The reader has hitherto only seen the students in their public life. Their private life, in comparison with their public and out-of-door proceedings, withdraws itself so much from general observation, that it is not likely that it should so soon, or so forcibly, strike the general eye, as that does by its bold and prominent features. Yet we are confident that we can present to the reader many an interesting picture if he will allow himself to accompany us into the lodging of one of our heroes. "In God's name," Mrs. Trollope will exclaim, "what are you going to do? Are you mad, that you would seek the bear in his den?" We can, however, only beseech the foreigner not to be deterred by the often wild exterior and carriage of the student, from paying a visit to one or another of them. Without further hesitation or precaution he may follow us, and make himself certain of a friendly reception, especially from the South German. Should any one yet be incredulous, let him only inquire of Mr. Traveller, who has now resided half a year in Heidelberg, and made his first acquaintance with the student-world in this manner. One of my friends told me that he had introduced him to the student Freisleben. "In his smoking-room?" asked I, in astonishment. "Yes; why not? The English," said he, "have strong nerves, and I wished to fortify his against all weaker impressions, in fact, to make him smoke-proof; an experiment which I hope even the learned Mrs. Carleton herself would not disapprove of."
"Well, and how did he like it?" inquired I farther.
"We had scarcely made our escape out of the snow-storm of a wild December day into the house, when the Englishman remarked that the whole abode had a peculiar look, which he could not for his life describe or particularize, but which had a strong smack of the student. I had purposely brought him into a genuine studentkneip-house, and in the entrance, that white painted board on the wall, on which, with their respective numbers, hung the keys of the different rooms, caught his eye. The narrow passage and steps by which we made our way through the house appeared strange to him. We at length reached the right door; I opened it; the Englishman looked eagerly in; but imagine his amazement as he saw nothing but a monstrous cloud of smoke. 'Where are we?' he demanded. An instant yell thundered through the smoke towards us--a whip whistled in the air, and a tremendous voice cried, 'Down! down!' 'We shall get no good here,' said the Englander. 'Courage, courage,' said I, and we pressed forward into the midst of this smoke-vomiting volcano. In the meantime a portion of the reek had made its escape by the open door; it became tolerably light, and we saw the great spaniel, who had withdrawn himself howling into his basket, and friend Freisleben standing with his riding-whip in his hand."
"That confounded dog of mine--the uncourteous rascal," said he, "does not understand how he ought to receive a stranger. Mr. Traveller, it rejoices me to see you in my abode. My friend has already made me acquainted with your name." He requested us to be seated, and offered us each a pipe, which he himself had well supplied with tobacco, in the kindest manner.
"But, my God," whispered the new guest to me, "every thing looks here pretty much as with other well-bred people. All so human. Ah! I am very sorry that I am so undeceived." Yet a closer observation conducted the sufficiently quick eye of the Englishman to the various peculiarities there, and served to enrich his sketch-book with sundry notices, which he has been obliging enough to communicate to us.
The student knows how to live here. He has fitted up his room very commodiously. The sleeping-room certainly is somewhat small; often, rather an alcove, in which, besides his bed, his wardrobe, his dressing-table, and a large trunk, there is little to be seen. But one might almost pronounce his sitting-room comfortable, were it not distinguished by rather too much of a lyrical disorder. Books, pipes, rapiers, clothes, coffee, and writing apparatus, are somewhat too little assorted; and the stove, standing in the room itself--but Germans in this respect know no better. Yet one must admit that those little machines, which look like an adiaphory, between a Roman urn and a German beer-jug, and which one might take by the end of the long pipe and carry with one along the streets, are very well adapted to the needs of the student, who commonly only wiles away an hour at home, and then hastens again to the college, since they quickly warm the room, and as quickly let it cool again. They are readily made hot, so that you may easily when at full heat light your pipe at them.
There are not wanting tables, chairs, a commode, a writing-table and book-shelves, and a sofa that is pretty well used. Our host, at first sight looked, to my fancy, somewhat Turkish, as at our morning visit he sat enjoying his pipe and coffee, in a coloured plaid morning-gown and showy slippers. But the legs--no, they were not crossed in Turkish fashion, but stretched out at will from the sofa in true English style, and seemed to feel themselves very much at home in the room. He had a handkerchief thrown loosely round his neck, and the small, round, and embroidered cap sat not inelegantly on his head. These caps, as I learned in course of conversation, are termedcerevis, or beer-caps. What especially struck me in the apartment, were the various decorations which adorned the walls in gay rows, and the signification of which our host politely explained to me. Upon one wall was displayed a long line of profiles, all under glass, and in small gilt frames. A coloured Chore-band falling from above, wound about them, and comprehended them, as it were, in one great family. "These," said he, "are in memory of the friends who have contributed to embellish my six semesters at the university:" and I learned that it was the practice, especially of those who belonged to the same Chore, mutually to honour each other with those little likenesses.
