University of Vermont - Ariel Yearbook (Burlington, VT)

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THE ARIEL, 1907 25 University iLife in Germany Citrtel, 19075 FREDERICK TUPPER, JR. N AN October morning, some years since, a recent Vermont graduate and I entered together the Aula of the Friedrich- VVilhelm University at Berlin. Lectures were still two weeks away, but Germany is a country of leisurely begin- nings 'and this was the morning of matriculation. The great hall was thronged with an interesting company. At a long table sat the Rector Magnihcus, I-Iarnack, the mighty theologian, and the pro- fessors of the various faculties. Moving about the room were students of three types: foreigners like ourselvesg wanderers from other uni- versities' of the Fatherlandg and boys from the Gymnasium, who had passed the Abiturient examination and become mules or fresh- men. These last we regard with interest. They are unquestionably the best trained school boys in the world. For nine years they have been drilled by the best masters, every one a doctor, for some thirty hours a week. They have been taught not simply to remember, but to analyze, compare and classify, until, at the age of eighteen or nineteen, they stand often on a better footing than graduates of our colleges. But there is another side to the shield, as I learned when I grew to know them better. They have marred their sight- sixty per cent of Germans over eighteen wear glasses. They have hurt their health by long hours of work at home and by little play save perhaps skating in winter and gymnastic exercises on the Turnboden. 'With all his learning, the German Jack is often a dull boy. After presentation of credentials and payment of eighteen marks, the entering student now obtains three things. The first is a certificate of matriculation, a portly and florid document, twice as large as a college

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24 ARIEL, 1907 Over that noiseless little ileet, drifting with the mist, the voice of the old hermit Hoated, at intervals, thin as the little puffs and streamers of fog, but clear, insistent, and with a wondrously thrilling and inspiring power, as if it were the voice of some cloud-invested God, inciting and encouraging his followers. Ethan Allen smiled grimly, as his quick ear caught the several commands, and he vowed within himself, If thou shalt help us on to victory, old hermit, I swear thou shalt not go without thy reward! Noiselessly the boats were driven on the shelving beach under the fort, and noiselessly, with the rising mists, the patriots climbed the slope toward the fort. Shadow and substance, they crowded in through the wicket-gate, past the surprised and overpowered sentinel- and the world knows what followed. But the Master of the Mist has not yet received his reward of honor!

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26 THE ARIEL, 1907 diploma, attesting in pompous Latinity that, under the auspices and authority of the very august and potent lord, VVilliam H, a most ornate youth has been duly enrolled, etc., etc. The second is a student-card. Great is the power of this. It exempts from arrest, sometimes permits the holder to pass through crowds as one of the elect, and always pro- vides reduced rates at the theatres, where the student may thus see for a triile the greatest plays of Shakspere, Goethe, Schiller and lbsen. The third is the Anmeldebuch, in which each course is entered upon the payment of twenty marks or live dollars, and which each professor signs. The matriculant is now a full-iiedged student, free to come and go at will. Absolutely no restrictions are placed upon him, he may attend all lectures or no lectures. He wears no academic dress, he lives in no dormitory. As a result, he comes in contact with few men outside his own clique, and holds a little corner for himself against all mankind - Philistines, Camels, men of other corps, foreigners. Then too his self-sufficiency is a fearful and wonderful thing. You English can never de Shakspere grammatik understand like wef' declared loftily a bulbous youth after the lecture, and one could only answer that his remark carried its proof. Add Rechthabereif' an insistence upon onels rights at every cost, and a readiness to take offence, attested by many scars, and you have certain ingredients of the German students, class- prejudice, self-sufficiency, assertiveness and undue sensitiveness. Now let me describe three students whom I knew well. Carl Jurgen was no noble, not even well-born, but a man of the people. His clothes were shabby, his coat ill-iitting and with an unnatural gloss, his linen or Celluloid-I am not sure that his collars and cuffs were of linen- seldom above reproach, and his high hat was always brushed the wrong way. And yet he was a painstaking, earnest scholar,-a man present at many lectures--a student of intensive reading who, at the close of his six semesters, would make his doctorate with honor and fill some modest place in the state. He knew few men, to the better class of students he was a Philistine, for he loathed duels and despised the mili- tary. In theory he was a violent social-democrat, yet T have heard him ask of a guardsman some simple question with bated breath. He was not of the world of German gentry 3 but he had in him some of the finer