Perhaps the president of a corps notices that one of the membership who is no longer an exempt—that is a freshman—has remained a sophomore2 some little time without volunteering to fight; some day, the president, instead of calling for volunteers, will appoint this sophomore to measure swords with a student of another corps; he is free to decline—everybody says so—there is no compulsion. This is all true—but I have not heard of any student who did decline; to decline and still remain in the corps would make him unpleasantly conspicuous3, and properly so, since he knew, when he joined, that his main business, as a member, would be to fight. No, there is no law against declining—except the law of custom, which is confessedly stronger than written law, everywhere.
The ten men whose duels5 I had witnessed did not go away when their hurts were dressed, as I had supposed they would, but came back, one after another, as soon as they were free of the surgeon, and mingled6 with the assemblage in the dueling7-room. The white-cap student who won the second fight witnessed the remaining three, and talked with us during the intermissions. He could not talk very well, because his opponent’s sword had cut his under-lip in two, and then the surgeon had sewed it together and overlaid it with a profusion8 of white plaster patches; neither could he eat easily, still he contrived9 to accomplish a slow and troublesome luncheon10 while the last duel4 was preparing. The man who was the worst hurt of all played chess while waiting to see this engagement. A good part of his face was covered with patches and bandages, and all the rest of his head was covered and concealed11 by them.
It is said that the student likes to appear on the street and in other public places in this kind of array, and that this predilection12 often keeps him out when exposure to rain or sun is a positive danger for him. Newly bandaged students are a very common spectacle in the public gardens of Heidelberg. It is also said that the student is glad to get wounds in the face, because the scars they leave will show so well there; and it is also said that these face wounds are so prized that youths have even been known to pull them apart from time to time and put red wine in them to make them heal badly and leave as ugly a scar as possible. It does not look reasonable, but it is roundly asserted and maintained, nevertheless; I am sure of one thing—scars are plenty enough in Germany, among the young men; and very grim ones they are, too. They crisscross the face in angry red welts, and are permanent and ineffaceable.
Some of these scars are of a very strange and dreadful aspect; and the effect is striking when several such accent the milder ones, which form a city map on a man’s face; they suggest the “burned district” then. We had often noticed that many of the students wore a colored silk band or ribbon diagonally across their breasts. It transpired13 that this signifies that the wearer has fought three duels in which a decision was reached—duels in which he either whipped or was whipped—for drawn14 battles do not count. [1] After a student has received his ribbon, he is “free”; he can cease from fighting, without reproach—except some one insult him; his president cannot appoint him to fight; he can volunteer if he wants to, or remain quiescent15 if he prefers to do so. Statistics show that he does not prefer to remain quiescent. They show that the duel has a singular fascination16 about it somewhere, for these free men, so far from resting upon the privilege of the badge, are always volunteering. A corps student told me it was of record that Prince Bismarck fought thirty-two of these duels in a single summer term when he was in college. So he fought twenty-nine after his badge had given him the right to retire from the field.
1. From My Diary.—Dined in a hotel a few miles up the Neckar, in a room whose walls were hung all over with framed portrait-groups of the Five Corps; some were recent, but many antedated17 photography, and were pictured in lithography—the dates ranged back to forty or fifty years ago. Nearly every individual wore the ribbon across his breast. In one portrait-group representing (as each of these pictures did) an entire Corps, I took pains to count the ribbons: there were twenty-seven members, and twenty-one of them wore that significant badge.
The statistics may be found to possess interest in several particulars. Two days in every week are devoted18 to dueling. The rule is rigid19 that there must be three duels on each of these days; there are generally more, but there cannot be fewer. There were six the day I was present; sometimes there are seven or eight. It is insisted that eight duels a week—four for each of the two days—is too low an average to draw a calculation from, but I will reckon from that basis, preferring an understatement to an overstatement of the case. This requires about four hundred and eighty or five hundred duelists a year—for in summer the college term is about three and a half months, and in winter it is four months and sometimes longer. Of the seven hundred and fifty students in the university at the time I am writing of, only eighty belonged to the five corps, and it is only these corps that do the dueling; occasionally other students borrow the arms and battleground of the five corps in order to settle a quarrel, but this does not happen every dueling-day. [2] Consequently eighty youths furnish the material for some two hundred and fifty duels a year. This average gives six fights a year to each of the eighty. This large work could not be accomplished20 if the badge-holders stood upon their privilege and ceased to volunteer.
2. They have to borrow the arms because they could not get them elsewhere or otherwise. As I understand it, the public authorities, all over Germany, allow the five Corps to keep swords, but do not allow them to use them. This is law is rigid; it is only the execution of it that is lax.