"We have here," said he, "in Heidelberg, the Herr Münich, who executes these things in first-rate style, and derives almost a livelihood alone from this branch of business. It is the same in other places. I have already passed some time in Jena, Berlin, and Bonn, and have enjoyed the friendship of many a brave Bursche. There, you see the views of many a city through which I have travelled. They will to the latest hour yield me delightful recollections." These, with the well-executed portraits of many professors, filled a second wall. Amongst them proudly displayed themselves several printed duplicates of the doctoral diplomas of his friends.
"And whose likeness is this which hangs in the midst?" I asked. "That," he replied, "is the portrait of our famous Pawk-doctor, which cannot be wanting in any kneip."
On the third wall I beheld pipes of all forms and sizes, from the meerschaum to the clay pipe; and my polite host promised me at the next opportunity, to give me a lecture, as he expressed it, on these articles of furniture. My eye was now caught by the garniture which I beheld about the looking-glass. It was hung round with ribands of various colours, and above it appeared the remains of garlands. As I noticed them my host said--"See, those are flowers out of the mourning garlands which deck many a departed friend who sleeps in the cool earth; which we carefully preserve."
"And the ribands with the many inscriptions and the dates?" I asked. "Those," said he, "are my Chore-brothers; and the date indicates the foundation-day of ourVerbindung."
On the fourth wall were to be seen a Schläger with the Chore-colours; a chore-cap and a guitar, with several coloured rosettes. There stood also a little table, and upon it apparatus for drinking and smoking; a large Deckel-glass with a lid, having upon it an engraved inscription, "Traumansdorf to his Freisleben, 18th July, 1838;" an elegant little casket with tobacco, a spill-vase, a study lamp, a vessel denominated the Pope, to receive the ashes of the tobacco on emptying the pipe, and an incombustible spill, or Fidebus, a new discovery, and certainly one of the most useful of the nineteenth century. This consists of a small strong coloured glass tube, which is partly filled with spirits of wine, and closed with a cork; through which a wire is thrust, and to the bottom end of which wire is secured a small knob of wood wrapped in cotton wool. This wire has a ring at the top, by which it is pulled out, and the knob ignited at the lamp when it is wished to light a pipe--a convenient piece of machinery, and also forming an ornament to the table.
As 1 continued to observe these mysteries, my host took up the guitar, and touching the strings, sung,--
He who can neither drink, love, nor sing,How scorneth the Bursche so mean a thing!
He who can neither drink, love, nor sing,How scorneth the Bursche so mean a thing!
"I can guess, and therefore ask not," I observed, "what your rosettes mean." "It was a delightful August ball," said he to his friend significantly. "And this glass, too, I see, is the gift of a friend," I added. "Certainly, you are quite to be envied." "That is nothing extraordinary," he remarked; "it is the custom amongst students to compliment each other with, or to dedicate to each other, as we express it, such things. The inscriptions which you see on you pipe-heads, on those ribands, on this glass, we term dedications. They bear the name of the giver, and the day which is the most distinguished in our lives through some remarkable event, on which day such a gift is generally given. Let us add to the so-called gifts the silhouettes and the sword, and you have altogether what the student is accustomed to dedicate to his fellow-student. But be seated. The coffee will be cold, and my pipe is actually gone out. If you will have a morning-gown, I have another, and I am always sorry to see any one squeezed up in an uncomfortable schnippel (student term for a dress coat). Would you think that a German had so much regard to comfort? Ha! ha! Much more than you imagine. Fancy yourself before an English fireplace (opening the door of the stove); since, without that, I know you don't feel yourself comfortable; and that we also are aware of the pleasantness of a fireplace, is shown by our frequently having the stove open into the room. And do you know that we have an equivalent for your wordcomfort, of which you are so proud?"
"If you will tell me what it is," I answered, "I will believe it; but I have hunted through every dictionary for it in vain, since your words behaglich, gemüthlich, bequem, don't express the actual thing."
"Pomadig," cried he, laughing; "that's the lordly word! but it is only one of ourtermini technici, and is not yet sanctioned by Adelung."
"I will swear from this day forward," I exclaimed, "that the students arepomadig." "Have pomade," said he, correcting me, "for we are no pomadenhengste. When I am laid up some day," he continued, "I will make you a vocabulary of our terms with their synonymes, and shall felicitate myself thereby on contributing to a more perfect knowledge of the German language in England. You will take care to publish it?" "Assure yourself of that," I replied.
"But what has the Boot-fox brought?" asked my host of his friend, who during this time had been in conversation with a queer-looking fellow. "A duplicate diploma from Schmidt," he replied. "What has the old boy then bitten of the sour apple at last!" "Yes! he has worked like a dragon--he hasgeoxedtremendously during the last year, and has now taken the highest degree."
Freisleben sings:--
Therefore lets he fall a tear,And thinks--ah! but youth was dear!And gives me an examen summa cum laude.
Therefore lets he fall a tear,And thinks--ah! but youth was dear!And gives me an examen summa cum laude.
"I am very curious," said I, "to know who the man was that walked in without knocking, and whom you styled Boot-fox. He looked like a servant that, instead of livery, a man has stuck into a student's coat; and what a cap he had on! And besides that, he had such a curious voice that one could have thought it belonged to some other person, or that somebody else was in the room when he spoke."
