in some, it must be daily; in others, three or four times a week; and is not to be omitted without substantial reason.
Between the Renoncen and the Chore-Burschen, stands the Fuchs-major--the greater Fox--who is always the oldest Renonce, and has the right to go into the Chore-Convent, but is not entitled there to speak. If the Renonce will advance to the rank of Chore-Bursch, it is indispensable that he shall have fought three duels.
The Chore-Bursch has this peculiar duty; he must settle and determine with the strange Kneipe; that is, when a duel is to be fought with the weapons of his Chore, he must seek out him who has challenged, in his Kneipe, and announce to him the spot and hour at which the duel is to take place. One of the Chore-Burschen must always be present at every duel which is fought with the weapons of their Chore. When the Dritte-Chargirte, that is, the treasurer, is unable, from any cause, to fulfil the duties of his office, the oldest Chore-Bursch must officiate for him; so also in cases of similar emergency, the Dritte-Chargirte steps into the place of the second, and he into that of the Senior. Besides the obligation to appear on the appointed Kneipe days, the Chore members must also, at the fixed hours, attend the fencing-school, or pay a pecuniary penalty. The reception of a Renonce into the Chore, as well as his advancement to the rank of Bursch, is accompanied by certain solemnities, and by the reading of the constitution of the union. This constitution is held profoundly secret, and cannot pass out of the hands of the three Chargirten, who received it at the opening of the Chore, from the Senioren-Convent, or official meeting of the Seniors of the different Chores--the so-called S. C. Every Chore has its weekly Chore-Convent, wherein the Senior presides, and the Chore-Burschen are present. Here the affairs of the Chore are discussed, and resolutions passed. The Consenior opens these resolutions to the Renouncen, in the likewise weekly held Renoncen-Convent, or official meeting of the Renoncen, which has to carry them into effect, without power to alter them.
As the Chore-Convent in each Chore is, so to say, its first board of Administration, so there is a supreme board over all the Chores, and thus, to a certain degree, over the whole body of students. It constitutes the highest court of honour of the students. It is composed of the whole Chargirten of the whole Chores. Each Chore possesses, in alphabetical rotation, the presidency; and the Convents, or meetings, held at the Kneipe-room of that Chore which at that time is in power. The presidency changes monthly, so that, as the court is held four times in each month, it falls four times in each Chore, which has to defray the cost of the beer that is therein drunk. The Senior of this Chore is president, the Consenior vice-president, and the Dritte-Chargirte secretary. Under the jurisdiction of this court fall general affairs, those which affect the interests of all students; and it passes all the resolutions, to which the whole student-body of the university must submit itself. It keeps what students call Allgemeine Comment, that is, the student code of laws. It addresses itself, to protect their rights from all encroachments. It hurls the terrors of its Bannstrahl, that is, of its power of excommunication, upon students or citizens, upon individuals or large bodies. When a burger of the university city, or of the vicinity, whose trade derives benefit from the students--for example, an innkeeper, or a shopkeeper--treats a student harshly or unjustly, the complaint must lay his charge before this court. His memorial to the S. C. must be drawn up in due form, according to the nature of its contents, and established custom, and must bear the signature of one of the Seniors. The S. C. now makes inquiry into the guilt or innocence of the accused. If he be found guilty, it decrees the punishment, which consists in proscription, for a longer or shorter period. This state of proscription, or being under the bann, is very exactly determined in years, months, weeks, and days; and during this period no student, be he in Chore or not in Chore, dare to purchase any thing from the condemned, or enter his house, otherwise he exposes himself to the certain danger of being also laid under the bann, and the Chores regularly send their people to see whether any violation of their edict take place. For instance, should a proscribed innkeeper have a ball or dance in his house, the Chore emissaries will be there to see whether any student shows himself at it. The student falls under similar punishment who is accused and found guilty of refusing to give satisfaction by duel to another that he has insulted. Yet is no one compelled to the duel by this regulation. If a student will not fight, whether from a principle against it, or any other cause, he must, once for all, announce this fact to the S. C, and he stands exempt, only, he cannot be allowed to make any exception to the rule which he has himself thus laid down. If he commits assault or aggression against any student or students, having thus sheltered himself from the necessity of the duel, though he be no longer amenable to this particular law of the student world, he is still amenable to the laws of his country, and may be summoned before the amtmann to answer for his offence. Should he meanly avail himself of such a declaration against fighting, and yet permit himself to insult or annoy his fellow-students, so cunningly as not to come within the operation of any civil statute, and yet to be offensive and obnoxious to the rules and maxims of social life, he will be shunned and despised by the students, and will find himself pretty much in the same situation as he who is actually under the bann. The bann is chiefly launched against students for such offences as are considered to amount to loss of honour--such as one student giving another a box on the ear, or a student committing a theft; and therefore to him who lies under the Verruf, or proscription, on such account, there remains scarcely an alternative but to quit the university, where every channel of intercourse would be closed against him, and where he would be shunned by all. Whole university cities have at times been laid under the bann, examples of which we shall give as we proceed.
The Chargirten watch over the institutions of the Chores and of the students in general,--or, in other words, over the so-called Allgemeine Comment. They settle also the time, place, and manner of all the public festivities and celebrations. They determine whether, and in what style, a torch-train, or a "Vivat," shall be got up; in what manner a deceased member of the Chore shall be interred; and how the studentship shall be represented in the public solemnities of the High School. They direct the choice of the ball directors, who take part in the direction of the public balls, as, for instance, in those at the Museum at Heidelberg. The presiding Chore fixes the Allgemeine, or general assembly, and announces it to the other Chores.
Besides this court of honour, there also exists a Beer court, which has to settle all contentions that arise in the drinking companies on points of drinking etiquette, which, as we shall hereafter find, are no few in number. To the constitution of this beer court, one man is chosen out of each Chore, and the oldest Chore-Bursch is generally elected for this purpose. It is held in regular routine at every Kneipe-room of the Chores in succession. Of the beer court generally we shall, anon, speak more particularly, and here need say no more than that before the principal Beer court, the accuser must have two witnesses, who must give their statements on their word of honour,[3] and the accused must in his defence be supported by two witnesses also. Thus constitute, as may be seen from what is already stated, these unions, an aristocracy amongst the students, which exercises a certain influence over the general academical class; which contributes to establish a principle of unity amongst them; and whose members are ready to give up some portion of their personal freedom, for the consideration and authority which they acquire in the social system; and so alluring is the feeling of the members of Chores in public processions, Commerses,--parties which they make to some place in the country for a day's jollification, and whither they go in a long train of carriages with outriders; and in Comitaten,--processions formed to accompany a departing fellow-student with public honour out of the city,--being enabled to play the gentleman, and to renommiren, or in English popular phrase, "to cut a swell," that members are never wanting to these societies.
There yet remains to be mentioned the numerous class of students termed, in student phrase, Camels--amongst whom are again contemptuously distinguished those who live totally isolated and retired, and never on any occasion, or on any account, visit the Chores, their Kneips, or take any part in their festivities and processions, and are therefore ignominiously dubbed Kettles, Bookworms, etc. In conclusion, we must employ a few sentences on the early Burschenschaft and the modern fragments of its wreck.