A Tramp Abroad - The Original Classic Edition. Twain Mark

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       he says, 'Come here, everybody; hang'd if this fool hasn't been trying to fill up a house with acorns!' They all came a-swooping down like a blue cloud, and as each fellow lit on the door and took a glance, the whole absurdity of the contract that that first jay had tackled hit him home and he fell over backward suffocating with laughter, and the next jay took his place and done the same.

       "Well, sir, they roosted around here on the housetop and the trees for an hour, and guffawed over that thing like human beings. It ain't any use to tell me a bluejay hasn't got a sense of humor, because I know

       better. And memory, too. They brought jays here from all over the United

       States to look down that hole, every summer for three years. Other birds, too. And they could all see the point except an owl that come from Nova Scotia to visit the Yo Semite, and he took this thing in on his way back. He said he couldn't see anything funny in it. But then he was a good deal disappointed about Yo Semite, too."

       CHAPTER IV

       Student Life

       [The Laborious Beer King]

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       The summer semester was in full tide; consequently the most frequent figure in and about Heidelberg was the student. Most of the students were Germans, of course, but the representatives of foreign lands

       were very numerous. They hailed from every corner of the globe--for instruction is cheap in Heidelberg, and so is living, too. The

       Anglo-American Club, composed of British and American students, had

       twenty-five members, and there was still much material left to draw

       from.

       Nine-tenths of the Heidelberg students wore no badge or uniform; the other tenth wore caps of various colors, and belonged to social organizations called "corps." There were five corps, each with a color of its own; there were white caps, blue caps, and red, yellow, and green ones. The famous duel-fighting is confined to the "corps" boys. The

       "KNEIP" seems to be a specialty of theirs, too. Kneips are held, now and then, to celebrate great occasions, like the election of a beer king,

       for instance. The solemnity is simple; the five corps assemble at night,

       and at a signal they all fall loading themselves with beer, out

       of pint-mugs, as fast as possible, and each man keeps his own

       count--usually by laying aside a lucifer match for each mug he empties.

       The election is soon decided. When the candidates can hold no more, a count is instituted and the one who has drank the greatest number of pints is proclaimed king. I was told that the last beer king elected

       by the corps--or by his own capabilities--emptied his mug seventy-five

       times. No stomach could hold all that quantity at one time, of

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       course--but there are ways of frequently creating a vacuum, which those who have been much at sea will understand.

       One sees so many students abroad at all hours, that he presently begins

       to wonder if they ever have any working-hours. Some of them have, some of them haven't. Each can choose for himself whether he will work or play; for German university life is a very free life; it seems to have

       no restraints. The student does not live in the college buildings, but hires his own lodgings, in any locality he prefers, and he takes his

       meals when and where he pleases. He goes to bed when it suits him, and does not get up at all unless he wants to. He is not entered at the university for any particular length of time; so he is likely to change about. He passes no examinations upon entering college. He merely pays

       a trifling fee of five or ten dollars, receives a card entitling him to

       the privileges of the university, and that is the end of it. He is now ready for business--or play, as he shall prefer. If he elects to

       work, he finds a large list of lectures to choose from. He selects the

       subjects which he will study, and enters his name for these studies; but he can skip attendance.

       The result of this system is, that lecture-courses upon specialties of an unusual nature are often delivered to very slim audiences,

       while those upon more practical and every-day matters of education are delivered to very large ones. I heard of one case where, day after day,

       the lecturer's audience consisted of three students--and always the

       same three. But one day two of them remained away. The lecturer began as usual--

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       "Gentlemen," --then, without a smile, he corrected himself, saying--

       "Sir," --and went on with his discourse.

       It is said that the vast majority of the Heidelberg students are hard workers, and make the most of their opportunities; that they have no surplus means to spend in dissipation, and no time to spare for

       frolicking. One lecture follows right on the heels of another, with very little time for the student to get out of one hall and into the next;

       but the industrious ones manage it by going on a trot. The professors assist them in the saving of their time by being promptly in their

       little boxed-up pulpits when the hours strike, and as promptly out again when the hour finishes. I entered an empty lecture-room one day just before the clock struck. The place had simple, unpainted pine desks and

       benches for about two hundred persons.

       About a minute before the clock struck, a hundred and fifty students swarmed in, rushed to their seats, immediately spread open their notebooks and dipped their pens in ink. When the clock began to strike, a burly professor entered, was received with a round of applause, moved swiftly down the center aisle, said "Gentlemen," and began to talk as he climbed his pulpit steps; and by the time he had arrived in his box and faced his audience, his lecture was well under way and all the pens were going. He had no notes, he talked with prodigious rapidity and

       energy for an hour--then the students began to remind him in certain well-understood ways that his time was up; he seized his hat, still talking, proceeded swiftly down his pulpit steps, got out the last word of his discourse as he struck the floor; everybody rose respectfully,

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       and he swept rapidly down the aisle and disappeared. An instant rush for some other lecture-room followed, and in a minute I was alone with the empty benches once more.

       Yes, without doubt, idle students are not the rule. Out of eight hundred in the town, I knew the faces of only about fifty; but these I saw everywhere, and daily. They walked about the streets and the wooded hills, they drove in cabs, they boated on the river, they sipped beer

       and coffee, afternoons, in the Schloss gardens. A good many of them wore

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