve strokes of the clock. Accordingly
the beer was laid before him, and, mucn 10 Tue
astonishment of even the students themselves,
he did It, The same evening one ol tne SUI
dents drank one hundred glasses of beer on
het. and was hardly affected at all 0y IT,.
These are really wonderful things TO 90, Wnen
ron cnnslder that one of these glasses contains
sImost two pfnts OF beer. OF course, this con-
tInued drinking makes the students very
large: but the largest Corps student that ever
appeared In Eeidelburg
WAS AN AMERICAN,
who came here an average sized man, aha
went away something wonderful to Deno'o,
and having the honor of being the pest
drinker, and also the best duelllst IN Heloel-
bere, So you see America bears tne PAIN
hers "a everywhere else. He fought some
thing like hundred duels, and never got de-
feaIed till nearly the last one he fought, Wnen
be oot his nose almost cut of; but, nothlng
dannted. he stepped up to his adversary, nolo-
inp his nose on with his hands, and chaileng-
edIhim to another duel, which was aceePteu.
They fought, and the ihdomltable American,
the hero of O hundred dnels, came out anead,
IN the preat qualification of all his admtrlng
fJends' he Is considered to have been the
createst man In Heidelberg, (Which ne Ger,
fainly was as regards slZe) and his name Will
probably be handed down from generatlon 10
Generation, and looked up to as sometnlne
almost immortal by the students The mouse
which they use for
IA sItuated q short distance out OF Town, ana,
when a duel Is going on, sentlnels are placed
communicating from the house 10 the ,toWni
but this is entirely unnecessary; 1or asnougs s,
the duels are against the law, YET tney are
winked at by the authorities; In tact, the In
habitants are rather proud OF them than other:
Wise. and would be very sorry II they were
=. put-s stop to. The student who LOOK me 10 see
fhe duels and myself started at about hali,pas
ten Ia the morni1g, and walked lor aoo9'
fifteen minutes. We arrived at the mouse, ano,
after introducing me to all his corps, we sal
down by liable and talked and drank 6eel
and waited for the duel to commence. Inc
duels are arranged 80 that there are duels on
three days of the week whether provocation
ia given or not. The way Oi IL 10 thie
The director of the duels takes the names
of the members Of the corps In regular
order. and pairs them OIL, and they are
compelled to fight, although they may pe
the very best friends In the world, or per
haps3eyen relations. So, you see that, When
fellow goes into one OF these corps ne Is
compelled to fight, although he may be very
peacable fellow; for, as said before, tney
don't walt for proVocatlon, put ngnC any
Way. The swords that they h%ht Win are
made of q long and very thin piece Oh steei
which bends very easily, and ls as sharp az
razor. 90 that the least touch leaves o. marx
The students here are cut horrioiy, ana s4ns l.
of them are really disgusting 10 l00K az, tnsi y
faces are 30 frightfnlly SCARED. me neao i
the part of the body aimed at, ana u, Ia lacI
the only part that can be hit; for the uppe
mart of ihe body is padded 80 thickly that th'
cannot cut through the padding: WheI
s,ich Q position that instead of sticking,
slashes; and The eyes being pr0tecteo oy ialss
iron spectacles, 1t Is very seldom, II ever, tha
real injury occurs further than cutting VI
ibeir faces, and that doesn't last long, for th'
wonnd soon heals up and leaves o scar
which the students are very proud OF; In fact
they don't think very much OF fellow unles
he has at least one scar.
last Friday saw four duels. Each pal
fonght for quarter Of an hour, unless tne aoc
tor declared one of them was too badly nnr
N fioht it out for that length OF time, when
of course, the opposite party was declared VIZ
tor when student got cut, the students a
waiked up and examined 1t In the most uncoL
norned manner possible. The director wrot
dnwn in his book how long cut IL was, an