Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-01-08

centenary. our kaiser, who Is much inter-
ested in student life, bids me counsel you
no longer to seek academic recreation and
youthful gayety in the dense air of the
beer saloon. Make merry, but do not fall
slaves to alcohol. Commit to memory this
imperial precept!' The students commit
ted It to memory, and then fled headlong
to the nearest beer shop, where they
quaffed like berserkers In Walhalla.
The attempt to convert the Berlin stu
dents came nearer to success.
Example" said Kaiser Wilhelm, us
better than precept. I shall show them
how I have mastered the art Of being
merry though sober" And he commanded
that five undergraduates be invited to the
centenary banquet. The chosen victims
washed themselves Though 1t was not
washing day., and, with their vacuous in
sides yearning for honest beer, arrived at
the banquet hall, where they were to
drink champagne with princes, counts and
shining ambassadors plenipotentiary.
These exalted ones received them like hui
man beings.
Kaiser Wilhelm patted their backs,
them his portrait as a student at Bonn.
Ravishfng Crown Princess Cecilie let
them kiss her dimpled hand. After
four-hour deluge OF respectability they
returned to their comrades converted for
ever to the sober life But the comrades
resented the shiny faces and brand-new
courtly manners, and exacted Sardonic
retribution. They dosed the backsliders
with frothy Munich mixed with schnapps.
and hurled them in ten minues from the
apex OF courtly self-control into the diz-
ziest abyss Of normal academic tlpsiness
The situation was saved.
But Kaiser Wilhelm is a perSevering
man, and he made fresh attempts to save
<I~ t,,la g. AZ, m at h
manufactures house a red-nosed stu
dent of Freiburg. and catechised him
about Freiburg's attitude toward the pew
ter pot.
y
Your majesty was the answer, Il
have never seen man drinking more
than four liters (seven pints) at sitting.
1.-The kaiser" says the local newspaper,
was Disguised by this reply. and he ex-
pressed in the strongest terms his loath-
ing for this immoderate liquor guZZling,
which. he said is a disgrace TO Germany"
And at the Chateau of Hohkoenigsberg
he told another student: Drinking is a
bad education for my service. He added
that no beer drinker would become a
Rhodes scholar, and made the novel re-
mark that "a student should be gentle
man.
The young men OF Bonn, who are
mostly counts and have, therefore, no
need to be gentlemen complained that
the kaiser was putting a severe strain
upon the loyalty Of his loyalest class
But Kaiser Wilhelm persisted, and the
latest rumor is that he will call con-
ference of Prussian professors Ito con-
slider the attainment of better moral
tone among young men at universitiesb
The kaiser Is all the keener on carrying
through the reform because he has seen
the drinking himself The drunkest stu
dents In Germany are the members of
of which the Raiser and most of his sons
has on its list a near relative of Bismarck,
four relatives OF the late Chancellor
Prince Hohenlohe, seven junior members
OF reigning German houses and a whole
score oe young chieftains of ducal and
princely clans. For drink, impertinence
and rowdiness the smart Borussians beat
all the other corps put together; SO that
when plebeian corps are brought to book
for making what Germans call "kra-
Walle"-ltterally q not-fhey always ap-
peal to the precedent OF artistic Borus-
STA, a corps which nobody dare touch
\ y
Among pedants OF student etiquette
"Borussia" Is sometimes suspect. because
It's millionaire members drink expensive
wines; whereas student democratic tradi-
tions proclaim beer to be an infinitely
nobler drink. But the Borussians, their
worst critics admit make up In quantity
what they thus lack in quality
In the month OF December. 1909, the
'Krawalle' OF the brave Bonn students