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STUDENT DUELS
A Pecular Feature of Leading
German Universities.
“Friendly” Contests Which Of¬
ten Result in Bloodshed.
The dueb I have just witnessed, says
Berlin letter to the Hartford (Conn.)
(Durant, wero student affairs and char-
aeterized by the features common to
such scenes. I went as the guest of a
German whose department at tho uni-
versify was theology; this show's that
fl0 thou;ht of the mensur (duel) being
objectionable enters the most orthodox
ind. At an early hour of the morn¬
m of the
ing we went to a distant part
city, to a building which stood in the
rear of a yard, the frout of which was
occupied by a beer saloon. The room
was low-studded, dirty and bare of fur-
uiture, as well as insufficiently heated
bv a stove; long boxes containing the
dueling outfits stood along the walls,
and on the window seats -were spread
the operating tools of the sur-
<reons; a passage led into a back
O with tables
room fitted up as a
drinking place, and a waiter constantly
between the two in order to
fill the orders for beer and cognac. The
forty or fifty men present were nearly
all smoking and the air was opaque and
malodorus with the weed. On my ar¬
rival my German friend introduced me
to the “second” of his club, who bade
uie welcome, and then paid no more at¬
tention to my presence. I should men-
tion that this was not a corps duel, but
a 90 -called Burschenschaft contest. The
corps is the swellcst club 01 association
in student life, and as its members wear
distinctive colors the duels between the
corps are more picturesque; but in all
other respects the contests of the other
organizations do not differ. The
sight of the blood- stained breast
protectors thrown in the middle
of the floor between two
chalk lines and the hospilal-liko smell
that pervaded the place, did not add
particularly to the festivity of the hour.
Soon came the arraying of the contest¬
ants, along, tedious process; after each
principal had stripped bare to the
waist and donned a linen dueling shirt,
no end of bandages were wound about
his neck and arm, the breastplate, not
unlike those worn by our base ball
catchers, was adjusted, iron goggles
were put over the eyes, and a great box-
ing-glovc on the right hand, so that it
was a wonder how the sword hilt could
be grasped at all. When the right arm
is thus prepared it is so helpless that it
has to be put in position high above the
head by a man who stands beside tho
duelist for that purpose, and when¬
ever “halt” is called by the seconds,
the arm is caught and held by
these same men, the duelist himself bc-
iog as powerless as a mediaeval knight
* a armor when off his horse. Tho ap-
pearancc of the contestants when fully
equipped is grotesque and clumsy. The
seconds area prominent and picturesque
feature; they stand diagonally to the
du.lists, padded also about neck and
k°dy, though to a less degree, wearing
Ca P 3 ^ lose American jockeys and
with swords wdiich they cross on high
between the principals and remove when
they give the order to fight, Still an-
other man, the time-keeper and ref¬
eree, stands hard by with pencil,
noto book and watch in readiness
so that in all there is a little group
of seven men in the middle of the
room, the number being swelled intcr-
wittingly to eight, when the duel is
advanced, by the doctor who coolly ex-
amines the wounds of the fighters to
see that none are serious enough for a
cessation of hostilities. One hundred
and twenty quarter-minute rounds are
bought, which gives half an hour of
actual fighting, though sometimes this
33 shortened to fifteen minutes. Of the
! hree contests I witnessed, the first was
n.irely bloodless, one of the schlagers
(duelists) alone receiving a tiny sciatch
on the cheek, which injury was received
witli groans of derision or disgust from
?he onlookers; they evidently thirsted
^ ‘ S° re NVlien number one was over,
-
lil -' 'beological friend, apparently
feeling that an apology was in order for
the lack of excitement, assured me
that the next would be more beautiful
(schoner) and that I would “see blood. ”
Thus cheered I waited expectantly.
