TR fh
Eley
on dg
AXE iy
ata off,
Ct ine I
UDD0sed
S100 of
~ DIOVInes
Jn Kgs
Lough
eatin, au
15h Ply
auser wi
enous iy
nally bile
wee he
ont
"NOUS
an. ang tol
conten
ner ston
arcelie fl
{ac [den
could
ster, Wil
ioned, ti
A was
Kaspar Hauser.
[7]
This book contains one statement which is not found else:
where.
A few days after Kaspar Hauser’s death Kliiber wrote to Hof-
mann advising that the park be searched for the weapon which
had done the mischief, as the murderer would naturally free him-
self as soon as possible from such a witness of his guilt. This
advice seems not to have been heeded at the time; but Von der
Linde says that long afterwards, when a farmer named Wagner
was raking up leaves among the bushes in the park, he found,
between the Hauser monument and the eastern gate, an instru-
ment answering to the description of the wound, and gave it to the
forester’s apprentice, Pausch (afterwards head-forester at Waller-
stein), who delivered it over to the authorities. It had a powerful
handle, made of ebony, and attached to the blade by a ring of
white metal. The blade was sharp and slender, and slightly
curved. The stiletto was examined and compared with the
description of the wound, and declared to be capable of having
inflicted it, while possessing no feature contradictory of such a
supposition.
Von der Linde is the only writer who mentions the discovery of
he knife, and he gives no dates nor further particulars, excepting
0 say in a note that Professor Pierson of Berlin wrote to Meyer,
November 6, 1883, to say that Friedrich Kapp, when a student
in Ansbach forty years before, was shown the spot in the park
where the dagger was found. -
This could only be another proof that Kaspar Hauser did not
kill himself, for he could not have possessed such a knife without
the knowledge of the family, nor bought it at the last moment
without the fact-becoming known after his death.
Von der Linde has only bard names for Daumer and other
defenders of the foundling: he even goes so far as to accuse
Daumer, Tucher, Kolb, Welcker, and * Hermann,” of having
joined in a Kaspar Hauser plot.
His style is exceedingly coarse, and he insults the reader by
silly expletives, given in parenthesis, and possibly intended for