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Kaspar Hauser.
“ Kaspar Hauser, eine neugeschichtliche Legende.” It was pub-
lished in Wiesbaden, and written by Antonius von der Linde.
The title is significant of the tone of the contents. The author
calls Kaspar Hauser a swindler, the persons who believed in him
fools and liars, and the records concerning him a mass of super-
stitious nonsense. The headings of several chapters give an
idea of the animus of the work. “Das Wunderkind Kaspar.
Baron Kaspar. Kaspar, Ungarischer Magnat. Kaspar, Freiherr
von Guttenberg. Kaspar’s Selbstverwundung. Kaspar von
Wessening und Sir Kaspar Hauser. Prinz Kaspar. Am Ster-
belager zweier Prinzen. Ein Kaspar Hauser Komplott. Die
Kaspar Hauser Mythus.” That the author is totally unqualified
by conceit and prejudice to write history, is shown by the follow-
ing extract :
“ The mass of absurdities which constitute the Kaspar Hauser
literature is an Augean stall which I have no desire to cleanse. It
is made up, firstly, out of the exaggerated stories told by the firm
of Binder, Daumer, and Tucher, supported by medical humbug
and all sorts of fantastic hypotheses; secondly, out of Feuerbach’s
romance, with its false conception of Kaspar Hauser, and its hint
of his royal ancestry ; thirdly, out of the consequent attack upon
the House of Baden : and fourthly, out of pure inventions.”
By way of making the subject ridiculous, the author has arranged
the principal events of Kaspar Hauser’s life in chronological order.
The following specimens are sufficient :
“In the course of this month Kaspar became the subject of
general interest in Nuremberg, and thenceforth all proner control
was at an end.”
“In the last week Daumer and Von Tucher made a pilgrimage
to Hiltel's Kaspar Chapel in the Vestner Tower. Also, four
Lutheran clergymen are said to have undertaken the same pious
pilgrimage.”