The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1898-07-07
JAIL FOR STUDENTS.
QUEER PHASE OF LIFE AT HElDEL-
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.
In England the students body is COM
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 characterization, for which he
may impose momentary penalty, but
he does not deprive the defaulter of lib
erty. There is, or was, a legend that a
certain apartment under the old Claren-
don building was really the university
ssuuod,'' but for it's authenticity it is
impossible to youch.
Cambridge has it's spinning house for
female offenders-not lady students, but
ladies who might prove delusion and
a snare to the mere male undergrad.
There, if we except the irksome penalty
Of "gating' confinement to college or
lodgings after stated hour), our aca-
demic efforts at incarceration may be
said to end.
In Germany, however, the academic
dungeon is a, very stern fact. The Hell
ielberg career" is famous. Every read
ar 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 a
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.
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 is up three flights of stairs,
and is approached by a ''zugang" as
richly decorated with the art work of
convicts as the cell itself The apart
ment is not roomy, but bigger than an
ordinary prison cell. 1t has an iron
grated window, small stove, two
wooden chairs, two old oak tables and
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 a spectator of
a row." If four days were melted out to
a mere spectator, what, one wonders,
bad been the sentence of the participa-
TORS? 1t must have been a moving spec
tac,e.
Another rec,;a (also quoted by Mr..
<,,e.i.'"'. ~ a. great name
to it. of course 1t Is the son. NV 10
meanh not the father. The legend is,
IL Graf Bismarck, 27-29. II. IA"
This Mark Twain interprets as record
of two days durance vile for Count Bis
marc, in 1874. Had 1874 been leap
year one might have been inclined to
interpret the numeral III" 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 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 q similar sum.
Every day in prison costs sixpence; fire
and light sixpence extra The jailer
supplies coffee for trifle. Meals may
be ordered from outside. Every prison
er leaves his carte de visite, which is
fixed with multitude of others on the
door of the cell. This queer album is
glazed to protect the photographs.
Academic criminal procedure in Hell
delberg is curious. If the city police APP
prehend a student the captive shows
his naturalization 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 i'll the prls
oner's absence, and he, poor wight. may
have forgotten all about his peccadill liz
until the university constable appears
to conduct him to prison. But thither
seeing he may choose his day, he always
repairs cheerfully. London Sketch.
How We Use Our Lives.
If Won are fond Of such statistics