"Ha! ha! I will explain that to you. This odd fellow belongs to a class of ministering spirits who live entirely by the students. We dub them Boot-foxes, because they clean our boots and clothes. They are bound to run also on our commissions, and must figure in processions and public pageants. As the poor devil must turn out very early in the mornings, his voice snaps and cracks huskily from the effects of the raw air, like that of a youth in the transition-state from a hobbledehoy to a man, till by degrees it balances itself in one key. For the rest, he is a respectable father of a family, and his wife is generally a washerwoman for the students."
"All that is easy enough to understand," I replied. "Why do you call him a boot-fox?"
"Ah, I forgot to observe, that in earlier times the foxes, who, as you know are students just come from the schools, and whom we yet play many a joke upon, were frequently obliged, very improperly, to perform those offices which our Famulus now discharges, and thence this name dates itself."
"I have made myself acquainted," said I, "with a new species of foxes. The other day I heard a professor spoken of as a school-fox."
"Yes, yes; this name is given contemptuously to one of those teachers who, without penetrating into the spirit of knowledge, turns into his scholars, by hogsheads, the unfermented deluge of material, and reckons a man learned if he has only piled up in his hollow skull a chaos of things merely gathered by rote. God be praised, these scarecrows become scarcer from day to day. Yet, alas! there lies in the German wordGelehrter, the idea of one who has beentaughtwithout our being able to say whether he has actuallylearned. The French say notles enseignesbutles savants; and the English notthe taught ones. but thelearned."
"But," said I, "yourGelehrter, of the present day, we may also certainly style the learned."
"By all means; and, thank God, but with few exceptions."
"Knowest thou," asked friend Eckhardt, "whence comes the term school-fox?"
"Not clearly?"
"Then hear! M. Just Ludwig Brismann, born at Triptis, in Voiglande, who had been schoolmaster in Hof, Zwickau, and Naumburg, and who died Professor of Greek in Jena, on the 19th of August, 1585, was accustomed to wear a greatcoat lined with fox-skin. This sort of clothing, which he had been used to wear before he came to live at Jena, he still continued to sport there. The students in Jena looked upon this raiment, which was then quite out of date and very singular, as so odd that they made game of it, and those of them who had previously known him as schoolmaster, dubbed him School-fox. Thence sprung the name of school-foxery, which comprehends every thing pedantic, contemptible, and degrading."
"And may I ask," I added, "what you pay this precious Bursche for his important services? I ask, since I think of staying here this winter, and would therefore willingly enlighten myself on all matters of housekeeping."
"He receives a gulden (twenty-pence English) monthly."
"A servant for a pound a-year! Was the like ever heard!"
"You must recollect," said Freisleben, "that we are for the rest of the day attended by the house-besom," the student phrase for housemaid, who also in Berlin is styledschlavin, or she-slave.
"Hast thou heard the anecdote," interrupted Eckhardt, "of Schmidt's answer to our boot-fox the other morning?"
"No; let us hear it."
"The Famulus came very early to Schmidt's bedside, and said, very laconically--'the Geheimrath Forst is dead to-night. Have you any other commands?' 'Yes,' answered Schmidt, still heavy with sleep, 'I command the Geheimrath Langsam (a very rich and miserly old gentleman) to die too, and to make me his heir.'"
"Famously answered!" said Freisleben; "but, Mr. Traveller, you would know more of our household regulations. Our House-Philistine must provide for all our domestic necessaries, bringing in the account monthly, which, however, we are not obliged so very exactly to pay. They furnish us with wood, lights, etc. Breakfast we commonly brew for ourselves, in its proper machine. For the lodging, consisting of two rooms, we pay perhaps from thirty to forty gulden, and the house-besom receives besides, each semester, two kronen thaler--nine shillings, English."
"Upon my word, you live right reasonably in Heidelberg."
"Not quite so much so as you imagine. If you take into the account the expense of the college lectures, you cannot well, at least pleasantly, live under 800 or 1000 gulden. There are universities where you may live much cheaper, but few where you can live so agreeably as here. You know how Lichtenberg has divided the sciences. So I might here divide the universities into such as where a man may live cheaply and well, to which class Munich and Vienna particularly belong; where he may live cheap and badly, as in many of the smaller universities, particularly Halle, which affords only nutriment for the hungerers after knowledge; where he may live well and somewhat expensively, as at Heidelberg; and finally, where he may live dearly and ill, of which the great Berlin is an example. I speak here only of the material life, apart from which, every university has its peculiarities in many respects; in short, has its ownton. When you have learnt thoroughly to understand Heidelberg, and then afterwards visit other German universities, what a variety will you not find."
"I would gladly learn," said I, "the differences of these various universities which you say are so characteristic. It is a very interesting subject."
"But a long one," said my friend, "which we must reserve for another occasion. But," turning to Freisleben, he added, "I forgot to tell you something which the Boot-fox has communicated."
"What is it?" asked Freisleben.
"The Widow Mutch begs that she may be allowed to speak with thee."
"And what wants she?"
"O, she creeps humbly to the cross, and prays earnestly that we will again take our meals there."
"Well, if she behaves herself, we will see what the S. C. can do."
