Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 264, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1910 — STUDENTS. IN COLOR DUEL [ARTICLE]

STUDENTS. IN COLOR DUEL

Rough Fun That Helps Wjould-Be Art Masters, tfl. Beguile Odd Moments. The most curious of the many practical- jokes perpetrated by the oft students in the Latin Quarter is a kind of initiatory ordeal wihch the two newest newcomers of a class are cometimes compelled to undergo by their fellow students of the Beaux Arts. It is a painter’s duel, in which neither combatant, no matter how small his experience nor how great his nervousness, need fear for a fatal termination. The reluctant duelists are provided with tall stools, and seated opposite each other at arm’s length. They wear old clothes, and in the hand of each is placed a large paint- brush charged with color, the one dipped in Prussian blue, the strongest and most vivid of azure tints, and the other in carmine lake, which is a fine, rich crimson. The word is given, and the two men begin to daub. Being usually strangers to one another, and without the least cause of quarrel, they commonly show at first a great deal of caution and consideration, not to say timidity, and do not make much effort to inflict conspicuous streaks or to touch each other’s face. Soon, however, one or the other gets a smear which he does not like, &nd attempts, to retaliate upon his opponent. Then the contest waxes warm. The spectators hasten to take sides, and urge on their favorites with shouts, cheers and encouraging cries. The tall stools totter, the wet brushes spatter, the antagonists daub more and more fiercely and furiously until frequently men, stools and all go down together in a struggling red and blue heap upon the floor. The duelists are then assisted to their feet, shake hands, laugh at each other’s appearance and adjourn to the lavatory, where they good-naturedly help each other to remove the traces of the conflict. The knight of the red brush is fonnd to have smeared his adversary fintil he might pass for a hero of the goriest field of history, while the victim of the blue brush, if only blue blood were a fact instead of a figure, might pose for a survivor of an equally desperate fight. It speaks well for the temper and good-comradeship pf the Btudents that so rough a kind of fun ends where it begins, in the mock duel, and never it is said, leads to resentment or ill will.