A TRAMP ABROAD By Mark Twain

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.

Even after I had acquired full confidence, and no longer needed

the agent’s help, I sometimes encountered difficulties.

Once at Baden-Baden I nearly lost a train because I could

not be sure that three young ladies opposite me at table

were Germans, since I had not heard them speak; they might

be American, they might be English, it was not safe to venture

a bow; but just as I had got that far with my thought,

one of them began a German remark, to my great relief

and gratitude; and before she got out her third word,

our bows had been delivered and graciously returned,

and we were off.

There is a friendly something about the German character

which is very winning. When Harris and I were making

a pedestrian tour through the Black Forest, we stopped at

a little country inn for dinner one day; two young ladies

and a young gentleman entered and sat down opposite us.

They were pedestrians, too. Our knapsacks were strapped

upon our backs, but they had a sturdy youth along to carry

theirs for them. All parties were hungry, so there was

no talking. By and by the usual bows were exchanged,

and we separated.

As we sat at a late breakfast in the hotel at Allerheiligen,

next morning, these young people and took places

near us without observing us; but presently they saw

us and at once bowed and smiled; not ceremoniously,

but with the gratified look of people who have found

acquaintances where they were expecting strangers.

Then they spoke of the weather and the roads. We also

spoke of the weather and the roads. Next, they said they