The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-24
WILD CHILDREN.
A Few of the Most Authentic Cases
ON Record.
From the London Standard.

From the London Standard.
Among the remarkable stories which
travellers have from time to time narrat-
ed 10 groups of admiring and faithful list
eners. those connected with the finding
ot the so-called wild children are perhaps
not the least fascinating. The human be-
ing stripped of his thin veneer of civ
ilization. and ranging al large without
CLOTHES language or morality" demon
strates how much one owes to early edu-
cation. and how nearly we are allied to
our poor relations with tails. from which
science darkly hints we sprang in the
past Byron declared that men became
wolves on very slight occasions; and Capt.
Nichoet's story anent the child who, like
Romulus and Remus, was reared upon
VOLTS milk, and nursed through large
portion of his infancy by this unsociable
animal, gives a certain weight to the po-
cts remark.
The captain tells us that when he was
with his regiment in India. he happened
one day to be out shooting, and saw a wolf
bring her cubs down to the river to drink.
Among them he spied a human child,
which he eventually succeeded in cap
turing and carrying home to his quarters.
1t trauspired that this child was the son
Of Hindu parents, but in an unlucky. hour
had bken captured by the she wolf and car
rled off to the woods We are not told
how this particular Hindu child was ear
marked, nor is any suggestion offered as
to why the wolf did not devour him on
the spot rather than adopt him and bring
him up with her cubs. However this may
be, Capt. Nichoet brought this child once
more under the influence of man and set
about civilizing him at once. His favor
lite diet as one would expect, was raw
meat and bones upon which he fed with
great avidity, tearing the flesh with his
teeth crunching up the bones much after
the fashion of an ordinary dog.
He. appears to have entertained a great
objection to the society of man. but his
partially to all kinds of animals was
marked, and he struck up so fast a friend
ship with puppy that he even allowed it
to eat out of the same basin with himself
On the captain discovering that the wild
child was no match for the dog at the
dinner table, but stood fair chance of
being starved through the greediness of
his four-footed mess-mate, he shot the dog
in the boys presence. This seemed to
have no outward effect on the wild young
Hindu, who al once returned to his dish
perhaps not altogether sorry that his
canine friend was no longer present to
share the repast. To the conventional
shown a marked aversion. Ii he was
dressed In a suit of dittos and then left
by himself, even for a few minutes. he
invariably tore them off, and on the re-
turn of his benefactors they found the
clothes scattered in all parts of the room,
and the child sitting among the fragments
in puris naturaibus. He was according
to the captains account. never known 10
speak save once, and that was shortly
before his death, which occurred few
months after. his capture. few days be-
fore he died, great change came over
him. he allowed his friends to dress him,
behaving the while with all docility,- and
startled his attendant by complaining, pre-
sumably in Hindustani, of a severe pain
which he felt in his head.
Among the inmates of Count VanRecke' s
asylum was the idiot child of a farmer,
who, not unfitdngly, may be placed in the
list of wild children. This child, who APP
pears to have been shamefully neglected
by his parents, had been habitually lodged
in pig-stye with a SOW and her litter.
Like the puppy and Capt. Nicholets wild
boy the SOW and the idiot at once be-
came friends Together with the little
pigs, this child was daily seen sharing
the maternal milk; while like his porcine
playmates, he adopted the plan of walking
on all tours. Moreover, he fed out of
the same trough with the SOW, and in
if by any chance he were annoyed he
would instantly start grunting. Wild
girls, as well as wild boys. have been oc-
oasionaly met with In 1871 two female
children of about the ages of 10 and II
respectively, we're found near a pend at
Chalons. Their clothes consisted of skins,
which they had somehow pieced together.
OF these two wild girls. one managed to
escape, but the other was captured and
conveyed to the house of Viscomte d Epi-
nay. Though unable to speak, she made
up for this by necessarily screaming,
while she exhibited such agility and
strength that it took several men to hold
her So swift Of foot was she, that in a
race which she subsequently ran with the
the Queen of Poland's leetest horse, she
outdistanced 1t with ease In mental ca
pacity she was not altogether wanting, and
would in, all probability have soon learned
to speak but she died within six months
Of her capture. Similar to the above case
Is that of the girl who was found near
Frauenmark early In the last century. One
winters morning, 50 runs the account. a
party of Hungarians who were out shoot
ing came across some footprints in the
snow Following the track, they arrived
at cave. in which they found a girl max
ca and unashamed." As she only surviv-
ed her capture two or three days, but
little is known about her, save that she