without accident. As we swam smoothly along between the enchanting shores, we fell to swapping notes about manners and customs in Germany and elsewhere.  

As I write, now, many months later, I perceive that each of us, by observing and noting and inquiring, diligently and day by day, had managed to lay in a most varied and opulent stock of misinformation. But this is not surprising; it is very difficult to get accurate details in any country. For example, I had the idea once, in Heidelberg, to find out all about those five student-corps. I started with the White Cap corps. I began to inquire of this and that and the other citizen, and here is what I found out:  

1. It is called the Prussian Corps, because none but Prussians are admitted to it.  

2. It is called the Prussian Corps for no particular reason. It has simply pleased each corps to name itself after some German state.  

3. It is not named the Prussian Corps at all, but only the White Cap Corps.  

4. Any student can belong to it who is a German by birth.  

5. Any student can belong to it who is European by birth.  

6. Any European-born student can belong to it, except he be a Frenchman.  

7. Any student can belong to it, no matter where he was born.  

8. No student can belong to it who is not of noble blood.  

9. No student can belong to it who cannot show three full generations of noble descent.  

10. Nobility is not a necessary qualification.  

11. No moneyless student can belong to it.  

12. Money qualification is nonsense—such a thing has never been thought of.  

I got some of this information from students themselves—students who did not belong to the corps.  

I finally went to headquarters—to the White Caps—where I would have gone in the first place if I had been acquainted. But even at headquarters I found difficulties; I perceived that there were things about the White Cap Corps which 

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