73 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



senig he played before the major the part of a great lubber of short 

 wits, but still more of a sly-boots than of a fool. After he had deter- 

 mined to tell the story about the cellar, he affected ignorance and won- 

 der at every thing. The sun and moon were to him new acquaintances, 

 with which it was hard to make himself familiar, and the light troubled 

 him. He seemed to believe that flowers and leaves and trees were 

 made by the hands of men, and would say in his dialect: "How much 

 time that must have taken them ! Why be at so much trouble about 

 it ?" He spoke of himself in the third person, and talked to the bread 

 that he was eating. The first time he saw a candle lighted, he asked 

 them to give him the flame, so that he could put it on his wooden 

 horse, which he pretended bit him sometimes. All of these things 

 appeared suspicious to well-informed and reflecting persons, but their 

 doubts were regarded as impious by believers. It had been decided 

 that the wonderful story was true, and all Nuremberg believed in it. 

 There are moral epidemics and times when nothing is less common 

 than common sense. 



Caspar Hauser, having become the adopted son of the whole city, 

 did not stay long in prison. He was first admitted into the family of 

 the jailer, Ililtel ; then he was entertained by Professor Daumer, who 

 regarded him as a prodigy ; and then in the house of municipal Coun- 

 cilor Biberbach. His fame went everywhere. Members of courts 

 and cabinets occupied themselves with his adventures. Conjecture 

 was exhausted in the effort to discover his parents, and to pierce the 

 mystery of his long sequestration. He was made to relate his dreams, 

 in the hope that some light might be extracted from them. Grand 

 personages went out of their way to visit Nuremberg in order to see 

 and question him. Count Stanhope conceived so lively an affection 

 for him that he wanted to take upon himself the future care of him. 

 Masters were introduced to him who tried to take the rudeness out of 

 him and polish him, and even to teach him Latin. Indolent, and stupid 

 as a marmot, he complained that they were drying up his mind with 

 the study of such trash. The only marked taste he showed was for 

 horseback-riding, in which he excelled. He exhibited but little recog- 

 nition of the cares and attentions which they put upon him. He had 

 a low and gross mind and a hard, ungrateful heart, while his insup- 

 portable vanity, indiscreetly pampered, grew from day to day. Women 

 doted upon him, loaded him with favors and presents, and said sweet 

 things to him. 



An incident which made considerable stir completed the demon- 

 stration to persons of a willing disposition on the subject that Caspar 

 Hauser was a young man of high lineage, and that his unknown perse- 

 cutors had a large interest in bringing about his disappearance. On 

 the 17th of October, 1829, while he was lodging with Professor Dau- 

 mer, he was surprised in a closet by a black man (xin homme noir), 

 who struck him in the forehead with a sharp instrument, and went 