1 he promise was fulfilled. Before
number two was half fought both
Principals blood were a sickening si<rht, and
was pretty much all over the
place. If the mother of either of
these young men had been present
she would have been extremely uncom¬
fortable. As each round was called
they stood up doggedly and cut away
with their keen rapiers long aftet
one would have thought the weakness
from loss of blood would have
made continuation impossible. It was
an exhibition of bull-dog courage that
had its heroic side. Before the timo
was up the surgeon put a stop to the
fight, deciding that the worst punished
of the two had had enough. Then en¬
sued the dressing of the wounds, one
of the most interesting features of the
dap. The wounded called for cigar¬
ettes or cigars, and calmly smoked
while the needle and knife did their
work and the scissors made bare patches
in the hair of their heads. Meanwhile
another couple were called auf der
Mensur (to the combat, literally,
to the line). This third
bout was fought to the finish,
but was no whit behind the other in the
amount of blooi spilt and hair cut off;
a leek of the latter fluttered through
the air and was picked up by the doc¬
tor and put on his operating table with
the remark that he would give it to the
young man’s sweetheart, which, by the
way, is customary. At the end of each
duel, when the goggles were pulled off,
the fighters shook hands and grinned at
each other in the most friendly fashion;
the groggy nature of the smile may be
imagined, but it was pleasant to see as
a sign that no bad blood remained,—
and much less good blood, as well.
Time to Interfere.
Sain Bolus was a great, hulking six-
footer. He had threatened Dick Ily-
ans, who was half his size, so often
that he felt the time had come to sub¬
stitute acts instead of words, Dick
would persist in walking across Sam’s
meadow instead of keeping to the
king’s highway.
One day Sam’s patience gave out,
and seeing a couple of his neighbors
watching him, he chased Dick down
the road until he caught him.
Then the trouble began. Dick was
cornered and had but one thing to do,
and he did that so effectually that in a
twinkling ho had big Sam on his back,
while he sat astride on his chest aud
used nature’s weapons with might aud
main.
Sam wriggled and twisted, but found
lie couldn’t help himslf, while tho
laughter of the bystanders did not add
tc his comfort by any means. Finally
he roared in desperation:
“Why don’t you part us? Don’t
you see we’re killing each other. ?”
Wonderful Hydraulic Machinery.
What is thought to be one of the
most interesting as well as marvellous
constructions yet devised in the way of
hydraulic machinery, has been for a
while past in operation in the rolling
mill at Wheatland, Penn. Its purpose
is the rolling of pipe iron, and this it
accomplishes in a manner and with a
degree of success hitherto unattained.
In practice, huge slabs of iron, weigh¬
ing hundreds of pounds, are pulled
from the furnace, glowing at white
heat, and placed on a long iron bed,
which moves forw'ard, upward, down
ward and sidewise, the mass being
pushed through rolls, back again, and
stopping only when it has become re¬
duced to the proper size in the shape of
pipe iron. The whole operation re¬
quires the attention of but one or two
employees, who control the machinery
by a few simple levers, the saving of
labor being thus very great.
A Reptilian Fighter.
The gigantic Ceratopsidae, whose
skulls Prof. O. C. Marsh has been ex¬
amining, appear to have been not the
least important of the creatures that
lived in North America before tho
bison. Remains of these reptiles have
been found over a distance of nearly
800 miles in the upper Cretaceous de¬
posits along the eastern flank of the
Rocky Mountains. In the best known
genus of the family, the skull, exceed¬
ing in size that of every
land animal hitherto known, must
have reached a length of more than
eight feet. It was wedge-shaped, and
had a remarkable and most formidable
armature, including a sharp-cutting
beak in front, a strong horn on tho
nose, a pair of immense pointed horns
on top of the head and a row of sharp
projections around the back of th e
head. All were protected by a horny
covering of great strength.
FOB FARM AND GARDEN.
i
DRINK FOR FATTENING HOGS.