"That," said I, "if I remember right, is the woman whom you said had been put intoverruf, or under the bann."
"The same."
"And are all the students, then, accustomed to take their dinners there?"
"O, no. Part of them at the Gasthouses (inns); part here and there, with private people, who keep a table for us, and even send us, if required, our meals up into our chambers. About thirty of us took our dinners at this aforesaid widow's, and paid each twenty kreutzers the day (not quite seven-pence). But towards the conclusion of the last semester, it was no longer to be endured! simply and eternally cow-beef--and at last it grew still worse. Thereupon it was absolutely necessary to give Madame, the Philistine, a lecture."
"Excuse me," I interrupted, "but I must first beg for a solution of the term Philistine, which you so often use."
"We comprehend all who are not students under the name of Philistines. In a more restricted sense, we understand by Philistines, inhabitants of the city, and distinguish them from the Handwerks-Burschen, by giving to the latter the title of Knoten; and the shopkeepers' young men that of Schwünge, or Ladenschwünge, that is, Pendulums, or Shop-pendulums. Others write the word Knoten,Gnoten, and say that the artisans and journeymen were so called fromGenossen,Handwerks-Genossen, comrades or artisan-comrades, thence corrupted toGenotten, and finally toGnoten. We have already stated thatGnotenwas supposed to be derived from their fighting withKnoten-stöcken, or knotty sticks. Thus, as in most cases of philological derivation, a fine dispute might be raised; it would be an interesting subject, and the author might be rewarded for his pains by the impressions of some dozen bludgeons on his back. But, not to lose sight of the object of your inquiry--our domestic arrangements--I here remark that the Philistine in whose house we lodge, is styled house-philistine, and his wife, the Philöse. The student who is quartered with us in the same house is our House-Bursche; and he who shares with us our apartments, is to us a Stuben-Bursche, or Room-Fellow."
"I thank you," I added. "I have certainly put your commentatorial patience to a severe trial."
"One speaks of oneself," he replied, "generally pretty willingly. We have that feeling in common with all mortals."
"But," I interposed, "it seems to me that you enjoy your comfortable room very little, spite of all its comforts, if you neither dine nor take your tea there of an evening."
"Tea!" he exclaimed, "tea! yes that is a right good beverage, but for daily use a little too sentimental. Look you--our course of life is this:--In the morning we pursue our studies over a cup of coffee, and a pipe of tobacco; then we go to the classes. About twelve o'clock we dine; then to the coffeehouse; and how much we study after that, or how we otherwise employ ourselves, you will presently see. But in the evening, we resort to the Kneip, and drink no tea, but beer; and to the Kneip we now cordially invite you.
"But don't think we despise what may be called your national beverage; for that also, comes a time. When in the long evenings we sit behind our books, and the anticipation of the examination stands like a spectre at the door, and bars it to our egress, then, praised be tea! and its black brother, coffee; it is then they who must cheer us, when the spirit of life threatens to faint, quiver, and expire. But excuse me, I must now unto the college, which I cannot to-day very wellschwänzen. So fare ye well!"
And thus we parted.
N. B.--The expression Ein Kolleg schwänzen--to tail a lecture--means, to put off its attendance. The term is derived from an earlier meaning of the wordschwänzen, for which the termdurch-brennen, to burn through, is now used, and is equivalent to the English phrase, "to give leg-bail to your creditors." In the persiflage on theBurschen-comment, entitled "Dissertatio de Quomodone, etc.," by Martial Schluck, from which we have before quoted, it is said, "an honourable Bursche has the right not to pay his debts; that is, he mayschwänzenandsquiscionhimself, make asquisin his shoes,--meaning that he may sacrifice his tail like a fox, who will rather lose his tail than his life; and thus will the student rather leave behind him his trunk and cloak-bag, than wait to be clapped into prison."
When a student attends a lecture which ought to be paid for, but does not pay for it, he is said to "hospitiren;" and he is allowed twice or three times to hospitiren. If, however, he does this for a whole semester, in order to devote the price of the lecture to some other object, the students call this "to shoot a lecture." The description of this term, is also thus explained by Schluck. "The student has the right to seize upon other people's property, that is, to shoot, to prefer, to lay the charge upon another. This is a new mode of putting oneself into possession of something; that is, to commit a theft of a life-and-soulless thing, and call it only a half-theft. Shooting distinguishes itself essentially from stealing. First, by the student privately conveying it away at once; and secondly, by giving the owner of the property notice of what he had done, after it is done. This mode of taking possession is not so much according to our customs as those of the Lacedæmonians, which brought no shame to any one by the statutes of Lycurgus, but rather honour and fame, to him who unobserved and in a clever style carried off any thing."
The principal objects ofconveyance, are pipes, sticks, spurs, chore-tassels for the embellishment of pipes, riding-whips, and money to the amount of adoubel. What is more than that must be merely taken in loan, if it be there to take.
Friend Freisleben has, in this chapter, given us some notifications of the manner in which he amuses himself in his hours of relaxation. Yet we must hope that these are not all the fountains of enjoyment, that are flowing for his refreshment, when he finds himself exhausted with such arduous battles in the field of science. Our care indeed, is unnecessary, since the inventive head of the student has, in all times, least of all neglected this portion of his life.
