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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
regarded , but soon attracted his notice : he was much struck by some passing music ; but was thrown into convulsions by being injudiciously placed near the drum at the parade . After remaining a short time with the police , Caspar Hauser was placed in charge of the keeper of a prison for vagabonds and
beggars , who , suspecting that he might be an impostor , watched him narrowly , but found his whole conduct perfectly consistent with that of a little child . The jailor and his family ( like the policemen ) soon formed that attachment to the stranger , which is formed towards an innocent and helpless child ; the jailor ' s little children played with him , and taught him to speak ; and the man himself admitted him to his tablewhere he learned to sit on a chair .
, to use his hands , and to imitate the customs of civilized life . The story now spread abroad , and multitudes flocked to see the captive . They gave him toys , talked to him , and often teased him with their importunities and ill-timed experiments . It is to be regretted that scientific men did not see him sooner . Von Feuerbach visited him after he had been considerably more than
a month at Nuremberg , and reports that he found the walls of the room covered with prints and pictures , which had been given to Caspar , and which he had fixed with his saliva , which was as sticky as gum . Numerous playthings , clothes , money , &c , which had been given to him , were lying about in regular order ; for Caspar packed them all up in the evening , and unpacked and arranged them every morning . His eyes , at this time ,, were
inflamed , and avoided the light , and they long continued very weak . Von Feuerbach noticed no shyness or timidity in the youth , who was now pleased with the visitors , especially with those who were finely dressed : after looking earnestly at them , and repeating their names , he never forgot them . A frequent spasmodic affection was noticed on one side of his body , succeeded by a nervous rigidity .
When first ^ bund , Caspar appears to have known only five or six words . He pronounced plainly those he knew , but his language was as indigent as his ideas . It was difficult to become intelligible to him , and his jargon was equally unintelligible to others . Conjunctions , participles , and adverbs were , for a long
time , entirely wanting in his speech ; his syntax was rnisenible ; he rarely used pronouns , and spoke of himself and others in the third person , like a little child , and of course made many ludicrous mistakes .
Like a savage , or a little child , he . was remarkably fond of bright colours , arid preferred glaring red to every other colour . Green and black he disliked very much ; he preferred brick houses , when red , to trees and plants , and he even wished that his favourite animal , the horse , had been of a scarlet colour . His curiosity , his thirst for knowledge , and the inflexible perseverance with which he iixed his attention on what he determined to learn or comprehend , became , in a while , remark-
Untitled Article
Caspar Hauser . 521
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1833, page 521, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2620/page/9/
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