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 one member knew and another one didn’t.  It was natural; for very few members of any organization know all that can be known about it.  I doubt there is a man or a woman in Heidelberg who would not answer promptly and confidently three out of every five questions about the White Cap Corps which a stranger might ask; yet it is a very safe bet that two of the three answers would be incorrect every time.

There is one German custom which is universal—­the bowing courteously to strangers when sitting down at table or rising up from it.  This bow startles a stranger out of his self-possession, the first time it occurs, and he is likely to fall over a chair or something, in his embarrassment, but it pleases him, nevertheless.  One soon learns to expect this bow and be on the lookout and ready to return it; but to learn to lead off and make the initial bow one’s self is a difficult matter for a diffident man.  One thinks, “If I rise to go, and tender my box, and these ladies and gentlemen take it into their heads to ignore the custom of their nation, and not return it, how shall I feel, in case I survive to feel anything.”  Therefore he is afraid to venture.  He sits out the dinner, and makes the strangers rise first and originate the bowing.  A table d’ho^te dinner is a tedious affair for a man who seldom touches anything after the three first courses; therefore I used to do some pretty dreary waiting because of my fears.  It took me months to assure myself that those fears were groundless, but I did assure myself at last by experimenting diligently through my agent.  I made Harris get up and bow and leave; invariably his bow was returned, then I got up and bowed myself and retired.

Thus my education proceeded easily and comfortably for me, but not for Harris.  Three courses of a table d’ho^te dinner were enough for me, but Harris preferred thirteen.