The Student Life of Germany Part 43

87. In no case is any one allowed to disturb the proceedings. He who does this for a fourth time, having thrice been ordered to be quiet, is to be be-thundered by the same Beer-convention to the Beer-bann, and penalty of a viertel without further delay. The beer-judges must, however, be unanimous.

88. When a punishable fact is not laid before a Beer-convention within three days, it cannot be laid at all, unless the actual absence of accuser or accused creates sufficient hindrance. But a cerevis given for a future day, or which requires time to prove whether it may not be false, forms an exception. Farther, a cerevis given for a future day is not nullified by a Beer-bann falling between that time and the time for which it is given.

89. A Beer-convention may only be postponed three days, and only then when the witness of the accused is absent.

90. If one is accused on account of a quant.i.ty not drunken at the right time, or not drunken at all, the said quant.i.ty is to be added to the penalty in his be-thundering.

91. If a quant.i.ty has been fore-drunken to the be-thundered, before the commencement of the Beer-convention, which he has not after-drunken, then must they who have fore-drunken this quant.i.ty on his be-thundering show this same quant.i.ty to the Beer-convention, corroborating their a.s.sertion with their cerevis and a witness, whereupon also this must be added to his Beer-penalty.

92. The same is the case when he has contracted a beer-scandal with any one before the Beer-convent sate, and has not fought it out: but the latter party with whom he has made this contract, must drink the prescribed quant.i.ty before the Beer-convent.

93. Not more than one Beer-convent can be called over one and the same person on account of the same fact, except if a Beer-convention is postponed; or a Beer-convention being called, is rendered null by a Fox, or one under Beer-bann having been called upon it, and in it having sat.

94. A Fox may neither for himself nor for another call a Beer-convent, but he must procure this to be done through a beer-honourable Beer-bursch. The last can, however, call himself as one, in case other beer-honourable Beer-burschen are wanting for the Beer-convention.

95. Only one Beer-convention may be called at the same time in the same kneip.

(_b_) OF THE GENERAL BEER-CONVENTION.

96. The general Beer-convention, which must consist at least of five Ch.o.r.e Burschen, is the highest and last Court of Appeal; and therefore its decision is final and unalterable.

97. Every Sat.u.r.day evening, at an hour fixed in the beginning of each course, is the General Beer-convention held, to which every Verbindung then existing in Heidelberg, must send a Ch.o.r.e-bursch, who must, however, be a beer-honourable Beer-bursch. Should less than five Ch.o.r.es exist, the S. C. must take care that still five beer-judges must sit in the General Beer-convention.

98. These judges must a.s.semble themselves, at the appointed hour, at the kneip of the Secretary, under the penalty of a quarter-crown for coming late, and of a half-crown for not coming at all. A beer-judge comes late when he is not present on the striking of the fixed hour.

99. In case that, at the fixed hour, the Beer-judges of all the Verbindungs are not present, five beer-judges are sufficient to open the court and proceed to business.

100. When the required number of beer-judges are present, the Beer-convent must be opened with the stroke of the appointed hour. If they find no appellant, they must wait half-an-hour. If no one appears at the expiration of this time, the judges are authorized to withdraw.

101. If, after the expiration of this half-hour, five judges agree to wait longer, they can still represent the General Beer-convention; but the General Convention must be closed at the end of an hour, unless instantly occurring and pressing business make that impossible.

102. It is free to the accuser as to the accused to appeal to the General Beer-convention, against a sentence of the Special Convention; but this must be done within five minutes after the declaration of the sentence, and the judges concerned must be cited at the same time. The appeal must come on at the General Beer-convention, at the fixed place, the next Sat.u.r.day evening.

103. If the appellant exceeds this time, without being able to show the impossibility of then proceeding with the business on which the Beer-convention has to decide, he loses the right to appeal, and moreover, must pay a viertel. If on the contrary, one cited to appear before the General Beer-convention is prevented, he can, though a proxy, bring forward his excuse; upon the acceptance of which the General Beer-convention is to decide. If it finds the excuse satisfactory, the business stands over to the next General Beer-convention.

104. An appeal to the General Beer-convention can indeed be revoked, but this must be done within five minutes after declaring an intention to appeal, and, in fact, before a Beer-convention called for the purpose. If it he revoked later, the revoker must pay a viertel.

105. He is excluded from the right to appeal to a General Beer-convent who has been declared to be a false or intruding witness by a special Beer-convention, and is, on that account, be-thundered; and so is he also who has more than three times disturbed the proceedings of the Special Beer-convention.

106. The proceedings of the General Beer-convention in matters laid before it, is the same as that of the Special Beer-conventions, with the following exceptions. If the parties cited before the General Beer-convention do not appear, nor appoint proxies, they may, after the accuser has made his complaint, and corroborated it by witnesses, be punished for contempt of court.

(1) Moreover, any one who has to appear before the General Beer-convention, must present himself before the table with uncovered head.