But before we speak of other diversions, which our hero, partly in his own and partly in other Kneips enjoys, or without, in the free air, we must devote a few lines to that faithful companion, his dog. Some will, perhaps say, "What! is it not enough that we have to do with the wild student, must we also encounter his unmannerly hound?" But good reader, recollect yourself of the words of Wagner in Faust:
E'en the wise man, howe'er profound,Loves, when well trained, the generous hound,--And well deserveth he thy favour too,The student's scholar, apt and nobly true.
E'en the wise man, howe'er profound,Loves, when well trained, the generous hound,--And well deserveth he thy favour too,The student's scholar, apt and nobly true.
It is true, that a monstrous deal has already been said of the dog; but by no one has he been more graphically described than by the immortal Linnæus. He says, amongst other things, "He is the most faithful of all creatures; dwells with man; fawns on his returning lord; bears not in his memory the strokes he inflicts upon him; runs before him on his journey; looks back at a cross-way, and seeks obediently that which is lost; holds watch by night; announces the approach of any one; and guards the property."
How much do we desire the eloquence of Demosthenes, that we might pronounce a fitting panegyric on the dog, already made illustrious by so many pens. We can, however, only sketch the character and manners of the student's dog with simple colours, nevertheless we hope to do the dog-family some service, and to amuse the reader with some new anecdotes. Various as are the young people which are blown together, as it were, by the winds out of every climate into a University city, as various are the dogs which the spectator will see following at their heels. They are seldom brought with them from home; but the fancy which the student has for the beast, has created a class of men, who make a trade in dogs a distinct branch of business. These people also, for a moderate honorarium, superintend the toilet of this creature, which care is particularly demanded by the luxuriant growth of hair of the shock. This dog, sometimes, when he comes new washed and shorn out of their hands, in the loss of his monthly crop of hair, scarcely knows himself again.
If one reflects too, that every individual student, out of the multitude of dogs, selects that one which seems to assort itself most completely with his pleasure and humour, one sees probably therein the ground of the observation which we once heard made by an intelligent English lady, who asserted that there was always visible a great likeness between the dog and his master. We can only corroborate the justice of this remark, and it must strike every one, that the dog continually picks up first one and then another of the peculiarities of his master.
He who desires to take a general glance at the different races of dogs which inhabit our city, I counsel him to attend the annual dog-muster. This is held in an appointed place on an appointed day, whereto all the dogs of the city, both those of the students and the citizens, must be brought. These all pass, in succession, under the inspection of a beast doctor, and such as neither through disease nor old age fall under a sentence of death, are redeemed by the payment of a certain tax, and have a tin label hung on their necks, which they wear for a certain time. I add here, in passing, a refutation of those who assert that the Germans are ungallant, in the fact that the ladies of the canine species are charged only a gulden each for their redemption, while the gentlemen of that race are mercilessly mulcted to the extent of a gulden and a half.
Great and small, tall and short, thick and thin, one or many coloured, all meet here together. On the one side, you see the heavy house-dog, and the butcher's dog, how humbly they follow their masters; the multitude of yaffing turnspits, prized as true watchers; on the other hand you descry a line of boot-foxes, who have conducted hither the dogs of the students.
Hither come hastening with throngs and with pride,Lots of proud fellows from every side.Reineke der Fuchs, by Göethe.
Hither come hastening with throngs and with pride,Lots of proud fellows from every side.
Reineke der Fuchs, by Göethe.
There is the poodle with his thick, round head, with the stumpy nose and hanging ears; he is propped on his short, stout leg, and his knowing eye blinks forth from amongst the crisp woolly hair. He permits himself good-humouredly to be adorned with his new order. Grimly steps forth at the call, the colossal bull-dog, with black, thick, split nose, and slavering chops; but over him towers the English mastiff, in hairy coat of one uniform hue. The hunting dog, in a place where all worthy exercise of his powers is denied him, has stretched himself out calmly, supporting his strong head with its long drooping ears, on his vigorous foot. The slim greyhound, constantly trembling, has cowered down in a corner. Here and there you discover a fretful thick-bodied pug, with his upthrown snub nose, which the popular speech styles a saddle-nose. There is the bandylegged Dachs too, with his deep sweeping ears, dark colour, and eyes full of intelligence.
The dog of the university leads a wholly peculiar life, not unlike that of his master, since he accompanies him every where. The saloon and the College hall only have closed their doors against him. Hence it is said--
If at home thou would'st me find,Pray thee leave thy dog behind.
If at home thou would'st me find,Pray thee leave thy dog behind.