Of course, where there is so much fighting, the students make it a point to keep themselves in constant practice with the foil. One often sees them, at the tables in the Castle grounds, using their whips or canes21 to illustrate22 some new sword trick which they have heard about; and between the duels, on the day whose history I have been writing, the swords were not always idle; every now and then we heard a succession of the keen hissing23 sounds which the sword makes when it is being put through its paces in the air, and this informed us that a student was practicing. Necessarily, this unceasing attention to the art develops an expert occasionally. He becomes famous in his own university, his renown24 spreads to other universities. He is invited to Goettingen, to fight with a Goettingen expert; if he is victorious25, he will be invited to other colleges, or those colleges will send their experts to him. Americans and Englishmen often join one or another of the five corps. A year or two ago, the principal Heidelberg expert was a big Kentuckian; he was invited to the various universities and left a wake of victory behind him all about Germany; but at last a little student in Strasburg defeated him. There was formerly26 a student in Heidelberg who had picked up somewhere and mastered a peculiar27 trick of cutting up under instead of cleaving28 down from above. While the trick lasted he won in sixteen successive duels in his university; but by that time observers had discovered what his charm was, and how to break it, therefore his championship ceased.
A rule which forbids social intercourse29 between members of different corps is strict. In the dueling-house, in the parks, on the street, and anywhere and everywhere that the students go, caps of a color group themselves together. If all the tables in a public garden were crowded but one, and that one had two red-cap students at it and ten vacant places, the yellow-caps, the blue-caps, the white caps, and the green caps, seeking seats, would go by that table and not seem to see it, nor seem to be aware that there was such a table in the grounds. The student by whose courtesy we had been enabled to visit the dueling-place, wore the white cap—Prussian Corps. He introduced us to many white caps, but to none of another color. The corps etiquette30 extended even to us, who were strangers, and required us to group with the white corps only, and speak only with the white corps, while we were their guests, and keep aloof31 from the caps of the other colors. Once I wished to examine some of the swords, but an American student said, “It would not be quite polite; these now in the windows all have red hilts or blue; they will bring in some with white hilts presently, and those you can handle freely.” When a sword was broken in the first duel, I wanted a piece of it; but its hilt was the wrong color, so it was considered best and politest to await a properer season.
It was brought to me after the room was cleared, and I will now make a “life-size” sketch32 of it by tracing a line around it with my pen, to show the width of the weapon. [Figure 1] The length of these swords is about three feet, and they are quite heavy. One’s disposition33 to cheer, during the course of the duels or at their close, was naturally strong, but corps etiquette forbade any demonstrations34 of this sort. However brilliant a contest or a victory might be, no sign or sound betrayed that any one was moved. A dignified35 gravity and repression36 were maintained at all times.
When the dueling was finished and we were ready to go, the gentlemen of the Prussian Corps to whom we had been introduced took off their caps in the courteous37 German way, and also shook hands; their brethren of the same order took off their caps and bowed, but without shaking hands; the gentlemen of the other corps treated us just as they would have treated white caps—they fell apart, apparently38 unconsciously, and left us an unobstructed pathway, but did not seem to see us or know we were there. If we had gone thither39 the following week as guests of another corps, the white caps, without meaning any offense40, would have observed the etiquette of their order and ignored our presence.
[How strangely are comedy and tragedy blended in this life! I had not been home a full half-hour, after witnessing those playful sham-duels, when circumstances made it necessary for me to get ready immediately to assist personally at a real one—a duel with no effeminate limitation in the matter of results, but a battle to the death. An account of it, in the next chapter, will show the reader that duels between boys, for fun, and duels between men in earnest, are very different affairs.]
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1
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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2
sophomore
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| n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的 | |
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3
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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4
duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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duels
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| n.两男子的决斗( duel的名词复数 )；竞争，斗争 | |
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6
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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7
dueling
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| n. 决斗, 抗争(=duelling) 动词duel的现在分词形式 | |
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8
profusion
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| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
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9
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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10
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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11
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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12
predilection
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| n.偏好 | |
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13
transpired
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| （事实，秘密等）被人知道( transpire的过去式和过去分词 )； 泄露； 显露； 发生 | |
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14
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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15
quiescent
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| adj.静止的，不活动的，寂静的 | |
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16
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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17
antedated
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| v.（在历史上）比…为早( antedate的过去式和过去分词 )；先于；早于；（在信、支票等上）填写比实际日期早的日期 | |
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18
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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20
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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canes
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| n.（某些植物，如竹或甘蔗的）茎( cane的名词复数 )；（用于制作家具等的）竹竿；竹杖 | |
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22
illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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24
renown
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| n.声誉，名望 | |
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victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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26
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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28
cleaving
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| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的现在分词 ) | |
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29
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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30
etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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31
aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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32
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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33
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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34
demonstrations
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| 证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威 | |
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35
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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36
repression
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| n.镇压，抑制，抑压 | |
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37
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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38
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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39
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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40
offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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