Corn is heating food. It is too con¬
centrated for most kinds of stock, and
sven for hogs it often creates a feverish
state of the system that requires a good
deal of water to cool down. A hog
that is kept feverish from unloaded
stomach will not fatten. It should have
beets or mangled wurtzels; but if this
is impossible mix water with the chill
taken off it with a little line middlings.
This will distend the stomach and pre¬
vent constipation. It will also furnish
the albuminoid food necessary to make
leau meat, in which corn is deficient.
If fattening hogs are given drink warm,
and thus mixed with wheat middlings,
they will drink much more heartily
than they will of cold water alone, and
be less likely to get off their feed.— N.
Y. Il ra Id.
dried up cornstocks.
The difficulties in keeping corn fod¬
der in good condition are found at
both ends of tho season, though wide¬
ly different. Jn fall and early winter
cornstocks are apt to bo much too
moist, and unless speedily frozen dry
by cold weather they will heat and
mould. Later in the winter thee
frozen cornstocks dry out the sap that
they originally contained, and become
nearly worthless, because tasteless.
Every farmer knows that towards
springtime cornstocks greatly depre¬
ciate in value. They must be fed early
to be fed to the best advantage. A 3
for keeping dried com fodder over one
year, it is seldom or never attempted.
It is no good the second season, and
after two or three times freezing dry,
is worth little except to bum for the
ashes it will make.— American Cultiva-
tor.
raise early berries.
It is wise to set the most vigorous
plants if we expect success in straw¬
berry culture. When the strawberry
sends out runners they soon tako root
and a succession of sets is formed. Be-
tw'ccn the sets a secondary branch is apt
to start which also sets. These sets
produce other sets, aud all this is done
at the expense of the original plant. If
these later sets be used for planting
new beds the fruit will always be late
and small. A few hundred plants
should bo set in a bed by themselves,
and the elongations encouraged, while
the laterals are kept nipped off. j n
this way plants of the best kind will
be grown. Plants set out tho same
season they arc grown, or early the
next spring, arc the only ones fit to
use. Older plants become hard and
black at the root and are difficult to
make live. If care bo taken to grow
young, vigorous plants, they will usu-
ally do w'cll. The soil must be kept
mellow so the young roots will readily
p«netrate it. Otherwise they will
stand above the ground, the roots will
die and the plants will not flourish.—
N. Y. Herald.
PLOWING LAND WET.
It is not only the difficulty in getting
the soil in a proper tilth for planting or
sowing a crop that makes it undesirable
to plow the land when wet, but also
the damage to laud that in a majority
of cases is the result of stirring the soil
when it cannot be worked into a good
condition.
There may be times in a wet season
when it will be necessary to cultivate
the soil when it is wet, in order to save
the crop; but it is rarely the case that
there is any saving in preparin g the
soil in the spring, in plowing or stirr-
ing when it is so wet that it will not
work readily into a good tilth.
Having the soil in a good tilth before
planting the seed, is one of the essen-
tials necessary to secure a good growth
and yield, and a failure to secure a good
tilth will affect the crop to a more or
less extent.
In many cases, if the soil is wet it
will be a good plan to run out furrows
in different parts of the fields that will
afford good drainage, and in this way
get rid of a good portion at least of the
surplus moisture. While it is very im¬
portant to get all the crops planted
reasonably early, it will be better to
delay planting until the soil is dry.
One of the advantages in plowing in
tho fall is that the soil will dry out ear-
Her and be in a condition to seed sooner
than if left undisturbed until spring.
If the weather continues wet after plow¬
ing so as to run the soil together, less
damage will be done than if after plow¬
ing it turns off dry, as it is liable to
bake, and often t .e effect can be seen
all during the summer, and will affect
not only the growth but the yield.
It will often be difficult to work the
soil to a good tilth, after it has been
plowed wet, and this affects the germi¬
nation of the seed a3 well as the start
to grow. It also increases the work of
cultivation, and often prevents com¬
mencing the cultivation as early as it
should be, and the better plan is to wait
until it has dried out sufficiently so that
in plow ing it will work loose' and mel¬
low .—Prairie Farmer.
fiust pkincipi.es in butter making.
