The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-07-22
JAIL FOR STUDENTS.
QUEER PHASE OF LIFE AT HEIDEL-
BERG UNIVERSITY.
sumo of the Names Which Adorn the
Prison Register and the "Crimes" For
which Their Owners Were Incarcerated.
The Rules of the Place.

Which Their Owners Were Incarcerated
The Rules of the Place.
In England the students body is com.
nitted to prison only by the civil au.
;hority. In Oxford, il is true, the vice
chancellor deals with undergraduate
naughtiness, principally in the form of
debt and insubordinati6n, for which he
may impose a momentary penalty, but
he does not deprive the defaulter of lib
erty. There is, or was, legend that a
certain apartment under the old Claren.
don building was really the university
"quod," but for its authenticity it is
impossible to vouch.
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 "gating" confinement to college or
lodgings after stated hour), our AGA
demic efforts at incarceration may be
said to end
In Germany, however, the academic
dungeon is very stern fact. The Hell
delberg career" is famous Every read
er of Mark Twain will recall his enter
tanning 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 got "a 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.
1T 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 is up three flights of stairs,
and is approached by "zugang' as
richly decorated with the art work Of
convicts as the cell itself The apart
ment is not roomy, bat bigger than an
ordinary prison cell. 1t has an iron
grated window, small stove, two
wooden chairs, two old oak tables and
a narrow wooden bedstead.
The furniture is profusely ornament
ed with carving, the work of anguish
ing captives, 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 in SCOT,
the prison candle forming handy PEN |
Gil. Some of the inscriptions are pa
thetic. One runs, "E. Glinicke, four |
days for being too eager q spectator Of |
q row." Ii four days were melted out to |
a mere spectator, what one wonders. |
had been the sentence of the participa-
tors? 1t must have been q moving spec
tacle.
Another record (also quoted by Mr..
Clemens) has the SAVIOR Of q great name
to it. or course it is the son that is
meant, not the father. The legend is,
IF. Graf Bismarck, 27-29. III. IA"
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 I'll" as February.
But the "29" makes this difficult So
perhaps the humorist is right.
A third specimen is too tragic for
1t simply says, "R. Diergandt
for love-four days" Ungenerous
successors to that sad chamber have
dealt harshly with their forerunners'
regulations by ingenious substitution of
heinous crimes, so that certain prison
ers 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 he pays about ten.
pence, and on leaving similar sum.
Every day In prison costs sixpence; fire
md light sixpence extra The jailer
supplies coffee for trif1e. Meals may
Dc ordered from outside. Every prison
II leaves his carte de visite, which is
ixed with a multitude of others ON the
loor of the CELL This queer album is
glazed to protect the photographs.
Academic criminal procedure in Hell
lelberg is curious If tho city police an.
'rehend student, the captive shows
lis matriculation card He is then ask
ID for his address and set free, but will I
lear more Of the matter, for the civil !
authority reports him to the university. [
The Oxford regulation, by the way, is (
n certain cases almost identical. In
the university court try and ,
'ass sentence, the civil power taking I
10 further concern with the offense. The {
rial is very often conducted in the pris- I
mel Is absence, and he, poor wight may !
ave forgotten all about his peccadillo 7
ntil the university constable appears s
o conduct him to prison. But thither, c
eeing he may choose his day, he always v
epairs Observation-Disclosures Sketch. b
How We Usa Our Itvo. u