During the time that the student spends in these places, his dog is confined to his chamber. Here he fills up many hours with his dolorous lamentations, or at the window watches with envious impatience the passing of his brethren along the street, and challenges them with savage yells. Whether he avails himself of the books of his master to advance himself in science, we will not venture to say; yet we have ourselves seen them fly through the window of their abodes that were not at a great height from the ground, and seeking their masters in the College hall, there, as very attentive Hospitanters, stay out the remainder of the lecture. One of my friends had a white poodle, who was accustomed regularly to accompany him to the indifferently attended lectures of a certain professor, where he sat quietly on the bench by his side, and looked solemnly into the note-book of his master. One day the dog was absent, when the extremely short-sighted professor, in opening his lecture, remarked, "Gentlemen, it would be well if you all wore coats of one colour; and were they dark ones they would be not so much observed by me, but it struck me immediately that the gentleman in the white coat was absent to-day!" The great aptness of this creature to be taught, often furnishes the students with much entertainment. He readily learns to carry his master's stick and portfolio to the College hall, whence on his command, he returns quietly to the house. He is the best of chamber attendants, bringing in the morning his master's slippers and pipe. If he returns home at night rather inspirited by Bacchus, he accompanies him as a safe conductor, often bearing things which he has unwittingly dropt, after him.
A dog at one of the universities was well known as an excellent guide. He led his master home every evening; if he turned into a wrong street, he seized him by the coat, and pulled him back; if he fell down, he barked loudly till he rose again; and when they arrived at the house, the sagacious animal knew very well how to ring the bell.
They are also made use of in many a prank or piece of waggery. Thus it is said, that once in Leipsic, the students accustomed their dogs to the most frequent Christian names of the ladies of that city, and so soon as they came readily at that unusual call, the ungallant sons of the Muses allowed themselves the unpardonable joke of shouting aloud those names in the public walks, so that it is said, the fair sex in surprise quitted the field.
In one of the university cities, two dogs also furnished this spectacle. An order had been issued, that, to avoid any serious accidents from them, no students' dogs should appear in public except led in a band. Presently was seen a student with two dogs in cords. The one was a little pug scarcely two spans high, which was led in a rope about as thick as a man's arm, whilst the other, a huge and monstrous creature of the kind which the students callDoggen, apparently half mastiff, half bull-dog, stalked near it, led by a piece of twine.
We still see these creatures made co-workers in many a frolic. At the dinner table, in the public walk, in the fencing-school, and in the evening at the Kneip, every where must the dog attend his master. He must eat with him in the same house; the master, indeed, in the chamber, the dog in the kitchen; for which repast, however, is allowed on the dog's behalf two kreutzers a-day. Neither are combats wanting between them, whereby they may the more resemble their masters, and to which the masters, in fact, conduct them. In these dog-duels it goes often much worse than in those of their lords, for they seize each other so furiously that it is often difficult to separate them.
"The dog," says Linnæus, "remembers not with resentment the blows of his master." The student's dog is a striking example of the truth of this remark. How often, when the Bursche returns home from a drinking company, must this faithful servant do penance for the wild humours of the evening. It goes not better with him on such occasions than with many a poor German wife, who yet bears her lot with patience. She still loves her rough commander, even while he treats her with unmanly rudeness, and seeks to hide his weaknesses. So this true creature. Is his lord in danger? he defends him to the last, and often renders him the most signal services in skirmishes with the Knoten; yea, he hesitates not to attack the sacred person of the beadle. He is denied admittance to the duel, because he would speedily, as an uninvited second, spring between the combatants, and as some assert, on account of such accidents as the following. A duellist had his nose cut off, and a large bull-dog which was in the room--perhaps they had forgot to give him his dinner--greedily swallowed it; so greedily, that it was impossible to prevent it! Whether the unnosed Bursche had a new one made for him by Geheimrath Gräfe, or whether he afterwards wore a silver one, I am not prepared to say.
The student dog extends his student life far beyond that of his master, who turns him over into the hands of another on his own departure. It thus happens that many of these creatures travel from one hand to another, till, finally, they belong to no individual possessor but to a whole Chore, and live a free, unrestrained life. They then kneipe in rotation with the brethren of the Chore, all of whose dwellings they are acquainted with; and if they appear a little lost during the rest of the day, yet they are regularly found at the places of public meeting for social enjoyment. There was, for instance, the little Tambourlé here, which for many years lived only on sugar, which it received from the coffee-drinkers in a well-known coffee-house. At every fresh cup it demanded two or three pieces of sugar, as its established toll.
It is also gratifying to see, when these welcome guests are grown old and weak, how the other dogs receive them, and stand strictly by these Bemossed Heads when they are attacked by the vulgarer dogs of the streets. The cultivated dog is no longer a merely carnivorous animal, he has accustomed himself to a variety of food; but it is perhaps the peculiar characteristic of the student's dog that he drinks beer. Once used to it, it becomes his greatest enjoyment to empty a few choppins, and he seems not at all to dislike the phantasies of a half-fuddled state. To him by no means applies what Voigt has added to Linnæus's characteristic of the dog--"he draws himself back at the sight of a glass."
The son of the Muses can as little be without his pipe as his dog. The enjoyment which it affords him, is at once single and manifold. It embellishes his pleasures, it comforts him in trouble, it warms him in the cold, it cools him in the heat of summer. Should ennui seize him, he fills his pipe, turns to his study, and what a fulness of thought comes over him as he gazes into the clouds of smoke, which, curling up from his mouth, shape themselves into mysterious forms! There lies in it a power of inexhaustible reproduction. And how shall his wine and his beer smack without his pipe? In short, it is a discovery which wonderfully unites in itself all opposite qualities. With all the parts and attributes thereunto belonging, it constitutes, when displayed upon his walk, his room an armoury, which the tender hands of the ladies do not even disdain to embellish.