Butter i3 finished in the dairy and
not made there. The stamp of tho
dairy woman puts the gold in the market
form; but the work must be commenced
in the field or in the feeding stables;
and this leads at once to the considera¬
tion of feeding for butter. During the
early, sunny summer month, when
nature is profuse of favors, there is lit¬
tle to be done beyond accepting her
bounty. The tender grasses are full of
the needed nutriment, and they afford
the constant supply of moisture without
which the secretion of milk is greatly
lessened. Yet this season, as well as
others, a pure supply of water
is absolutely necessary. It does
not meet G> requirement if
cattle have P wet hole full
of surface drainage in the pasture, or a
frog pond. While it is not probable
that tho tadpoles and wrigglers
sometimes found in city milk have been
drunk by thirsty cows, many infusions
do exist in such pools that are hardly
eliminated or rendered entirely harm¬
less by the wonderful milk secretions
of the animal. The cattle should drink
from spring-fed boxes; and as often as
these under the hot sun arc scento produce
green growth or floating scum a pail of
coarse salt may be put in, and the cur¬
rent checked until the fresh water
growths are killed; tho salt water is
then drawn off, and for a long timo the
trough will remain pure and the water
bright. —liar al Kansan
farm and garden notes.
d care lightens the horse’s load.
Do not allow or force milk cows to
drink ice-cold water.
With easy, well-fitting harness not so
many oats are required.
Never drive milk cow3 or fattening
stock faster than a walk.
To bring up a worn-down horse, give
it light work, not idleness.
You have no need of a dog in bring¬
ing the cattle home from pasture.
Keep stock of all kinds off the mea¬
dow' when the soil is not dry and firm.
Whitewash in the cow stablo makes
things look cheerful and tends to clean¬
liness.
A moderate top-Jressing from the
compost heap will ensure a fine stand of
clover.
There is no more profitable use of
skim milk, than to give it to the wean¬
ing foals.
Make a map of your orchard and on
it name all the varieties of fruit as the
trees stand.
When gently used, the curry-comb
and brush are just as needful for milk
cow's as they are for work horses.
You go through your barn-yard gate
twice a day, carrying milk. What
kind of fastening have you on that
gate?
Your cows will certainly fall off in
their milk unless housed in a warm
stable during inclement or very cold
weather.
Milk set at a temperature between
fifty and sixty degrees cannot be made
to part with all its cream no matter how
it is set.
Hens do not eat their eggs unless
they learn the habit from having eggs
broken in tho nest. Never use stala
or broken eggs as nest-eggs.
Chicks and fowls in confinement
should have broken charcoal before
them at all times. It is as good a con¬
dition powder as we know of.
Don’t be ashamed or discouraged ber
cause you fail in hatching quite as
many chicks as your neighbor. Expe¬
rience will aid you, stick to it.
Cultivate home markets for every¬
thing. Send nothing to the general
market until you have satisfied all the
demands of those living near by.
Crop-bound fowls can trace their
trouble to the lack of gravel or sharp,
gritty grinding material, as well as to
fibrous substances, such as potato and
apple parings or grass bladei.
NEWS AND NOTES FOR WOMEN.
The woman is dressed best who im¬
presses you that she could not be dressed
differently.
So handsome are the new sunshades
that the girl of the period will take more
exercise than ever.
Clara Barton, of the White Cross
Society, is the only American entitled to
wear the iron cross of Prussia.
Six young ladies from Canada have re¬
cently departed for China, in connection
with the China Inland Mission.
A London genius has invented a hot-
water apparatus to warm piano keys, so
that daiuty fingers may not be chilled.
An English lady is about to open a
barber shop in London in which all the
attendants are to be of the weaker sex.
