Heidelberg women students are not permitted to duel. They have received all the privileges accorded to the male members of Germany’s famous university except this one, but the fair creatures insist that they should have the right to slash one another’s cheeks open with swords. An American student at the Uni-versity before the war was admitted to one of the celebrated dueling clubs — an almost unprecedented honor. After a wait of a few weeks he was called upon to take part in a duel. It is an inviolable rule that the opponents may cut, parry and lunge,, they may also move in any direction, but they cannot under any circumstance duck, their heads to avoid a blow—scars on the head being a mark of the highest honor. The young American in the heat of the duel forgot this rule and when his opponent made a lunge at him—he ducked and was ignominiously expelled from the club.
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