The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-08-04

held a capital offense, and a crime of the
very greatest atrocity, from the unequaled
agony and distress which it necessarily in
fiicts upon the unfortunate parents, who are
in this cruel manner deprived of their off
spring. From the earliest times Scotch laws
punish this crime with death. Nor was it
accepted "a a defense, or as a reason for the
softening of the penalty. that the motive
was affection for the child and not the hope
to secure pecuniary profit. 1t was held
theft, and being positively prohibited, it was
not required that the prosecution should
show any motive in order to fix the respOn-
sibility upon the abductor.
THE MYSTERY OF KAsPAR HAUsER.
Kasper Tor Gaspar) Hauser, a mysterious
boy, was found by citizen in the streets of
Nuremberg in 1873, utterly destitute of all
the common sentiments and attainments
which distinguish humanity from simple
imal life. de was almost utterly unac-
quainted with speech. but, when asked his
name, wrote in fair characters Z" Kaspar
Hsuser." He bore i'm his hand letter adj
dressed TO an officer Of the garrison, saving
that the bearer was born in 1872, and that his
father had been i'll the military service of
Bavaria, in the same regiment as the officer
addressed. On being relieved by public
charity and instructed by professor of Nur-
emberg, he was, through the inhu-
ence of Lord Stanhope, placed in a
subordinate position in bureau of
the Court of Anspach. Here his as
sassination was repeatedly attempted by
p rsons to whose identity there was no clue
attainable. Finally person with whose
FEATURES he was not familiar came to him.
anil, under pretense of message from his
English benefactOr, Lord Stanhope, decoyed
him into an unfreduent5d place, and then
stabbed him in the size. nssper escaped,
and. though weak from the loss of blood,
was able To relate the story of the attack
II l.ol L., I.
never discovered. This boys dim recoIlec-
tiOns OF his life, which, from his su 0sequent
relations, was passed from infancy till
sixteenth year in cave or cellar
almost void of light, fed and tended at long
intervals by q person whose face he
never saw, who spoke to him only in the
terses: terms, and who finally, just before
releasing him, taught him to write the name
by which he was afterward known, have
formed, with speculatiOns on his parentage
and estate, and philosophical deductions
from the tendencies OF his mind, brought
thus late under cultivation, the themes of
several volumes by some of the ablest pens
of Germany, and were fifty wears ago au
admirable theme for a standard newspaper
sensation, only that at that date the popular
newspaper had not been created, but waited
for American enterprise.
THE AMERICAN BOURBON.
When the people of France, stung to des-
peration by long and cruel wrongs under
the monarchy. which for 500 years had en-
| shaved and Inundated them, in 1898 deposed
and put to death their sovereign, Louis XVI,
and his queen, the beautiful Austrian
Maria Antoinette, they left alive the Dau-
phin, Charles Lewis, a boy eight years old.
Him the reigning republicans consigned
/ to the cruel care of one Simon, the cobbler.
Him the royalists proclaimed king rs Louis
| XVII. SimOn's care made the boy an i'm
beetle, almost an idiot. he was grievously
afflicted with scrofulous sores in his legs. es-
pecially about the knees. This boy was an
elephant in the hands of the chosen demo-
cratic leaders of the French people.
He had done naught to merit death,
and though the fierce democracie" were
not scrupllous i'm regard to taking off heads
/ of men VINO were or might be in the way,
it is quite easv to understand that they
scrupled at shedding the blood of this in
nocent who played with straws. Still he
was in che way. He was equally worthless
rubbish among the properties of the royaist
adherents. a child, and especially an idiot
child, IS king, would have necessitated a
rengency. This is a poor resources at any
time; doubly so when royalty is excluded
/ from the throne and must wait and fight for
| its crown. Robes pierre fell and his minon
Simon lost his bead. In 1874 the conven-
ton decreed that the committee of govern
msnt should "hnd means of sending the
son of Louis out of the republic" But he
was sick. 1t can readily be- supposed there
was an agreement made between the two
hostile factions. to both OF whom he was an
eyesore. to relieve themselves of ais pres
ence. On the 9th of June, 17o5. it was re-
| ported To the convention that &c was dead,
and three surgeons testified that he was the
/ victim of scrOfula. He was no more IN the
I way of Louis XVIII and the royalists and
his case no further troubled the republican