The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-07-10
students lDuels.

The student strips off coat, vest and shirt
it is considered effeminate To wear wool
en- underclothing-and puts on an oiled
shirt which will not be injured by blood.
Then huge goggles are fastened over his
eyes, and he is harnessed into a contri.
vance consisting of numerous cross bands
across the back and a thick mating in
front reaching from the neck to the knees.
A thick collar is tied around his neck, ON
his right hand is a glove, from the wrist
almost to the shoulders, thickly padded,
and then he is led TO chairs in the middle
of the room where the two stand
facing one another until the word
is given. When all these pre-
cautions are taken il is called flight
ing with dangerous weapons" and is more
severely punished in case of detection.
The sentence for killing n iellow-student
reaches sometimes the extreme severity of
several years punishment, not more than
three or four. .s. r-.I
But our comlatants are standing there
thirsting for blood. A friend puts q sword
into each ones hand and holds up his
arm to prevent it from getting prematurely
tired. Each has Il cap on. There is a
touching of hats, ceremonious bowling
and an interhanging of words between
the seconds, the combatants raise their
arms in the air and the show begins. mol
not yet. Haiti and the caps are removed
from their heads, they raise their swords
once more, the seconds touch them, and
one shouts 'los" and they go at it 1t
seemed to me not a fair match. The
one was much shorter than the other,
judging from the style Of blow and not as
strong, and above all, the taller was a
corps-student and the shorter not There
were four set-to's that day between corps
students and not-corps students, in, which
the former conquered every time. No
wonder, too. for every corps is bound by
its rule to practice fencing two or three
hours every day.
But the little fellow took his punish.
ment manfully. The tall one rained
blows on him furiously, and did, finally,
come of conqueror, not, however, witheut
some scratches. Three OF four times the
seconds cried "halt!' and each fighter
bent his head forward for inspection, but
no wound was found deep enough to war
rant them in calling the duel over. 1t did
not last, however, more than five minutes
in all. Then the little fellow was deliv-
cred to the tender mercies of the surgeon,
and the bigger dressed himself and pro.
ceedcd to drink beer and eat bread and
ham.
Then came another duel between two
more equally matched, but the corps stu
dent beat the other this time also. After
two or three unimportant affairs, there
came one between u student from Zurich
and a Berliner. The latter was huge,
strapping fellow, looked as if he could
knock down an OK, and evidently meant
business. His opponent was smaller, but
appeared Gust as determined. They Ind
to fasten a silver plate over an old wound
ON his head to preven. any dangerous
consequences. and fixed him up otherwise,
so that 1t took quite long time before he
was ready. Silence was proclaimed for
half an hour. In exactly one minute and
half the Zuricher was led off with an
! ugly cut from the upper right hand cor
ner of his forehead clear across to the
lower corner of his left eye. The goggles
had been carelessly fastened and his
left eyelid was cut through. 1t was
bad wound, but the surgeon in attend
ance seemed to enjoy it. could not help
pltying the poor fellow, who had come all
the way from Zurich to get such a slash
in less than two minutes.
In several cases, one OF the combatants
was led off with the proviso that they fin
ish another time; but this second edition
of the same work seldom comes out. 1t is
only an easy way of letting one down
when he is overmatched. What gave oc-
casion to the duels did not succeed in
learning in q single case Probably some
real or fancied insult They have also a
restimmungsmensur. where two are elected
to represent two different corps on the
field of honor, merely for the sake OF hav-
ing a representation. One student had
been disposed from his verbindung, and
was trying to win his way back to favor
|-tProf. e. X. Payson, in Utica Herald.