Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1895-03-16

very light beer) is drunk the bap
tism can be repeated ad Hbiturn
elsewhere Il ia performed but once
hope Il will not be inferred that
this represents anything like the
ordinary life of respectable Ger.
man father of Il family. Germany
IL not "a temperate country, in the
American scnse,-that IL. IL Il u
country in which ercrybO,!y drinks
beer every day and in which there
are few who can say that they have
not at some time been under the in.
flueacc of liquor. But for man 10
come home roaring drunk three
nights in week il just as disrcpu
table in Germany as in America,
and very much rarer. The reason
it is permitted and even expected of
students is that with the German
class-distinctions no person ever
thinks of applying the same stand
ards of judgment to different class
es of people, and students are not
expected to conform to the same
standard of what in this country
would be called decency and re-
spectability as are other people.
Even the laws make a distinction.
The student cannot be arrested by
the police for ordinary offenses, but
is left to the usually very lax disci-
pline of the university authorities.
Perhaps even more at variance
with American ideas is the custom
of fighting duels. Probably few
people in this country realize how
widespread and how serious this
custom is. 1t has it's origin in the
same class feeling already mention.
ed--in the notion that membership
in a certain class, as the nobility,
the military and higher civil OFF,
GERS, and the university students,
carries with IL a certain standard of
honor not demanded of other peo-
pie, which one belonging to these
classes must always be ready to de-
fend with his own sword. These duels
are by no means the farcical affairs
they have become in France. Really
serious Offenses, among officers and
even among students, are fought
out with curved sabre at consid-
cradle risk of life. The ordinary
student duel, however. is not par.
ticularly dangerous to life, no more
80, perhaps, than American foot
ball, but It is quite certain to be an
affair of considerable pain and loss
of blood, and probable disfigure-
ment for life. Probably few of us
would care to give strong man
permission to hack at our faces for
half an hour with a sharp butcher
knife, even if the throat and eyes
were protected. That is about what
German student duel amounts to.
The weapons are long straight
swords, blunt at the end. but very
sharp on both sides for few inches
from the points. The blow is
slashing one, struck mostly from
the wrist, rather than thrust, as in
French foil fencing. The eyes are
protected by leather goggles, the
throat and right arm by heavy ban
dages, and the chest by pad held
in place by the left hand grasping
a strap behind the back, and so the
danger of fatal injury is slight. The
fight is generally arranged for from
twenty minutes to half an hour of
actual fighting, exclusive of pauses,
and must be fought to the full Pc
Rod unless one of the combatants
is meantime so severely injured
that the doctor decides il would be
dangerous to his life to proceed.
The amount of damage that can be
done with these weapons may be
judged from the fact that have
seen three men in succession led off
by the doctors after fighting less
than five minutes apiece. One of
them had his skull cracked, another
had his mouth ripped open to his
ear, the other had his nose split and
his skull laid bare in three places.
While all this butchery was going
on German acquaintance was sit
ting at table eating beefsteak and
onions and calmly explaining to me
the fine points of the fencing. /
found a glass of brandy more ac-
ceptable than beefsteak and onions.
There are twenty university towns
in Germany in which duels are
fought all day Saturday, at least
forty weeks in the year. Allowing
ten duels day at low average,
this makes 5000 duels, or 10000
spoiled faces a year. This is more
than half the number of students
in Germany, and shows, at very
low estimate, that the average Ger
man student must fight at least one
duel in two years. Allowing for
foreigners. theological students
(many of whom will not fight duels,
though they make up for il in extra
zeal in beer drinkingl non-fighting
organizations and unorganized stu
dents, many of whom never fight, it
will be seen that q duel must be by
by no means an exceptional event
in the life of member of fight
ing corps"
Many of these duels are intended
to wipe out real or fancied injuries
t~..s 80, ,,.nra ., ra a;,,, r,iv r0nfaata