Charming little bonnets for young
ladies are seen this season, the biggest
bonnet, of course, for the biggest head.
Queen Victoria has sent a silver punch
bowl to the officers of tho Prussian
dragoon regiment of which she is
Colonel.
A most striking necklace worn recently
at a New York entertainment was made
of pearls and four fine pigeon rubies in
skeleton settings.
Notwithstanding the very tiresome
utilization of its name, “Eiffer Tower”
colors and designs in trimming remain in
fashionable favor.
There is nothing exhibited in millinery
just now more stylish and unobstru3ive
than the medium-sized rouud hats with
their sable plumes.
Apricot and ashes-of-roses waists of
faille or bengaline silk are worn with
pretty Venetiau jackets of russet or
Eiffel-red English cloth.
A new freak of fashion, says one of
the Paris correspondents, is a looking-
glass stand for the menu, in order that
ladies may see how they look at table.
Margaret C. Bisland, of New Orleans,
is both a writer and a musical composer.
She is the mother of three sisters who
achieved such a reputation in journalism.
Helen Allingham, widow of William
Allingham, tho poet, is the first woman
to be elected a member of the English
Royai Society of Painters in Water Col¬
ors.
The ladies who constitute the com¬
mittee for the World’s Fair have de¬
cided upon tlieir seal emblem, The en-
graving will be “Columbus sighting
land.” *
y
Mrs. John A. Logan is doing remark¬
ably well with her new magazine. She
is living at her home in Chicago, and
she has her regular hours of editorial
work.
The first lady at the German Court is
Countess Waldensee who was a Miss Lea
of New York. She lives like a Queen
in a palace adjoining that of Von
Moltke.
General Sheridan’s three little daugh¬
ters are pupils of the Convent of Visita¬
tion in Washington. The git Is are day
scholars, living in retirement with their
mother.
The plain skirts give the g.rl of the
period quite a “prim, precis?” appear¬
ance, which she does not always deserve.
It is not a fashion that in likely to last a
very long time.
For traveling costumes or school frocks
there is a very excellent fabric of linen
and wool. All patterns are light grounds
stripes, plaids aud checks in black, gray
and pale colors.
For mourning dresses this season there
are new silk and wool fabrics in light
qualities imitating China crapes, also
a serviceable silk called Antoinette surah
for light mourning.
A pretty fashion prevails just now vel¬ of
wearing a graceful French toque of
vet—reseda green being a favorite color—
the front of which is adorned with a full
aigrette of fine green foliage.
Lustrous mohairs are inexpensive and
may be recommended for service and
durability. Fabrics of this sort shed the
dust, cling to the figure gracefully and
are as light as cotton in weight.
Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth receives
an income from her books that is esti¬
mated at 610,000 a year. “Ishmael” is
her favorite novel and “The Hidden
Hand” her most successful volume.
The proprietor of one of the uptown
dry goods shops in New York has re¬
stricted his clerks to the use of the one
title “Madam” in addressing women cus¬
tomers, whether young or old. It woiks
well.
The Ladies' Hollywood Association, ol
Richmond, has petitioned the city coun¬
cil to turn over the Jefferson Davis man¬
sion as a memorial building in which in¬
teresting war relics may be collected and
exhibited.
While there are numerous charming
finishes in hat wear there are a host ol
extraordinary creations like the “Madge
Wildfire” style bidding for favor, twisted
and bent here and there without appar¬
ent motive.
Styles in cuff-buttons change fre¬
quently. Round unes fluted with dia¬
mond centres are much worn. Tho cor¬
rect buttons for mourning wear are ova)
enameled in dead black and rimmed
with tiny pearls.
Harris cloth, made on the islands ofl
the coast of Scotland, was first intro¬
duced to Londoners from motives of be¬
nevolence by persons interested in its
poverty-stricken representatives, but it u
now the leading cloth of the season foi
tailor made dresses.