Of the continued changes which pipes in the course of time undergo in their fashion and construction, many cabinets would convince us, did they only contain a collection of ten years' duration. We have no intention to weary the reader with the description of such a cabinet; but he will allow us to state of what members a modern pipe consists, and what is necessary to its complete use and enjoyment.
The essential portions of a pipe are the mouth-piece, the tube, the water-sack, and the head. The two last pieces are united in the meerschaum and the clay-pipe into one. The mouth-piece, at the upper part, is wrought out of horn. It is made thicker or thinner, longer or shorter, with a greater or less bore, as it may be required. The long mouth-pieces, having various partitions, or members, as they are called, are so finely wrought that they are quite elastic, and are sold at a proportionate price. The mouth-piece is commonly united to the tube by an elastic portion called a Schlauch, which is constructed of elastic wire and silk. If the pipe is intended to be a very handsome one, there is still another piece interposed between the schlauch and the tube, which is made of roe's-horn, and styled the roe-crown. The tube itself is manufactured from various materials; the coarser ones out of juniper-wood, or cherry-tree, the finer ones out of beech and ebony; but that which is most highly valued, on account of its durability and agreeable odour, is the Turkish weichsel, or agriot, a kind of wild cherry. The tubes are, again, of different lengths and thickness, from a span in length to some yards. The Turkish pipes are the longest.
To the tube is generally affixed the water-sack, called also by the northern Germans the sponge-box; a little reservoir, of wedgewood or porcelain. For elegant pipes still more beautiful, but less useful ones, are made of horn.
The pipe-head is, however, the part on which the most cost, art, and ornament are bestowed. The lower part of it, which, tapering away, is fitted into the water-sack, is called the boot. The head is adorned with a variety of paintings and inscriptions. We see upon them, as upon snuff-boxes, many humorous occurrences perpetuated. They are enriched with the portraits of handsome women and celebrated men, and the painting is sometimes so beautiful as to raise their price to severalLouisdoreeach. The students are accustomed to compliment each other with presents of pipe-heads, ornamented with their coats of arms, and a dedication on the reverse side.
All the various sections of the pipe are so fitted to each other that you can readily separate them, in order to clean them; but they are prevented from separating when in use, by silk cords which pass through small metallic rings, and are secured at top and bottom. These cords serve also to hang them up by. On the pipes of the Chore-Burschen the cords proceeding from the head to the mouth-piece, are not only secured but continued, and hanging down at liberty, bear the coloured Chore-tassels.
The student uses in the course of the day, different pipes. In the morning he gladly smokes out of a Turkish pipe, if such a one is at his command. This has a small mouth-piece, a long tube, and a meerschaum head, which gives it its greater value. It is on this account so highly esteemed; the student asserting that no pipe smokes so pleasantly; but its price, if it be genuine, varies from two to six, or more, Louisdores. The material out of which the real meerschaum head is made, is dug in Spain, Portugal, and the ancient Thebes, and consists of a silicious clay, in chemical combination with water. The other heads are made of various materials, and the most usual are of porcelain or wedgewood.
The meerschaum, called by the Turks (Myrsen, Keffekil), the material out of which the ancient Samian vessels were made, is yet used in Turkey for the manufacture of pipe-heads; of which only the smaller kinds are allowed to be exported. It is chiefly dug in ancient Thebes, and is by no means employed in its crude state, but undergoes a manipulation, similar to that of the porcelain paste. It is exposed to a certain process of fermentation; the softened mass is diluted and washed, then half dried, pressed in moulds, and bored whilst in them. The heads thus formed are then dried in the shade, and afterwards hard burnt in the furnace. After this they are boiled in milk, then in linseed oil or wax, and finally polished with Dutch rush (equisetum) and leather. The finest formed heads--washed ware--may not be exported, although the Turks on the whole prefer the heads made from burnt Bole. As the Turkish heads are not considered handsome in shape, and have too narrow a bore, they are again turned and rebored at Ruhia in the district of Gotha, and being brought to a more modern form, are then boiled in tallow or wax, and again polished. The turnings are used in the preparation of imitation meerschaum heads, which are more brittle and less lasting than the real ones. In these heads manufactured in Lemgo, there is no real meerschaum clay used, but a mixture of clay, chalk, and egg-shells. These heads are heavier and more frangible than the genuine; they more readily become rough and unclean, and take a metallic streak from gold or silver, which is not the case with meerschaum heads.--Leonhard's Oryktognosie.
A new pipe requires great care in bringing it into use, till it is as it is phrased, besmoked, or seasoned; that is, till the inside of the pipe-head is coated with a black crust of finely cemented-together tobacco dust. Till this is effected the pipe has not a good flavour, and it requires to be well and vigorously smoked out. To promote this seasoning, it is customary to smear the inside of the head with sugar-water, before it is filled with tobacco. This seasoning of the meerschaum head is particularly difficult. While it is warm, during the first time of smoking, it must not be touched with the fingers; it must be suffered to cool slowly, and must be protected from being touched or rubbed by any thing.
