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From The Quarterly Review.
KASPAR HAUSER.*

the captain of the 4th Squadron of Light Horse in Nuremberg. At the same time he kept repeating some unintelligible words, or rather sounds, accompanied with moans and tears, and signs of the greatest distress. These words, which were rein Nuremberg as to be known by heart by peated so often in the first days of his life

sounds

THERE are certain mysterious incidents in history which may be said to undergo periodical occultations; they appear, they vanish, and they appear again; renewing investigation, refreshing interest, and yet destined to relapse into obscurity. Of such a kind was the story of the "man many, are printed in German as follows: with the iron mask" in the seventeenth"Reuta wähn,” or sometimes, "I möcht a century, and of such a kind was the strang wish to become a rider, or trooper, as my Reuta wähn wie mei Votta wähn ist" (I est of all stories of our day- - that of Kaspar Hauser. We say justly of our day, father was); also, "Woas nit” (I don't for there must be some still living who know); and, "Ross ham" (Horse at home). remember the individual himself; al- He is stated to have known about fifty though the greater number of this gener- those only that we have given ation have probably never heard of him. being understood, — and to have repeated This story has been brought forward again them without any sense of their meaning. by recent works; it is time therefore to The captain, to whom the letter was adascertain how far the lapse of time has, dressed, lived close at hand. The worthy or has not, contributed to clear away the citizen assisted the stranger, who was mystery in which it has been enveloped. ready to sink with exhaustion, to reach If the narrative transmitted to us can be the house. Fatigue and hunger were writproved to be true, it represents certainly ten in his face. They brought him meat, one of the most extraordinary cases that which he put in his mouth, but spat out ever occurred; or if proved not to be again immediately with signs of disgust. true, one of the boldest of impostures. aversion, but being offered bread and We will endeavor to present both aspects as impartially as may be. Unfortunately water, he ate and drank eagerly. The officer in question was not at home; and there is much to regret, in the confused style in which it is related by the one the servant, not knowing what to do with class of witnesses, and in the sceptical him to the stable, where he sank down on the strange and suffering apparition, took tone with which it is referred to by the other.

For wine and beer he showed the same

some straw in a deep sleep.

As immediate instances of the inaccu

racy and confusion with which this strange incident was greeted, may be cited two different versions of the letter to the captain, both dated "from a place near the Bavarian frontier which shall be nameless, 1828." The writer declared himself to be a poor day-laborer with ten children of his left him as a child at his house on Octoown, and stated that the lad's mother had ber 7th, 1812, but that he had never been able to discover who she was, and added that the lad wished to enter the army and the same regiment where his father had served; and that he had been taught to read and write. But the letter was illspelt, and marked by vulgar and brutal rhodomontade, evidently intended to mislead. According to one version it concluded thus: "If you do not want to keep

asleep. It may here be added that the very name of Kaspar Hauser, which took the police so much by surprise, appears to have been in keeping with the tone of odious derision which renders this tale so peculiarly revolting. For his German biographers interpret the name of " Hauser" to mean one kept always indoors. But that he had received, as stated in the

yond doubt. On the first days of his incarceration the gaoler gave him pencil and paper to amuse him. Kaspar eagerly seized both, placed the paper on a bench, began to write, and continued to do so, without allowing himself to be disturbed, till he had filled the sheet on all four sides. The appearance of this sheet, which is preserved with other documents, is much the same as if he had had a child's first copybook before him.

