s there are high
standards and old traditions as regards these matters, and every
member must abide by them. Every corps student is a patriot, ready to
sing or fight for Kaiser and Vaterland, and socialism, even criticism
of his country or its rulers, are as out of place among them as in the
army or navy. They are particular as to the men whom they admit, and a
man's lineage and bearing and relations with older members of the
corps are carefully canvassed before he is admitted to membership.
Both the present Emperor and one of his sons have been members of a
corps.

Let us spend a day with them. It is Saturday. We get up rather late,
having turned in late after the Commers of Friday, when the men who
are to fight the next day were drunk to, sung to, and wished good
fortune on the morrow, and sent home early. The trees are turning
green at Bonn, the shrubs are feeling the air with hesitating
blossoms, you walk out into the sunshine as gay as a lark, for the
champagne and the beer of the night before were good, and you sang
away the fumes of alcohol before you went to bed. There was much
laughter, and a speech or two of welcome for the guest, responded to
at 1 A. M. in German, French, English, and gestures with a beer-mug,
and punctuated with the appreciative comments of the company.

It was a time to slough off twenty years or so and let Adam have his
chance, and the company was of gentlemen who sympathize with and
understand the "Alter Herr," and are only too delighted if he will let
the springs of youth bubble and sparkle for them, and glad to
encourage him to return to reminiscences of his prowess in love and
war, and ready to pledge him in bumper after bumper success in the
days to come. You might think it a carouse. Far from it.

The ceremony is presided over by a stern young gentleman, who never
for a moment allows any member of the company to get out of hand, and
who, when a speech is to be made, makes it with grace and complete
ease of manner. Indeed, these young fellows surprise one with their
easy mastery of the art of speech-making. Even the spokesman for the
Fuechse, or younger students, at the lower end of the table, rises and
pledges himself and his companions in a few graceful words, with
certain sly references to the possibility that the guest may not have
lost his appreciation of the charms of German womankind, which the
guest in question here and now, and frankly admits; but not a word of
coarseness