CHAPTER XIII.
An examination into the character and behaviour of the German student--The German Mensur--Uses and abuses of use--Views of an impressionist--The humour of the thing--Recipe for making savages--The Jungfrau: her peculiar taste in laces--The Kneipe--How to rub a Salamander--Advice to the stranger--A story that might have ended sadly--Of two men and two wives--Together with a bachelor.
On our way home we included a German University town, being wishful to obtain an insight into the ways of student life, a curiosity that the courtesy of German friends enabled us to gratify.
The English boy plays till he is fifteen, and works thence till twenty.
In Germany it is the child that works; the young man that plays.

The German boy goes to school at seven o'clock in the summer, at eight in the winter, and at school he studies.

The result is that at sixteen he has a thorough knowledge of the classics and mathematics, knows as much history as any man compelled to belong to a political party is wise in knowing, together with a thorough grounding in modern languages.

Therefore his eight College Semesters, extending over four years, are, except for the young man aiming at a professorship, unnecessarily ample.

He is not a sportsman, which is a pity, for he should make good one.