him, you may kill him, or hang him up | vagabonds, and locked in a cell with anthe chimney." According to the other: other prisoner, where he immediately fell "If you do not want to keep him, you may put him into a lottery, or get rid of him in any way you please." All this was written in German, and in German characters. There was a note enclosed in the Latin character, still worse written and spelt, but evidently by the same hand and of the same time: "The child is already baptized. You must give him a sirname yourself. You must educate him. His letter, some teaching in writing, was befather was one of the Light Horse. When he is seventeen years old send him to Nuremberg to the regiment of Light Horse, for there his father was. I ask for his education until he is seventeen. He was born the 30th April, 1812. I am a poor girl, and cannot support him." It is easy to perceive the counterfeit character of these notes. On the captain's return to his house he could furnish no clue to the letter, no key to the strange sounds, and throw no light on his unexpected in- We may describe him more closely now. mate. The poor creature was therefore, On his first appearance in Nuremberg, with difficulty, roused from his sleep, and Kaspar Hauser was four feet nine inches dragged, with many a tear and groan, to in height, and apparently seventeen years the police-office. When there, he was of old - the first down being already seen on course asked the usual questions-what his lip - his wisdom teeth still wanting. was his name, what his business, and His face was devoid of all meaning, exwhere his passport? He continued to cept that of a brutish obtuseness; though, utter the same sounds, though not in the when anything pleased him, a sweet exsense of an answer, for he evidently knew pression flitted over it, like the smile of a not what question and answer meant. baby. There was also a perceptible difAnd the police as little knew to what class ference between the two sides of the face. to assign him, whether to that of idiot, The left side was drawn somewhat awry, madman, savage, or impostor. This last and frequently distorted by convulsive conjecture received at least temporary spasms. On both arms was the scar of confirmation from the following circum- inoculation. His hair was light and curlstance. Not understanding a word he ing. He was stout and broad-shouldered, said, and bethinking themselves to try without any bodily defect, except a rewhether he could write, they handed him cently inflicted small wound on one arm; pen and ink, and laid a piece of paper his limbs delicately formed; his hands before him; on which, to the astonishment small and well shaped; his feet the same, of all present, he wrote in legible charac- though freshly blistered all over; but the ters the name "Kaspar Hauser." His soles as soft as the palm of a lady's hand, name being thus given, he was desired to or as his own, which had evidently never add that of the place whence he came. touched anything harder than each other. This produced only a repetition of the His dress was of a miscellaneous kind— same "Reuta wähn,” etc. And, as noth-old things, and coarse and ill-fitting-in ing could be made of the strange being, some respects like the costume of the he was led with help, groaning and totter-peasantry; in others like that of the dwelling, to the tower of the Vestner Gate, used ers in towns. His round felt hat had an as a place of confinement for rogues and engraving of Munich, half scratched out,

inside. Round his neck was a checked | habit continued for years. From the conred handkerchief, marked in red thread, formation of his lower limbs it appeared "K. H." In a pocket was a rosary, a key, that his life had hitherto been passed in a a paper of gold sand, and a number of seated posture his legs stretched out printed German prayers and tracts. No before him on the ground, at right angles proper importance was attached by the with his body. The knees accordingly police to these forms of circumstantial exhibited a marked deviation from the evidence; some of which were thrown usual form. Under a normal condition, away. This extraordinary being noticed the patella or knee pan, when the leg is nothing, recognized nothing; common ob- extended, shows a slight projection jects and daily occurrences passed before with Kaspar Hauser it lay in a considhim without attracting more observation erable hollow. When seated in his habitthan from a child of a year old. But, like ual position, with thigh and leg stretched a child, he grasped at glittering, shining horizontally before him, the knee-joint lay objects, and cried when he found them so close to the floor that a common card out of his reach. Like a child, too, on could hardly be thrust under the hamfirst seeing a lighted splinter the form string. It was evident also that he had of a candle apparently then in use-he been confined for years in a place where was so delighted that he put his hand into he had neither had room to stand upright, the flame, and then cried with the pain. to lie at full length, nor even to creep and Also, when first a looking-glass was held crawl as a strong child instinctively does. before him, he looked behind it to see who Here was a human being, therefore, who was concealed. could neither walk nor speak like other men, whose eyes could not bear the light, who had hitherto eaten nothing but bread and water, and who was not less than from sixteen to seventeen years of age! What a dark tale was outlined here for the human moralist! What a curious psychological subject offered to the scientist and moral philosopher! What a sore problem for the tender and humane !

His first days, in what was evidently a new world to him, were not calculated to throw any light on his antecedents. For all Nuremberg flocked together to the guard-house to gaze at the curious being who had dropped apparently from the clouds; and steps that ought to have been at once taken, and depositions that ought to have been at once collected, were neg. lected in the gratification of vulgar wonder and curiosity. He had fallen in one sense among good Samaritans, but there is no denying that, at that time at least, Nuremberg represented an actual and living Krähwinkel, and her citizens the characters in Kotzebue's "Kleine Städte." When an attempt was at length made to report the strange event with some precision, the official documents show the proceedings of the police to have been so irregular, and the depositions of the witnesses so contradictory, that beyond the undeniable facts, conveyed unconsciously by the poor passive chief witness himself, little that is trustworthy can be gathered. We have therefore only to record those facts as plainly as we can.

It has been said that Kaspar Hauser's person bore no sign of any defect; but it is equally true that it bore unmistakable indications of a peculiar condition and

Those who had the charge of him soon became convinced that, though utterly devoid of all that knowledge which the merest child intuitively imbibes from contact with its fellows, the senses of this unfortunate being were endowed with a preternatural acuteness. His eyes suffered from the light, and became much inflamed; but at the same time no darkness existed for him. In the night he moved about with perfect confidence and security, seeing even more clearly than in the full day. His hearing was equally sensitive. He heard footsteps at distances impossible to one in a normal condition. They also discovered that of all his senses that of smell was the most abnormal. The scent of flowers, even of the rose, was insupportable to him, and never ceased to be so. A walk or drive which took him near gardens or fields was a sort of martyrdom. Nor was it only the scent of flowers which