Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1887 — A German Student’s Duel. [ARTICLE]

A German Student’s Duel.

He was first enveloped in a large ■white gaberdine. Next his throat was protected by bands of thick cloth, wound tightly round and round, until it seemed well nigh impossible for him to move his head. * The front of his body was then covered with what looked very like a dropsical cricket-pad on a large scale, extending from the chest to the knees. The sword arm, from the wrist to the shoulder, was then padded and bandaged to three • times its natural size, and the hand guarded by a thick leathern gauntlet. Lastly, a pair of spectacles, rimmed with metal, protected his eyes. The schlager, or dueling sword, is then placed in his hand—a nasty-looking weapon, about a yard and a quarter in length, quite blunt but for about ten inches at the end, where it is doubleedged, and as sharp as a razor. Thus accoutered, our hero, who was the challenging party, walks slowly forward to the middle of the ground, his right arm, which must be terrible heavy, supported by the Tuchs, or junior freshman of the Verbindung, and surrounded by his comrades and admirers. Meanwhile the same elaborate preparations had been going on at the other end of the ground, and in a few moments the men are standing opposite each other, the one small and lithe, the other a stout, heavy man, with the head and neck of a bull. Each man has his second —also partially protected by padding—who stands close by him on the left, with a blunt sword in his hand. Between the two, but at a safe distance, stands the umpire. Just behind is an attendant with a basin of water, a sponge, and a chair, while the doctors hover round the group like vultures scenting slaughter from afar. The buzz of conversation in the ring is immediately hushed as the umpire calls “ Silent.um, zur Mensur 1” and announces that two members of such and such Verbindungen will fight for fifteen minutes. Then one of the seconds gives the word to cross swords; and as the two figures iu the middle stand with right arm high in the air and swords crossed, the other second cries “Los!” and off tfiey go. The strokes, coming entirely from the wrist, rain down so rap'dly that it is almost impossible for the inexperienced eye to follow them, but as each one is guarded one hears the sharp thwack of the sword as it descends harmless on some part of the padding of the shoulder or throat. Suddenly a small tuft of hair seems to spring from the big man’s head. “Halt!” cries his opponent’s second. The swords are instantly struck up by the seconds and the umpire steps up to examine the head. It was a close shave, but the is whole, so they start again. The men are now getting terribly excited. Breathless and panting they slash away at. each other, and it is no easy matter for the seconds to stop them at the word “halt!”— London So i :ty.