(2) No beer-judge of the General Beer-convention is bound to take a beer-challenge from any one while he sits in the General Beer-convention.

(3) The General has the right to punish with the punishment, for the disturbance of Beer-conventions, prescribed by the Comment, any one who, during one and the same proceeding, shall have broken the silence enjoined four times; and he who more than four times shall have broken the same, shall, moreover, be reported to the S. C. and by it be fined a half-crown.

107. The majority of voices decides here, as in the Special Beer-conventions. Is the number of the represented Ch.o.r.es equal, the representative of the Ch.o.r.e to which the secretary belongs gives the casting vote.

108. No appellant can lay his complaint before the General, till he has set before it a viertel; but, in case he carries his charge through, he has the right to name one of the condemned to the General, who shall reimburse him this viertel.

Should the accused be be-thundered, so go they every one into Beer-banishment, and have two viertels to set forth; but that viertel which has been reimbursed by one of them to the accuser is reckoned off.

If the appellant is cast, he is equally condemned to two viertels. But as he has already set one viertel before the General, he is only written down on the beer-tablet one viertel. If he was the accuser before the Special Beer-convention, the General has to give its commission, to wipe him out from the beer-tablet, and to write him down as chargeable with a viertel under its order. If he was the accused, so must he, according to the commission of the General, be wiped out of the beer-tablet with the B. A., and with the prescribed penalty of the Special Beer-convention, together with the new viertel, be written down on the beer-tablet, under the order of the General.

The appointed penalties are written down in the Special Ch.o.r.e-kneip.

109. During the vacation, the number of five beer-honourable Beer-burschen are authorized to represent a General Beer-convention, without respect to Verbindungs. Such a General Beer-convention in the vacation, must be called within eight days, or, otherwise, if no sufficient grounds of excuse are brought forward, the sentence of the Special Convention remains in full force; the appellant is be-thundered, and the right to further appeal is lost.

t.i.tULUS VIII.

OF THE BEER PENALTIES.

I. SIMPLE.

(_a_) OF THE BEER-BANN.

110. The Beer-bann is that punishment by which the beer-honourable student, while he is be-thundered to four choppins, loses all his beer-rights in the Special Kneip in which he stands inscribed.

111. The Beer-bann, besides the loss of all beer-rights, has also this consequence, that the be-thundered, neither mediately nor immediately, can bring his beer to the table where the Beer-honourable kneip. Should he do this, every beer-honourable is at liberty to throw the beer of the be-thundered upon the ground.

112. The beer-banned appellant, indeed, equally forfeits all beer-rights, yet can he bring his beer to the table where the beer-honourables kneip, and he may not be called a beerschisser, or beer-banished-man, and can for and after drink with any beer-honourable that he can engage to do so.

113. But on account of such quant.i.ty either for or after drunken, a Beer-convention cannot be called by either party.

114. No beer-honourable is allowed to either fore or after drink with a beer-banned man; does any one this, he goes into beer-banishment.

115. A beer-banished man can never be called before a Beer-convention and be be-thundered on account of a fact which renders him liable to beer-banishment, but only on one which renders him liable to pay a viertel. He then renders himself liable to a viertel when he calls a beer-honourable, or a beer-banned appellant, a beerschisser.

116. If any one perpetrates an act against a beerschisser, which renders him liable to a setting forth of a viertel, the beerschisser can call this person before the Beer-convention, but he must do it through a beer-honourable Beer-bursch, and lay his complaint through the same, strengthening also his accusation by two beer-honourable cerevises.

117. A term of eight days is appointed to the beerschisser (the beer-banned) from the day of his be-thundering, during which time he must cause himself to be fought-out in the following manner. If he exceeds this term, and that without special grounds of excuse, as sickness or absence, he is be-thundered in two viertels; which penalty, from eight days to eight days, if he does not fight himself out, is doubled.

118. The fighting cutis in this manner. The beerschisser, who will fight himself out, requests a beer-honourable Beer-bursch to call his name out in the kneip on whose beer-tablet he stands inscribed; but this can only be done in the presence of three beer-honourable Beer-burschen. The out-fighter must at every one of the four choppins, three times slowly and formally demand who will drink them with the beerschisser. The fighter-out is not an umpire. If any one is not satisfied with the proceedings of the fighter-out, this last must name an umpire.

119. The beerschisser must from five minutes to five minutes drink each of the choppins.

120. If any one announces that he will drink a choppin with the beerschisser, this person must name an umpire, who must make the weapons equal, and who, as in a Beer-scandal, has to command.

Each one to be fought-out has at least two choppins to drink.

If two out of the whole four choppins are not yet accepted the fighter-out has to drink out the remaining quant.i.ty with the to-be-fought-out person, in the regular time, and in the presence of an umpire.

121. He who, as umpire, has commanded during the last choppin which the beerschisser, as such, drinks, must immediately proclaim him three times loudly and formally in the kneip as beer-honourable.

In case the beerschisser has already drunk two choppins, and no one announces himself for the fourth, the fighter-out has this duty to perform.