Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-03
NOTES AND QUERIES.
New Light on the Famous Historic
Mystery Of Kaspar Hauser.
An IDI0N OF THE MONEY sHOpS.
Facts About Great Battles and Our Original
Cabinet officers.
GOLD AND SILVER on THE SOLDIERS.
WRITTEN FOR THE DrsPArcH.I

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPArCH.I
Perhaps the mystery surrounding the
Man in the Iron Mask may never be cleared
up, but recent publications seem to init
mate that that surrounding the life and
death of Kaspar Hauser is in fair way of
being dispelled. On May 20, 1928, lad
was found in q Nuremberg street, dressed
as peasant, and apparently helpless with
astonishment. He was imprisoned as q
vagrant at first On him were found two
letters, one from peasant, who wrote that
he had received the boy on October 7, 1872,
and had brought him up as Christian, had
taught him to read and write, and had kept
him in close confinement in a dark
cellar. The other letter was apparently
from the boys mother; it said that he was
born April 30, 1872, that his father, an
officer in the Sixth Cavalry Regiment at
Nuremberg. was dead, and that the boys
name was Kazper Hauser. On July 1S, 1928,
the boy was placed in the household of
Prof Daumer, who took charge of his edu-
cation and acted as his guardian. On
October II, 1929, he was found in the cellar
Of his home with q wound on his head
which, according to his story, had been in
flicted by man with blackened face. He
was removed from Daumer's house, and put
under the surveillance of q magistrate; and
thence was sent by Earl Stsnhope, an
English nobleman who was interested in
him, to Ansbsch, to be educated. After
this he became . clerk In the Office of
Feuerbach at Nuremberg. On December IA,
1888, he was found by passers-by in the park
at Nuremberg, suffering from . deep stab
wound in his left breast He said that he
had been decoyed into the park by q
stranger, who struck him. He died on the
18th of the month.
The question has ever been, Who was
Kasper Hauser9 Books have been written
discussing the mystery Of his birth, his life
and his death. Was he, as Daumer and
Feuerbach maintained, the son of the Grand
Duke Charles and the Grand Duchess
Stephanie, and so legitimate heir to the
throne of Baden? If so, had he been kid
naped and finally murdered at the instigs-
tion of the Countess of Hochburg, second
wife of the Grand Duke Charles Frederic
and grandmother of the Grand Duke
Charles, that her own children might sue
ceed? So Danmer thought and wrote, and
controversy ragged for many years, until in
1875 the record of the baptism and death of
Duke Charles son was produced.
But now a new book, "Kasper Hauser;
the Unveiling OF the Mystery" has ap-
peared in Germany, which undertakes to
prove that Daumer was right in his theory.
It prints two documents, which, if authen-
tic, show that the foundling of Nuremberg
was, indeed, heir to the throne of Baden.
One of these is letter from the brother of
the Grand Duke Charles to minister of
state, the other, an extract from the diary of
a prince to whom that minister gave the
letter on condition that it should not be
published for 55 years after his death. The
minister died in 1887; in February, 1892,
the son of the prince published the letter in
the book just named.
Is the mystery cleared up, or Is it deep
ened?