The Columbia Democrat

A SECOND CASPER HAUSER.

We find the following very singular and interesting story of a second Casper Hauser, in the Clinton (Illinois) Herald:

We have seen in several papers an account of a boy, apparently thirteen or fourteen years of age, who was found in the timber in the Chathilinot Prairies, in the state of Indiana. It is said the boy is now in the family of a Col. Clarkson, of Bush Hill, a place not far from where he was found. He is handsomely formed, has fine limbs, very elastic in his movements, stout, with clear, full, intelligent black eyes. He has been several months in the Colonel's family, during which time he has uttered no articulate sound, expressed no wish by any sign; though he evidently pays considerable attention to things and events around him. He sometimes gives a sort of piercing screech, which, by being always at a measured elevation, after which he seems to listen with care; affords ground for the conclusion that the poor fellow had been accustomed to receive some sort of answer from a source to us unknown. He chooses the naked earth for his bed, and utterly rejects all covering save a deer skin which he wraps around his body. His food he takes in a raw state—principally beef, poultry, potatoes and nuts. It is astonishing with what voraciousness he consumes small birds. He will strip one of its feathers and entrails, and devour it with a relish amounting to an extacy. He has thus far evinced a melancholy temperament, choosing to be much alone, and makes for the timber whenever an opportunity presents itself, but when found attempts no escape, but passively returns. He manifests no attachment to any human being, save a servant girl of the family. By her request, he has occasionally eaten a little corn bread, and set down a moment on a chair. Wheat bread he peremptorily refuses. He has made apparently no advancement towards civilization. We regret that more knowledge cannot be obtained of this extraordinary boy's history.