A Tramp Abroad - The Original Classic Edition. Twain Mark

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СКАЧАТЬ later, I perceive that each of us, by observing and noting and inquiring, diligently and day by day, had

       managed to lay in a most varied and opulent stock of misinformation. But

       this is not surprising; it is very difficult to get accurate details in

       any country. For example, I had the idea once, in Heidelberg, to find out all about those five student-corps. I started with the White Cap corps. I began to inquire of this and that and the other citizen, and here is what I found out:

       1. It is called the Prussian Corps, because none but Prussians are admitted to it.

       2. It is called the Prussian Corps for no particular reason. It has simply pleased each corps to name itself after some German state.

       3. It is not named the Prussian Corps at all, but only the White Cap

       Corps.

       4. Any student can belong to it who is a German by birth.

       5. Any student can belong to it who is European by birth.

       6. Any European-born student can belong to it, except he be a Frenchman.

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       7. Any student can belong to it, no matter where he was born.

       8. No student can belong to it who is not of noble blood.

       9. No student can belong to it who cannot show three full generations of noble descent.

       10. Nobility is not a necessary qualification.

       11. No moneyless student can belong to it.

       12. Money qualification is nonsense--such a thing has never been thought

       of.

       I got some of this information from students themselves--students who did not belong to the corps.

       I finally went to headquarters--to the White Caps--where I would have gone in the first place if I had been acquainted. But even at headquarters I found difficulties; I perceived that there were things

       about the White Cap Corps which one member knew and another one didn't. It was natural; for very few members of any organization know ALL that

       can be known about it. I doubt there is a man or a woman in Heidelberg who would not answer promptly and confidently three out of every five questions about the White Cap Corps which a stranger might ask; yet

       it is a very safe bet that two of the three answers would be incorrect

       every time.

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       There is one German custom which is universal--the bowing courteously to strangers when sitting down at table or rising up from it. This

       bow startles a stranger out of his self-possession, the first time

       it occurs, and he is likely to fall over a chair or something, in his embarrassment, but it pleases him, nevertheless. One soon learns to expect this bow and be on the lookout and ready to return it; but to learn to lead off and make the initial bow one's self is a difficult

       matter for a diffident man. One thinks, "If I rise to go, and tender my bow, and these ladies and gentlemen take it into their heads to ignore the custom of their nation, and not return it, how shall I feel, in case

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