The long pipes, called house-pipes, serve the Burschen usually at the Kneips; the very short one, on their walks, or when out shooting, as a long one might then be inconvenient. That there are people who extravagantly carry their luxury so far as, from year to year, at all times and seasons, to smoke genuine meerschaum pipes, any one may, to his astonishment, read in Bulwer's Ernest Maltravers.
The white clay pipes, which were formerly in general use, are no longer used by the student; but they may be daily seen in the mouths of countrymen.
Thus we have put together a right noble pipe, and will now take a peep at the apparatus requisite to its enjoyment. The most indispensable, certainly, is tobacco. To lecture on the various qualities of this article, we want both patience and sufficient knowledge. How many descending steps are there between the finest Knaster, and the weed which fumes up rank and qualmish from the pipe of the wood-cutter! The worst sort is jocosely called "three times round the body for a farthing," which may fittingly be smoked over that liquor called "three-men wine," because it would require two men to hold a man while the third forced this Tartarian wine down his throat.
Much luxury is expended over that little ornamental repository for the preservation of this precious commodity--the so-called tobacco-casket Abroad the student carries the narcotic herb with him in a tobacco-pouch, which is often ornamented with embroidery by some fair hand. The long and thickly-piled together strips of paper (spills), which are used to light the pipes, are in Germany known by the name of "Fidibus," and its derivation from "fidelibus patribus," the jolly monks, shows that these good fellows did not despise the enjoyment of tobacco, when they could in private breathe its beatifying fumes.
Another yet similar derivation is the following. At the time when the students were forbidden to smoke tobacco, they had private smoking-companies, where the host sent round a Latin bill with the following contents, which the student who agreed to go to it, undersigned not with his real, but with a purposely assumed name:
Fid. Ibus.S. D.N. H.Hodie hora vii. a. v. s.
That is, Fidelibus fratribus salutem dicit N. hospes. Hodie hora septima (apparebit in museo meo, herba Nicotiana) abunde vobis satisfaciam. As soon as they all were assembled, they placed themselves in a circle, and each lit his pipe with his bill, as a Fid....ibus offering--whence arose the term Fidibus.
The inconsumable Fidibus is a new invention with which our English friend, Mr. Traveller, was struck in the lodging of Freisleben, and in his notes thereon very graphically described.
When we have smoked a while, it is necessary to press together the mass which has expanded itself proudly in the pipe head, and for this purpose is used a sort of stamper, or stopper, also furnished with a knob of wood. This instrument has received a variety of names. In Heidelberg it is calledDentsch,--a name coined for the cogent reason that it will rhyme withmensch, without which the poet would find himself in what the Americans call, an "eternal fix." Another name is Melibocus, after the mountain on the Bergstrasse. In this instrument there is generally contained a wire, which you can draw out in order to give air to the clogged up part of your pipe. It is thus at once a stopper and an opener.
The process of smoking is a species of distillation, whereby the water-sack, as a receiver, takes off the fluid product, while the fume passes into the still-head, and is thence conveyed to the mouth, where it achieves its narcotic purposes, and thence is again discharged into the air. It is to be expected that this chemical apparatus will from time to time require cleaning; and for this end is used a small feather for the shorter tubes, and for the longer ones the fine clear stalk of a peculiarly tall and strong kind of grass (Luzula maxima) which grows in the woods. Some poor imp, unfit for other work, undertakes to furnish the smoker with this necessary article, and those who gather them in the woody hills round Heidelberg, even extend their trade in them as far as Mannheim and Karlsruhe. When the stranger mounts up to the ruins of Heidelberg castle, he is often accosted by thisBinsen-BubeorBlumen-Bube, Rush-boy or Flower-boy, as he is called, who, with most graceful obeisances, presents him with a small nosegay, and patiently waits for a substantial token of its acceptance. This is the great gatherer and furnisher of theBinsen, or rush, as it is unbotanically called, for the fumiferous public.
The cigar, which we must not forget, is much less affected by the student. Yet he sometimes prefers it to a pipe, over a cup of coffee; and then is he accustomed, with great satisfaction, to drive forth the smoke through his nostrils, in order to make himself thoroughly conscious of his luxury.
If the reader has held out actually to the end of this dissertation on smoking, then we are very certain that the general and determined smoking in Germany has arrested his attention. We do not pretend to offer a reason for the remarkable growth of the practice of smoking amongst us during the last ten or twenty years. It seems to us somewhat far-fetched to assign as the cause, as has been done by a learned German writer, that it is a natural necessity to dull and modify to a healthful degree the all too dominant nervous sensibility and imaginative susceptibility of the over-refined, and especially of the learned, man.
We may remark, in conclusion, that, amongst the students, snuff-taking is much less common than smoking: and, having thus sufficiently described, to our fancy, the two most constant companions of the Son of the Muses, his dog and his pipe, we may now, without further care, leave him to follow his labours, and amusements in such good company.