manners, customs and traditionary good-fellowship of a half
century ago
In olden times we were wont to look for the * ‘ Kneipe ’ ’ and
“ Mensur ” or duel as everyday occurrences. These two terms be
ing synonymous with the varsities in the Fatherland of William I.
Now the Kneipe alone remains as the sole survivor of these happy
times, and how degraded it is, too. Kike all things made common
it has lost its flavor, and now no spirit of mystery hovers over its
celebration. Duelling, too, is rightfully under the law, and is to
be seen only at the three institutions I have named above with
anything like regularity. Police are on the watch to catch offenders,
and seclusion must be sought for a fighting ground. Of course,
the boys seek to “ fix ” the patrol, but it is risky and too exciting
under ordinary circumstances.
To-day work is a very important elective in an average student’s
curriculum. He takes books into account more when planning
his university course than ever before. The big dog of romance
is left to hustle for himself, as the student has but little time to
take him for an airing. Heidelberg and Goettingen alone furnish
instances of these pets, relics of ages gone by. Formerly the code
of etiquette of studentdom required the wearing of glasses, if they
were only of window pane. To-day a great majority of these are
worn through necessity, worn as it were by toil beneath the rays
of the midnight lamp.
For convenience sake let us consider the student of to-day from
two aspects. These two views we will for facility term the
‘ ‘ scholastic ’ ’ and the ‘ ‘ socialist. ’ ’ In the one we find the youth
a student among students, keen, thorough and thoughtful, a
brainy striver for wealth and fame. In the other we find him a
beauty, wholesoul exponent of life as it ought to be lived from
the endaimonestic standpoint. As such he is a perfect disciple of
the “dolce for niente ” creed, a dainty butterfly sipping honey
from every passing flower. Here he is to be considered a creature
of habit pure and simple, a worthy follower of worthy predecessors.
As a scholar he makes, to a certain degree, his own environment.
He strives to emulate the noble lives with which the pages of
German thought are filled. A follower of beaten paths may he be,
yet he dares to scale the dizzy heights and tempt the fields un
trodden by human foot before. Alone he will risk the measure
less abyss, seeing before him only success, reckoning not the possi
bility of a fatal plunge.
The Free Lance,
[December,