An ancient form of Corps entertainment is called the Hospiz, now, however, much modified.  Upon invitation the members of the Corps meet in a beer-hall or in the rooms of one of the Corps.  The president is seated with a house-key on the table before him as a symbol of unfettered authority.  As members arrive, the president takes away their sticks and swords and deposits them in a closet.  The guests sit down and are handed filled pipes and a lighted fidibus, or pipe-lighter.  Bread and butter and cheese, followed by coffee, are offered.  After this, the real work of the evening begins—­the drinking.  A large can of beer stands on a stool beside the president.  The latter calls for silence by rapping three times on the table with the house-key, and the Hospiz is declared open.  Thenceforward only the president pours out the beer, unless he appoints a deputy during his absence.  The president’s great aim and honour is to make every one, including himself, intoxicated.  He begins by rapping the table with his glass and saying “Significat ein Glas.”  In response all drain their glasses.  Then comes a “health to all,” and this is followed by a “health to each.”  “The Ladies” follow, including toasts to the pretty girls of the town, and ladies known to be favourites of those present.  Married ladies or women of bad reputation must not be toasted in the Hospiz.

A story is told of a toast the Emperor, in these his Lohengrin days, once proposed at a Borussia meeting.  “On the Kreuzberg” (a hill near Bonn), he said,

“I saw a picture, the ideal of a German woman.  She united in herself beauty of face and an imposing form, the roses in her cheeks spoke of the modesty peculiar to our maids, and her voice sounded harmoniously like the lute of the Minnesingers on the Wartburg.  She told me her name—­may it be blessed.”

The toast found its way into the local papers and gave birth to a romantic legend connecting the future Emperor with a pretty and modest girl of the town, but no true basis for it has ever been discovered.

In toasting the Ladies in a Hospiz each of those present may name the lady of his choice, and if two name the same lady they have a drinking bout to determine which is entitled to claim her.  The one who first admits that he can drink no more—­usually signified by a hasty and zigzag retreat from the room—­is declared the loser.  If a guest comes late to the Hospiz he must drink fast so as to catch up with earlier arrivals, unless he has been drinking elsewhere, when he is let off with drinking a “general health.”