Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-08-15
JAIL FOR STUDENTS.
QUEER PHASE OF LIFE AT HEtoEL-
 BERG UNIVERSITY.

Some of the Names Which Adorn the
 Prison Register and the "Crimes" For
 Which Their Owners Were Incarcerated.
 The Rules of the Place.
 h England the students body iseom- mitted to prison only by the civil au- thority. In Oxford, it is true, the vice chancellor deals with undergraduate naughtiness, principally in the form of debt and insubordination for which he may impose momentary penalty, but he does not deprive the defaulter of lih- erty. There is, or was a legend that certain apartment under the old Claren- don building was really the university fquod," 2" but for it's authenticity it is impossible to voueh.
 Cambridge has its spinning house for female offenders-not lady students, but ladies who might prove delusion and snare to the mere male undergrad. There, if we except the irksome penalty of .fgating" (confnement to college or lodgings after a stated hour) our aea- demic efforts at incarceration may, be said to end
 In Germany, however, the academic dungeon is very stern fact. The Hei-= delberg career" is famous Every rend- CT of Mark Twain will recall his enter taining description of the place and how he contrived to visit it, even unwit tingly enlisting as his guide Herr Professor. /" His pretext was to see young friend who had 4got" 24 hours and had conveniently arranged the day to suit Mark--for the German student convict goes to prison on the first suit- able day after conviction and sentence If Thursday is not convenient he tells the officer sent to hale him to jail that he will come on Friday or Saturday or Sunday, as the case may be. The officer never doubts his word, and it is never broken
 The prison isup three flights of stairs, and is approached by a '''zugang' as richly decorated with the art work of eonviets as the cell itself The apart ment is not roomy, but bigger than an ordinary prison cell It has an iron grated window, small stove, two wooden chairs two old oak tables and marrow wooden bedstead
 The furniture is profusely ornament ed with carving, the work of languish- ing captiYes, who have placed on record their names, armorial bearings their crimes and the dates of their imprison- ment, together with quaint warnings and denunciations. Walls and ceilings are covered with portraits and legends executed in colored chalk and iil soot. the prison candle forming handy pen eil Some of the inscriptions are pa thetic. One runs, 'sE G1inieke, four days for being too eager. 8 spectator of a row. If four days were meted out to mere spectator, what, one wonders, had been the sentence of the participa- tors? It must have been moving spec tacle.
 Another record (also quoted by MT. Clemens) has the savor of great name to it. Of course it is the son that is meant, not the father. The legend is, IF. Graf Bismarck, 27-29. II. "A. ," This Mark Twain interprets as record of two days durance vile for Count Bis marck in 1874 Had 1874 been leap year one might have been inclined to interpret the numeral sII'' as February. But the "29'' makes this difficult. So perhaps the humorist is right.
 A third specimen is too tragic for comment. It simply says, R. Diergandt for loye-four days Ungenerous successors to that sad chamber have dealt harshly witt their forerunners' regulations by ingenious substitution of heinous crimes, so that certain prison CTS go down to posterity as having been punished for theft and murder.
 The prisoner must supply his own bedding and is subject to various charges On entering be pays about ten pence, and on leaving :. similar sum. Every day in prison costs sixpence; fire and light sixpence extra. The jailer supplies coffee for trife. Meals may be ordered from outside. Every prison CT leaves his carte de yisite, which is fixed with a multitude of others on the door of the cell This queer album is glazed to protect the photographs
 Academic criminal procedure in Hei- delberg is curious. If the city police ap- prehend q student, the captive shows his matriculation card. He is then ask ed for his address and set free, but will hear more of the matter. for the civil authority reports him to the university. The Oxford regulation, by the way, is in certain cases almost identical. In Heidelberg the university court try and pass sentence, the civil power taking no further concern with the offense. The trial is very often conducted in the pris- oner's absence, and he, poor wight, may have forgotten all about his peccadillo until the university constable appears to conduct him to prison. But thither, seeing he may choose his day, he always repairs ully.--Londen Sketch. |
 
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